Sunday, March 7, 2010

Heavy Rain PS3 Review



Heavy Rain is one of those games that was hyped up way before it's release and I personally think that it lives up to the hype. On the first playthrough the story was compelling and the battles where intense for a system that just made up of quick time events.. There were battles where I was on the edge of my seat hoping not to get crushed or beaten to death. Since Heavy Rain's game mechanics are set up for if a character dies they stay dead for the rest of the game, staying alive in a battle became a hell of a lot more important. However I did figure out that if you press start and quit the game while your character is dying and before it has a chance to save you can avoid the death and start over right at a certain place in the battle. Just make sure you watch for the origami figure in the bottom right hand of your screen before attempting such blasphemy as to not screw up your save.

The beginning of the game sets you up for the story and learning the controls. I think it easy you into the new system quite nicely. The only gripe I have about the controls is how they want you to walk. To move your character forward you press the R2 button to move your character forward and the left analog stick steers them in the direction you want to go. It is a bit weird to use and takes some getting used to. I also found it difficult to turn sometimes at a certain point in the game where a character has to crawl in a tight space. Other than that I found the controls quite enjoyable. Some of the control movements mirror what you do in the game making it seem like you are almost doing it yourself. The game Utalizes the motion controller in a good way that you don't see with a lot of Playstation games, especially since a lot of games seem to forget it's existence all together. This is refreshing to see with a Playstation game.

I keep mentioning that Heavy Rain has a compelling story, but I keep veering away from the topic. I don't want to give too much away seeing how this is a murder mystery game and the whole point is to find the murderer and save Ethan's son from dying. But I can say that when the murderer was revealed I did not see that one coming. As for the complaints about plot holes for your second time through, I did not feel the same way. I can see why all the characters did what they did, both playable and non playable characters. But again I don't want to go into details as to not spoil it for anyone.

As for the pacing in the game I did find it a bit slow at times, especially with the second playthrough because I already knew what was going to happen. With all the possibilities for this game and after hearing there are 7 different endings, I would have liked it if the Origami killer could have changed with the different choices you have made. It does have some replay value because of the different endings, but with most of the story remaining the same I can't see too much of it. But I think it does have a good solid first playthough with possibilities for replay. Though I did find the game to be on the shorter side as I played through it twice in less than a week.

Game Play 7/10
It's unique style is a nice break from so many games that come out with the same premise and control schemes. The pace can seem a bit slow at times, but other than that it's intense and compelling. Some of the tasks can be tricky to figure out what you need to do or if you have missed something, which in that case it's too late, so I don't find it too easy. Though the difficulty levels just seem to coincide with how well you know the controller giving you no extra challenge in the sense of detective work.

Controls 8/10
The controls for this game are pretty unique. The battle system is pretty different from a lot of games as it's a timed button pressing system. You only have a certain amount of time to press the correct button which can be tricky if you aren't used to the ps3 controller.

Graphics 8/10
This game has some pretty stunning graphics and utilizes bluray and the ps3 capabilities nicely. There are a few places that seem to look out of place. The scrambled eggs you make look nothing like eggs except for that it's yellow, and trust me I made them right because I got the trophy for it. They end up looking like some yellow jello mess. Most unappetizing. Throughout most of the game you do play in muted colors that helps set the dark tone and was in a film noir style which was nice.

Sound 8/10
The music helped set a eerie, depressing tone of the game though none of the music particularly stood out to me. The voice acting on the other hand was just horrible at times. When Ethan calls out for his son at different points in the game it's an ear sore. Luckily he only calls out his name when want him to by pressing the x button.

Story 8/10
As I mentioned the murder mystery aspect of the game was quite compelling and I was surprised when the killer was revealed. There are some slow parts, but not too many. On the second playthrough you do lose the element of surprise because you know who the murderer is, but I did not find any plot wholes because of it.

If you are looking for something a bit different and heavy in storyline based in film noir I would say this is a must buy for anyone with a PS3. The things to look out for currently though is there have been a few technical issues with the game. I had only experienced minor skipping and at one point the voices were out of sync with the graphics. However there have been reports of games freezing and then losing saved information. If this concerns you, then wait for a patch to come out.

No comments:

Post a Comment