Heavy Rain
Heavy Rain reminds me of one of those old “Choose Your Own Adventure Books” from childhood. The actions you take have a profound effect on the way the plot progresses, and no matter what happens—even if a major character dies—the show must go on. Some of your actions are menial and serve only to provide a sense of immersion, or the illusion of freedom. Brushing your teeth, choosing between beer or orange juice: these are actions that draw you in but seem inconsequential.
Going through one’s daily routine may seem mundane, but if you appreciate slow-burn thrillers like David Fincher’s Zodiac, then the payoff will be all the more rewarding. Perhaps an hour in, the pace switches from brushing teeth at home to defusing holdups at the liquor store, and when you have no idea exactly what the outcome is going to turn out like, every moment is as intense as it gets.
All these actions and choices are executed with context-sensitive button presses, flicks of the analog stick, and SixAxis waving. Remarkably, the controls convey the same type of feeling as the ingame action. Tying a suit tie involves a complex sequence of flicks. I happen to be totally untalented at tying ties in real life, and doing it in Heavy Rain is almost as hard! Whatever happened to escapism in videogames? Anyways, when your character is trying to do something physically difficult, like squeezing through a tiny space, you as a player are tasked with holding X, then O, then L1, then L2, then L1..which can get quite uncomfortable (just like what your character is going through). After experiencing this smart and elegant control system for a while, I felt like my character was an extension of myself, something I have not felt before in videogames.
Heavy Rain is the first game I have ever played where I felt obligated to fail a quicktime event on purpose. At the beginning of the game, you are given the opportunity to play with your children. Your two sons ask you which one of them you want to play with first. This is probably the hardest decision I had to make all game, and it ultimately did not even carry any consequence to the plot! I decided to play-fight with the birthday boy first. As my character and his son clashed plastic swords in delight, I found that whenever I pressed the buttons displayed onscreen, I would deal a blow to my son! Feeling guilty, I instead pressed all the wrong buttons, letting my virtual son win.
Fast-forward maybe four hours into the game, I am between a rock and a hard place. A serial murderer has given me a test: am I willing to kill to discover my kidnapped son’s whereabouts? I can either assassinate a random stranger, or I can choose not to. I have no idea what the outcome is going to be, but the important thing to remember is that there is always a choice. And that is the beauty of Heavy Rain. (Sorry for the spoilers!)
