Welcome to the Future
posted by profficy (LAS VEGAS, NV) Feb 25, 2010
Member since Nov 2009
Simply amazing. In the grand tradition of psychological thrillers Heavy Rain is a masterpiece. Engaging story told in a truly original style. No game has ever made a life or death struggle feel important. Knowing in Heavy Rain that if you lose your life the world moves on without you, rather than a game over/continue, causes a much deeper connection with the situation at hand. You want to stay alive because you want that characters point of view to continue.
The characters are subtle and deep. Video games don't often accomplish this. the nuances of character are a result of the fact the user gets to shape them any way they choose. Reminiscent of a choose your own adventure book(can't stick your finger in the previous page however) the multitude of choices to be made, sometimes with very little time to think, create a deeper engagement with a video game character than I have ever felt before.
Game froze a couple of times but the auto save frequency made this nothing but a mild inconvenience. Controls, particularly walking, feel wooden at the beginning but this quickly becomes a nonissue once the story begins to roll.
I believe this could be the future of gaming. Not that I think all games will or should take this new route. A lot of them will. There will be good ones, great ones and maybe even a dog or two. It's nice to see a developers risk pay off so large. Who can be upset with another genre on the game shelf?
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