Troy Benedict, Senior Writer

Heavy Rain: A Mature Drama with Hard Hitting Action, Continued

February 24, 2010

I really feel that this game is going to hold weight with people who have had more "worldly" experiences as the first part touches on divorce, loss of a family member, depression, and very probable drug addiction. These are all very different mature-rated elements that have rarely been introduced to games -- at least not in a very effective way. If a mature-rated game like God of War could be compared to an R-rated movie like "300" -- a fun, gory, and violent romp, I think a fitting R-rated movie comparison to Heavy Rain would be "Leaving Las Vegas" or "Unfaithful" -- extremely heavy drama, with a lot of human, psychological issues.

While Heavy Rain has done a great job injecting the human element into the game through the character's facial animation and body language there are still elements of the "uncanny valley" where something, like a glitch in the character animation, that has taken me out of the moment, and reminded me that this is a video game. However, I'm still able to suspend disbelief and care for these characters, trying to direct them in the right direction rather than treat them like other expendable video game characters.

There were times, especially when the character is at the mall, that some scripting issues with the "extras," where people would walk in circles strangely or continue to bump into the same object, never quite figuring out the way around it.

I also experienced a title update that clocked in at 225 MB, and took about 5 minutes to download and install, followed by a a 10-minute installation to the hard drive. The installation screen, however was interesting, as it showed you the step-by-step instructions on how to make the origami figure that is featured on the game's box art. Included with the game is also a square piece of paper that you can use. (Of course, me being the perfectionist with the game case, manuals, and disc, I didn't dare try and fold the included paper.)

I'm not ready to write this game off as being fantastically innovative yet, as I'm only about 90 minutes in, but so far I'm hooked in and I'm ready to see where it goes.

I am happy to see a mature title that contains some pretty deep and heavy emotional and psychological content. I don't feel that I've played a game that handles it quite as well as Heavy Rain has during my first impressions. I'm wondering if I will come away feeling happy or depressed at the outcome of at the game's conclusion, but I will certainly let you all know what I think in my final review in the next couple of weeks.

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