Games to Play Before You Die: Heavy Rain

Games to Play Before You Die: Heavy Rain.
By Joe Feery.

Heavy Rain is a Playstation 3 exclusive title, released in February 2010. It follows the story of 4 characters, Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, Norman Jayden and Madison Paige as they all try to solve the case of the Origami Killer. The Origami Killer is a Serial Killer who abducts children, and after 6 inches of rainfall, will be found dead, drowned. Ethan Mars is the latest father to have his child abducted. He is given challenges by the Origami Killer to complete, to prove he is willing to make sacrifices to save his son. Scott Shelby is a retired policeman now working as a Private Investigator, trying to solve the case. Norman Jayden works for the FBI and has been specially drafted in to help solve the case. Madison Paige is a Journalist whose path crosses with Ethan, and she eventually conducts her own investigations.

It won 2010's Game of the Year from CNN and Gaming Union. Heavy Rain also won Gamespy and IGN's "Best PS3 Game of 2010"

The game is very advanced for its time. It uses state of the art graphics technology, Facial recognition technology has been used for the characters, so the characters are actors that have been hired to play the roles. The game also uses motion capture technology, so the actors are almost making a film.

The Campaign itself is very short, which could be an advantage for casual gamers, like myself. One of the things Heavy Rain may do is make you want to play it over and over again. There are many ways the storyline can go, there are several minor and major moments that can affect the outcome of the story. This isn't a game where you fail for making a bad move, failing is part of the storyline.

A very "cool" feature of the game is that you can see your characters thoughts, and if you press a specified button you can hear your character explain why they are thinking about that in full. For Example, if it says "anxious", your character will explain why they are anxious.

Heavy Rain's storyline is what makes this game for me. It is so simple, a fathers love for his son, yet I was so gripped. I legitimately wanted to succeed for Ethan, not many games make me feel like that. I didn't want the game to end, and I played through the game several times to get the best possible ending and the worst possible ending, and I genuinely felt bad when I got the bad ending.

The Achievements/trophies are quite easy to come by, a lot of them you will get by simply playing the game. Getting 100% is hard though as some trophies will take a long time and patience to complete.

If you have a Playstation 3 and somehow haven't played this game, buy it now! It's probably going to be in the bargain bucket of your local gaming store by now, for no more than £15. If you haven't got a PS3, I'd suggest finding out which of your friends have a PS3 and suddenly become best friends with them until they invite you to their house where you can play it haha.

This is one of my favourite games of all time, I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. If you do get it because of this blog, Let me know! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Thanks Guys, please leave your feedback, I hope you enjoyed me first post.

Joe Feery.

Trailer for Heavy Rain. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wMUfUpvFOFg

Audio: 9/10
Visuals: 10/10
Replayabilty: 9/10
Challenge: 6/10
Overall 9:25/10

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