Heavy Rain (isn’t gonna fall)
Should I keep playing Heavy Rain? I’m not far in. I just completed the PI’s first investigation – should I continue?
I like puzzles, I loved well-crafted cutscenes and acting and writing… but there are also a lot of things I don’t like and I don’t think I like Heavy Rain. I haven’t read what my media colleagues think but I can guess they cite leaden dialogue, poor writing, still figures and basically it’s a gussied up adventure game. There’s nothing wrong with that, LA Noire is too, but I’m finding so little choice in the early going – seriously? When do my “decisions affect the story? – because I haven’t found a really meaningful choice yet. It’s like a cutscene where you have to press a button just to make the speaker move on (a problem Nintendo hasn’t solved either). That’s boring stuff and I’m finding myself wanting to give up despite my sympathy for the family and the intriguing serial killer mystery they’ve set up.
I found the dialogue so bad, I switched to French by the way. I’ve been watching a lot of French movies, with subtitles, on Netflix so doing this made the game a foreign movie. That helps a lot, but I’m still finding it a barely interesting slog. Am I being unfair and premature?
As far as questionable content, Heavy Rain has just about all of them. I’d say 15+ for an teen who likes this sort of mystery and pathos, but this game and it’s theme of losing a child – is clearly aimed at the parents among us.
June 23rd, 2011 at 11:52 pm
it gets better in my opinion, the decisions you make are not made in the usual way, it is in the seemingly ordinary conversations that you effect the outcome. Its whether or not you decide to guilt a guy into giving you clues or bribe him (this is a very basic difference but the ways you can conduct a conversation get much more dynamic). some people will open up to sympathy others will close off. part of the fun of the game is the second time you play through it you can find out stuff about people and the story that you did not know the first time because you handled the conversation differently.
I would say give it more time, just know that you are the best judge of whats worth your time and whats not. Also I have not played L.A. Noire yet, so I cannot say whether having gone through all the interrogations in L.A. Noire (which I hear are excellent) make it hard to go back to Heavy Rain which does not boast the same facial animations or top quality voice work.
June 24th, 2011 at 7:47 am
I think my problem might have a lot to do with LA Noire, which is almost nothing like what you describe above but is in the same ballpark. I might play something stupid for a while to clean the palate. Thanks for the comment!