Opening words: It’s been a real long time since I have played an adventure game. This game brings that genre back to the forefront. With stunning visuals, a great story, and a quick time event system and the best use of six axis motion controls to date on the PS3, an adult themed game that is not totally immature BS. Grim indeed.
Presentation: 9.8
The best presentation I have seen in a game yet. The story telling is amazing. The look and feel of everything is really good. The menu system is great. The Forensics glasses on the FBI character is phenomenal. Very easy to get into a game and play.
Single Player: 9.1
I was expecting a lot from this game. At first I was disappointed because it kind of starts out slow. Plus you bounce around from character to character slowly figuring out what is going on. After I adjusted to this and one of the first epic like amazing fight sequences happened, I could not put down the controller. This game really got my heart pounding in some parts. Sure it is mostly on the rails, and severely limited on what you can do in the actual game environment. It is not like those old PC sierra games at all. I never played indigo prophecy, so I have no clue what that is like. I was not put off by how linear the game was over all because it told the story so well. I beat it in about 10 hours. Almost perfect for this kind of game. I wanted a little bit more story though in the end. I hope there is DLC. In the end, I loved playing the game from all the different points of view. I loved how the story slowly unravels from all sides.
Visuals: 8.7
The characters look simply amazing, especially close in. The environments do to in certain scenes. Sometimes though, some things could look a little corny, the cars, objects and other things that were not focused on could suffer at times. This did not deter me at all. To me, this game reminded me of Shen Mu on the Sega Dreamcast on super steroids and more on the rails. I really liked the look and feel of the game over all. It really drew me in.
Audio: 9.2
The sound quality is amazing on this title. The voice acting is really well done by most of the characters. The sound track was really well done adding tension and sorrow when needed. The club scene was good as well.
Game Mechanics: 9.2:
The controls were strange, kind of like a throw back to alone in the dark or something like that on the old playstation 1. You have a walk button, which is r2, then you aim where you want to go, and that aiming changes when the camera changes. The camera works well and usually is in the right place. You can also toggle the camera view with a button and this was super helpful. Everything you can interact with will pop up as you pass it, you don’t have to guess and search hard like old adventure games made you. You can hear what your character is thinking, and this will give you clues, there is a button for this you hold down, then words will fly around your head with a button icon, you select one and your character will talk in his head. When you get into an action sequence, you will get thrown into quicktime events(like in god of war when you jump on the boss and it says “PRESS THIS BUTTON” if you don’t do it fast enough or hit the wrong one, you miss). This was made famous by games like Dragons Lair on laser disc way back in the day. This was a very refined version of it though. Like when you are the FBI investigator, you have to climb this hill, and it slowly makes you hold button combinations down, and it can make you feel like you are playing a game of Twister on your controller. At first I was weirded out by it but I did get used to it, and in the end it was magical. What I loved as well was the six axis controls, when jerking stuff around, and trying to escape situations, or fighting, it really made me feel like I was franticly trying to get away or survive, and the motions were consistent with the real world motions. Playing as the FBI investigator blew me away, his cyber glasses, virtual crime lab. It was so cool. One of my favorite things ever in a game.
Replay: 7.0
Being able to make choices, and say certain things effects the out come of the game, and the type of game ending you will get. There is a way to play so that everyone you play as will die, and it’s grim, or so i have read. I played as a good person through and through, except, I did shoot the religious jesus freak in the head with out hesitation LOL. Seriously though, this is worth buying if you want to play it and get the different endings. I see myself playing this through 2 or 3 times total.
Total Score: 9.3 out of 10:
I really hope they make more games like this in the future. I really am hoping for DLC. I really hope this sells well. If you like adventure games on the PC, or old consoles, this one really delivers. It starts slow, but it gets really good. It makes you make tough decisions, and in some it can strike a nerve, and even make you cry if you are in the right mind space. My dog just passed away, so this did jerk some tears out of me. BUY IT NOW Click here to buy Heavy Rain of the playstation 3.
