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Why Heavy Rain Will Fail

Saturday, 6 Feb 2010 - 13:33PM

In our new feature, the Connected Consoles team will be taking an up-and-coming game and presenting two different points of view; why the game will rock, and why the game will fail. Remember, these are the views of the individual writers; you can agree with one of them, both, or neither. This is not a review, but a view of the game before we even play it.

Read James' views on why the game will rock here.

The views of Chris Hawke on why Heavy Rain will fail;

I know. How brave I am. Putting myself on the line like this. You see, even hinting that your hype meter isn’t ticking away like an over-excited Geiger counter about Heavy Rain instantly puts you in front of the firing squad. “Oh, you just don’t get it”, they say. 'You just hate it because it isn’t an FPS'. 'Yeah, I can see why you don’t like the look of it; some people just don’t understand beautiful art'.

Heavy Rain has gained an almost religious following. And while they all bow down to their burning wicker men, I’m left in the bushes, looking on, feeling left out, and cold. And naked. But that’s a different story for a different time. So, why does everyone seem so excited for Quantic Dream’s Fahrenheit-a-like? I honestly don’t know. Here’s why I’m just not bothered about Heavy Rain.

The fact it doesn’t have guns is seen by many as a plus. I have to agree, if Madison Paige were wondering around her apartment with an AK-47 (With red dot sight, duh), it would detract a little something from the feel of the game. But it’s not about the gun. It’s what the gun represents; fun. An objective. A thing to use. A tool, if you will. Because, as much as David Cage will disagree, Heavy Rain will just be a series of Quick Time Event-using mini-games. There, I said it. Shoot me. You can argue as much as you want that its art and that you don’t need guns to keep things interesting, but at the end of the day – you do such things as help your son with homework, change a baby’s diaper and buy a balloon. That’s not fun.

The only thing that would make it fun and engaging is if there was a reason for doing those things, or a sense of accomplishment and progression gained from them. That’s where the story comes in. It’s got a nice little set up – kids get taken, found dead in rain water, and you have to find who-dun-it. However, publications that have reviewed the game (i.e. OPM) point out that the story is paper thin, Channel 5 nonsense. If that’s true, then what’s the point in all the activities? Why change your baby’s diaper if it’s only going to either not progress the story, or subject your mind to even more Lost-style plot madness (we’re talking Season 5, oh-my-god-I-don’t-understand-a-single-thing Lost).

Yes, it has good graphics. Yes, it has a range of characters, and at least a little bit of atmosphere. But if you look past the ‘Oh, isn’t it art’ stuff, you’re going to be spending 10 hours or so completing meaningless, mind-numbing and out-of-context tasks with no sense of complete or advancement. And face it; some parts of the game are just an excuse to flash some next-gen tit.

 

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