Heavy Rain Messes With Your Mind

After I wrote my initial reactions to Heavy Rain, I sat down to play some more of this amazing game. It was past midnight, everyone else was sleeping… it was just me and the game. And I learned one thing for sure - and that is that nothing should be taken at face value in this game. Nothing.

Every time, just when I thought I had something figured out, it got completely turned around. Something as simple, even, as whether what I’m seeing is actually real.

Each of the 4 characters you play has a flaw. Private Inspector Scott Shelby has asthma which interrupts whatever he is doing (but somehow manages to stay in check when he’s fighting… which he does a lot). FBI agent Norman Jayden is a drug addict… and possibly also addicted to his little “toy” called ARI - Added Reality Interface - a tool used to aid him in finding and analyzing clues and information in his investigation. And Ethan and Madison? Well, you’ll find out about them in the game.

The game takes you through each of the four characters’ worlds. You see what they see and experience what they do. They believe what they are seeing. After all, they’re experiencing it, living it. And since you’re almost living it too as a player - no, as a part of them - you start to believe it too. And once you do, you get sucked into the world of Heavy Rain.

I have seen a number of user reviews of this game already which state that the game has you do such mundane tasks, and that these are annoying and superfluous. My response is that these people just don’t get it. That’s the point of the game. Without having to open the door to your car, close it, check the rearview mirror, turn the key in the ignition, then press down on the gas pedal to start the car… well, it just wouldn’t be the same. Doing all these things (and every other interaction you go through in the game) really puts you into the game. You’re not just there to move the character from one place to another, where they will do things on their own. You are the character. The sequence of events I described? It only takes a couple of seconds. Everything you do in Heavy Rain acts to extend your reality into the game.

And the result? The entire time I was playing, my eyes were glued to the screen, my hands clutching the controller, my heart jumping a beat every time something unexpected happened. You are asked to act, react, think, and, as you find out soon enough, not take anything for granted. And since you’re controlling every decision your characters make, the entire time I was worrying that I was making the wrong decision, that something I would do would cause the end of that character. Completing the game with all four characters alive is a silver trophy, not bronze (most of the other trophies are unknown). If any of the characters die… the game continues without them. There are no second chances in Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain sets out to make you feel the weight of your decisions. And it succeeds with flying colors. It forces you to think each one through. I already had a few horrible moments when I thought I had killed someone off by accident. You can’t “try again” and each character only has one life.

Use it wisely.