Heavy Rain stood out as a likely winner when we posted our Videogames 2010 page. Plot-centred, point-and-click investigations aren’t exactly new to videogaming but Heavy Rain’s murder mystery ‘spin’ looked likely to impress and innovate.
We’re please to find that the title has delivered on much of its promise. So much so that many reviewers have overlooked a few flaws, which might have been savaged in a familiar format such as a ‘shooter’ or a ‘hack and slay’. For example, Heavy Rain’s animation and voice acting are excellent but not perfect, the game’s interface sometimes makes it tricky to see which option to choose and the plot takes a while to get going.
The main reasons given for this enthusiastic and forgiving reception include the genre, the graphics, the original plot, the characterisation and the open-ended outcomes. These are the key elements of ‘genuine’ roleplaying, where a game helps players to get ‘in character’ and ‘live’ different roles and situations.
Heavy Rain is not as completely open-ended as many tabletop RPGs. However, it is immersive and succeeds in offering players a range of in-game choices/ decisions, which give players the experience of participating in the plot. There may be only eight hours of gameplay on offer but the choices encourage you to play again, using different choices along the way to arrive at different outcomes.
So, forget the minor flaws and work out where to get a cheap copy, as the games industry may finally have come up with a form of ‘DRM’ that actually works. With Heavy Rain the last thing you want is to hear how someone else’s game went and it won’t be long before the game’s status moves from ‘no spoilers’ to open discussion.
