Heavy Rain impressions.

 I've had my hands on Heavy Rain for a few hours now, and while I'm not looking to blow through it overnight, I'm hooked enough to where I plan to give it some good time before my own personal weekend is over. A good reason why I'm not trying to speed my way through is that there are two parts to this game. One part is meant to be played, as the person behind the controller has sort of defines what's going to be on the screen. It's rewarding for a person to be alone and play this game expecting a thrilling interactive movie, but that brings me to my second point, which is that this game is also meant to be watched. Even if a friend, girlfriend, or family member guiding the game, it's absolutely watchable because you're going to see something a little different each time. Even failures look good and don't really hinder progress of the story. Basically, it's not necessarily a game that's desirable to play on your own, and I'm in no particular rush to beat this game without a friend around to experience it with.

 I'm getting ahead of myself, though. To begin, let's get all of the immediate questions out of the way. Everything you've seen and heard it true. All of it. The game looks amazing and is arguably the most realistic looking game on the market. The developers have tried very, very hard to make everything that happens in the game seamless and presented in a way that would put a good movie director to shame. Even in chaotic moments, everything in the game looks amazing and is accessible to the eye. It's really interesting to think that this is a style of game that could work in the way that FMV titles never did. To imagine that there could be a Bourne game in this style almost makes my head pop when it comes to the overload of awesome possible. So yes, it's realistic, yes it always looks amazing, and yes, it's very accessible. I'm playing the game on hard, and think that I'm probably having more fun that way, so I could only imagine what the easiest setting would be like.

 I'm not too sure yet about the extent of interactivity in the main storyline. There have been a few moments where I've completely failed what I was supposed to do on purpose, and while that particular event path was different, the ultimate outcome remained the same. It's an extremely forgiving way to do things, and I think that it encourages players to focus on the experience rather than getting a "high score". It's a very relaxing way of doing things, but I wonder what will actually be different in my second playthrough. The potential for hidden goodies and secret paths is very high, and I'm still not sure what all is hidden just out of view. Maybe there's nothing, and that the game is just a lot of events that happen regardless of what you do, but they might just look a little different if you have a good or bad gaming session.

 The controls can be, on occasion, wonky. Walking takes a lot of getting used to, especially when switching between camera angles. You have to, basically, learn to walk correctly for this specific game, because if you start to remember how you played any other game, you might spin around looking very drunk. The QTE's all work perfectly except one subset of actions belonging to motion controls. It works, don't get me wrong, but it's almost as if the game is asking you to have your controller in a very specific orientation, because things don't work sometimes. I found that when you're supposed to shake the Dual Shock up and down or left and right, it works half the time, and just when you think that you've figured it out, you run into a GTE fest and will never be holding the controller in a way that you know works. It's sometimes hit and miss, but the only suggestion I can give you is to shake faster instead of more deliberately when asked to do so.

 To my surprise, the game came with a "feely" that I didn't even know was in the box. I'm kicking myself now for not just making a photocopy of it, because I know I should have. Someone is going to pay $100 just to have this game with an unused origami sheet in a couple of years, I just know it. Strangely enough, and thank you PSN for ruining my hope of a misprint, the game and the origami sheet do not match. Let me explain this from the start. The game comes with a little piece of paper that you don't really know is in your game box, because nobody reads instructions anymore. When you first pop the game into the system, it tells you that an installation is required, which would have pissed me off on so many levels any other day, but I was distracted by a prompt that told me to whip out a specific piece of paper. Well, now I'm intrigued, because I didn't know it was there to begin with, I now have something to do while waiting for installation, and this is the sort of thing that makes me feel like I'm in for something unique.

 Problem is, about three steps into the origami, things stop making sense. To be clear, the first to steps were to make creases and return the paper to its normal, upright position, so in reality, this is the first actual fold you're going to make on this paper. So for arguments sake, we're calling this the first step. So on the FIRST STEP of the origami, the PS3 and paper don't agree. The visual cues in the form of tiny blood-splatters that are supposed to match what's on the screen just don't match. I showed the fold to my friend, redid it 3 times in front of him, and asked if I was an idiot for saying that the game is wrong. He took it, did the same thing, and I didn't even have to ask if I was right because he was staring at the fold with that "wtf?" look on his face. Now, we think that everything is folded right, because we took the leap of faith that the game was just full of crap, and we were able to finish the origami. Not that the game actually helped in doing that either, because it isn't the clearest description of making this figure, nor did the visual cues make a hell of a lot of sense. No, it wasn't hard to figure out what they were meaning to have you do, but I looked at the screen thinking that their intern made this tutorial with no idea what the paper was actually going to look like, and that he was probably colorblind in the first place. Anyway, the very second the words "copy protection....of the future!" came out of my mouth, I realized that I should have immediately scanned the paper before using it. I'll get around to it.

 It ultimately comes down to whether or not this was the "wow" game everyone was hoping for, and I have to say yes. Everything about the way this game looks, feels, and sounds is fantastic. In the beginning, there was actually an amusing moment where the "action" had a musical score behind it, the camera angles were right on the money, and we were doing some horribly mundane task and realized that for a moment, a Lifetime movie could seem epic if presented in this manner on a games system. It was hilarious to think about at the time, and if you try the game, you'll know what I mean. Really, this is the perfect date movie. As long as your significant other has held a controller in their hands at some point in the past year, they will be capable of playing this game. The origami in the beginning gets a little involvement, and then the game itself plays out like you're watching a really good thriller. The discovery that passing the controller back and forth was not a problem sort of cemented it for me. You will enjoy yourself controlling things, and you will enjoy yourself watching it. It's the first true date game so far. I'm sure I will eat those words when the difficulty amps up in a couple of hours, but even then, I can't imagine that the one watching will mind all that much.

 There's no excuse to do anything less than rent this game. Maybe you don't have to buy it, but this is a must-play title regardless of how you do it. Rent it once and never look at it again, but at least get your hands on it for a few days. You will not be disappointed.

 Though, I should warn you that this this game can easily be made to contain terrible methods of personal hygiene. Choose the order of your actions well, or you may just disgust yourself. Digg It Stumble it ! Reddit