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Heavy Rain

Started by KatieHal, January 09, 2012, 07:51:29 AM

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KatieHal

So, I just finished playing this game last night, and I freaking loved it. It was like playing in a movie in a really good way--the storyline and mystery had me pulled in, they did a great job of getting me to connect with and feel for the characters. Here's a little more under the spoiler cut about my particular end-game went:

[spoiler]The good guys won and saved Shaun--Ethan unfortunately was in jail while this was happening, but Jayden and Madison got the job done, and Shelby died and didn't get away with it. Other variations in my ending were Lauren dying in the car, I let Kramer die, and Jayden had a weird ending of starting to see things from using ARI/using Tripto. I couldn't tell if Ethan and Madison were together in the end or not; they did sleep together and he forgave her in my game, but the end movies didn't show anything about them as a couple.

I had been spoiled about who the killer was, but it was still really cool to play even knowing that ahead of time.[/spoiler]

I am still wondering....
[spoiler]what was the deal with Ethan's blackouts and coming to with the origami figure in his hands? Also, is it possible for Jayden to not be having hallucinations at the end? [/spoiler]

Overall, great game. If you like story-driven stuff, and/or good mysteries or thrillers, I really recommend it.

Anyone else play this one? Your thoughts? What were your ending(s)?

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Rosella

Ooooh. I love this game. The answer to your second question is no, and the answer to your first can be found in this fascinating making-of video. Obviously, spoilers abound, so only click that if you've finished the game. In short, [spoiler]It was a truncated plotline that had a more supernatural aspect to it than they wanted in the game. Shelby was present at Jason's death and Ethan's complete devastation sort of left his mind open to a connection with Shelby's, leading him to black out whenever a child was killed. His connection with Shelby is what led him to Carnaby Square with the origami figure.[/spoiler]

Like I said, I love this game. I pretty much make everyone I know play it, and my friend and I got the platinum trophy together. Another fun thing is to play the Heavy Rain drinking game (we had energy drinks as our poison of choice). We mostly paid attention to the loading screen making us uncomfortable, children having creepy European accents, failing an everyday action and someone mispronouncing origami. Our house rules were that you also had to drink whenever you noticed a plot hole and that the controller was rotated whenever you drank. :P

As for my ending
[spoiler]The first time, Jayden actually died to the car crusher thing. There is ONE up motion you have to make for him to survive and I was making a gesture when it came up and therefore failed it. Boo. :( Madison and Ethan ended up together; Shaun was saved; Shelby was killed, and Lauren got away fine.[/spoiler]

I did get all of them though. One of my favorites had to be
[spoiler]If you didn't catch Shelby but left Lauren alive, she figures it out, tracks him down, and exacts revenge. It's a really powerful scene and I like giving Lauren that opportunity[/spoiler]

The making-of video really fills in a lot of the plot holes and I think it really makes the game so much better.
I'm a princess even if my kingdom is pixelated.

Official Comfort Counselor of the TSL Asylum © ;D

It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive.

Lambonius


KatieHal

I had read that about the truncated storyline--I think I'm glad they cut it.

[spoiler]The game was really good without needing to have any supernatural elements to it. But some kind of in-game explanation would've been nice, even if it was that Shelby was drugging Ethan, or Ethan's brain damage & guilt/psychological problems were causing him to form an obsession with the Origami Killer even before Shaun was kidnapped.[/spoiler]

Oh yeah--to find get new endings, do I only need to replay certain chapters the pertain to those endings? Or do I need to replay the whole thing?

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Fierce Deity

The game in itself is truly an amazing experience, but for the storyline, I was sadly disappointed. It's a case of the left hand not knowing what the right hand is doing. Every scene was set up to institute a perspective, to think a certain way, and then BAM!!! A plot twist shows that everything that happened was comprised through trickery and deception. Now, don't get me wrong, I liked the game, and the overall story had promise. But I actually guessed who the killer was just because of all the red herrings.

[spoiler]The game really wants you to believe that Shelby was a good guy, and that he could be the best next-door neighbor if it wasn't for the fact he killed people.[/spoiler]

But the entire experience was still rewarding. I'd also like to see what else the developers can do with this interface for gaming. It has revolutionized the old-school adventure style of gaming into a more fresh and intuitive system. Hopefully, they can apply it to a new environment and atmosphere.
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

KatieHal

[spoiler]There was some trickery, no doubt. Since I knew that going in, I enjoyed it on the grounds of being able to catch all the little clues that were there all along--how Shelby kept trying to discourage Lauren, how the camera specifically was not on him when the clocks were clanging in Manfred's and he was killing him, how he had a typewriter on his desk the whole time. For me, that way, I got to see how he had a very specific idea of right & wrong, bad & good. His problem was with the fathers, not the kids, and likewise not with the mothers. Sort of Dexter-esque, except his choice of victims isn't one that you can even try to root for.[/spoiler]

I do kinda wish I could also have come at it from the not-knowing angle, but I think I still would've loved it, personally. I can see feeling the way you do about it, too, though.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

darthkiwi

I really, really love this game but at the same time I'm so annoyed with its flaws. Overall I think it's a brilliant achievement - the four parallel characters, the fact the story will keep going whether you win or fail a section, the fact that most of the characters are kind of likeable and the fact that it forces you to consider how much you would do for someone you love - but there are some real hiccups here.

For one thing, I'm annoyed at how each character has exactly one weakness. Shelby has asthma, Jayden has the Ari, Madison has nightmares and Ethan has crowds. One would have been great; with four, I can't help wondering if the writers were just "writing by numbers".

On the plus side, I really liked the fact that it deals with a father and his family - the game was rightly praised for putting this front and centre - and that it has an intuitive interface. It made QTEs work, which is no mean feat. The fight scenes felt fluid and I felt like I was inhabiting the character - unlike Fahrenheit, the game's predecessor, which was a train wreck in that sense. (Pushing an "up" button on a keyboard does not equate to doing a flying kick.) I liked every aspect of the interface: it was sleek, a new take on adventure games, and the gesture system felt natural.

Which is why I'm so annoyed that they put a B-movie plot into it. I thought the plot was fairly compelling at first: there was the family stuff, Shelby was interesting, I even liked the police stuff with Jayden because I felt like I was working on an actual crime scene. (The ARI was a great tool because it didn't allow you to do anything an officer today would find impossible - it just gave you instant results instead of making you wait a few days, which meant Jayden could be a super-efficient detective, perfectly in tune with what the player would want.) Even the love scene with Madison was okay for me because the characters had backstory.

But when the entire thing is so clearly heading for a big, climactic, hollywood conclusion, it just feels a bit silly. I won't spoil what actually happens during the ending, so everyone can read the whole post, but if more than half the characters have survived by that point then you get some bizarrely contrasting cutting going on. On the one hand it tries to have a nice touching scene, but that's then ruined by the obligatory "precarious fightscene" which, to be honest, felt completely unnecessary. I just think the game's strengths lay in its ability to do stuff we'd never seen before in a videogame, and which (being emotionally interesting) is normally relegated to film or books. As soon as it stepped back into that territory to the extent that it had no faith in itself, that's when it kind of lost me.

I still think it's a great game. But it could have been much better, and much more involving. I hope they think bigger with the next one.
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

Lambonius

#7
MOD EDIT: Derpy derp derp derp!

(Posted on: January 10, 2012, 07:35:44 PM)


Quote from: Lambonius on January 10, 2012, 04:35:44 PM
MOD EDIT: Derpy derp derp derp!

FASCISTS!!   ;D

MOD EDIT: Why am I hitting myself? Why am I hitting myself? WHY AM I HITTING MYSELF?

Fierce Deity

Is it sad that I can't tell the difference between Lamb's genuine posts and the mod edits?
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

KatieHal

No, it's AWESOME.  ;D

To get back to what you said, FD--yeah, the cutaways in the finale were a bit jarring. I mean, the game definitely builds to a confrontation, so there had to be some big, exciting, and tense stuff going on at that point. I didn't feel let down by it, personally, but yeah, I can see what you mean by some of it feeling unnecessary or not quite fitting with the rest of the game.

Then again, the rest of the game does vacillate between the tense scenarios and the quiet, touching ones. But in those instances, we have a chance to pause, catch our breath, and settle in, instead of jumping from one right into another.

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Fierce Deity

Oh, most definitely. I was on the edge of my seat in the last confrontation. I'm simply speaking in retrospect. The game was entertaining, and I wouldn't have expected a better conclusion. There were just moments that detracted from the overall suspense. Mainly, with:

[spoiler]Shelby's chapters. Like I said, they really tried to paint him as the good guy. Being the freelance cop that only wanted to help people. But you see that he has no connection to the case as much as Jayden, Ethan, or Madison. His character was so irrelevant to a lot of the major plot, that his character practically screamed "I'm the killer." Him being the killer is not such a bad thing. He had his reasons for hating his deadbeat father, and was clearly traumatized by what happened to his brother. I just wished they would have tied his character into the story to avoid making him out to be a "collateral" protagonist.

I don't know. Maybe I've seen too many Scooby-Doo episodes, cause it always seems to be the guy you'd least expect. I do applaud that they at least made the killer a playable character. That definitely threw some people off the beaten path, I'm sure.[/spoiler]

But that's really my only complaint. The game was still fun. I don't know if I would like a sequel with these particular characters, but if they choose to make another game, I'd be more than content with checking it out. I still need to try out Indigo Prophecy. I had a friend play it, and he said it was a very good game.
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

KatieHal

Ahh, I see what you mean now. Yeah, since I went in already knowing that I can't really speak to the surprise factor. I am fairly good at figuring out those sorts of twists myself, though, so I feel like I at least might have figured it out before it's revealed, too.

[spoiler]Although, they could've done more to play up Blake as a red herring. Restrictions of time and resources no doubt may have played a role in what they didn't, though, and I can certainly understand that.[/spoiler]

Katie Hallahan
~Designer, PR Director~

"Change is the constant, the signal for rebirth, the egg of the phoenix." Christina Baldwin

I have a blog!

Fierce Deity

It is nice to know the ending before playing these games sometimes. You can pick up on all of the red herrings and foreshadowing. Of course, like you said, the plot twists don't have the intended effect. That's the one downside.  :-\
Freudian Slip - "When you say one thing, but mean your mother."

wilco64256

I actually retried that first scene with the girl like 4 times trying to figure out how to do it "successfully" before realizing there wasn't a way to get through it the way I was trying to.

And after playing all the way through the game I learned there were a couple of chapters that I never even saw at all.  Excellent game.
Weldon Hathaway