.:Out-of-the-box:.

Latest creation from Quantic Dreams cannot be ignored. David Cage presented himself as great storyteller in his previous game – Project Indigo (Fahrenheit outside US). While playing Heavy Rain, I could hardly avoid comparisons to that previous title. These two games come along with Cage’s redefinition of adventure game with cinematic glamour. Cinematic experience in Heavy Rain popped up another question I asked myself: is still Heavy Rain a game?

In Fahrenheit we had several characters to play with through the story. All of them had some purpose to the main plot and it’s similar in Heavy Rain. Major difference in game play I found, is that in snowy precursor game mechanics were bound to traditional action adventure controls. Balance was only pushed little bit more toward adventure rather action. Action in Fahrenheit was strictly related to some arcade elements blended in and between puzzles and dialogue. Still I had a feeling that I was free to do whatever I wanted at limited stage of scene. In Heavy Rain I have a feeling, that it’s mostly all about the story. I’m not even surprised to see YouTube version of the game. That’s good example of how limited game playability is. My reflection from playing: controls over characters were only a necessary waste of time to trigger new dialogue and choice of action which I rather watched than played.  After a while I found no sense to walk around, lurk for some hidden spots.. somewhere. The only exception is one character who makes real investigation with tools that even CSI folks should be envy at.

Arcade elements in Heavy Rain are close to beat-em up mechanics, which is really tough. There is no time to learn these “combos” as next button to press shows up on the screen and you have like a second to push the right one. Honestly, it was really frustrating. This game is about a story. Limited freedom of game-play replaced with really tough control in some “magic” moments is first serious risk I perceive David Cage has taken. People who are not accustomed to gaming but who will like to test current stage of interactive storytelling & drama may fail to finish it because of difficulty. People who seek a game with rich story may actually not find a game in Heavy Rain. Not by their (and my definition). I don’t mind, but I believe many will do. I really appreciate the story. In my humble opinion it is so strong that I dare to compare it to David Fincher’s “Seven” movie.

In one of my previous articles, I described story structure based on a single, main character development from mundane folk to a hero. It’s barely the way David Cage chose for its games, and it’s really fantastic. I have no other examples in gaming, but Fahrenheit and Heavy Rain where you are put in some moment of time, dense with dramatic events and many characters who are involved and engaged almost simultaneously to that plot. In both games terrible crime is chosen to bind characters to the story. Major difference between these games, is that in Fahrenheit player-character roles were competitive to each other. Playing cops and a murderer was a real challenge because they had quite opposite goals. Culmination point was when these goals had blended to a common one. In Heavy Rain, from the beginning, all characters we play have the same goal: solve the riddle and find the bad guy. Shock and culmination point is at the very end when the truth is revealed.

Maturity is another aspect that differs David Cage’s games. In Fahrenheit beginning was really dramatic. Nothing that could not happen in our world was described there. I could easily explain all unreal situations by drugs or psychology, If I only wanted. I didn’t. It was fun to see all those strange moments inspired something where Matrix meets strange cult conjured by Multi-Personal Disorder known very well from dozen of famous movies (like Lost Highway or Fight Club) taken as an inspiration. Dense atmosphere ended fast when I got some jumbo-mambo sci-fi for which even Matrix looks authentic. It’d built a distance to the thriller side of that story and then I started enjoying it as an action game (fight on the roof, what a pace!). Heavy Rain is mature and for adults only story about grim world where terrible crime simply happens. There is no magic, aliens and other stuff that kills the atmosphere of Gotham City’s social failure, but in rainy not dark metaphor. Rain brings sadness not fear, and it’s a feeling that you can’t stop thinking about during the game. As a victim of a serial killer you have occasion to feel how it’d like to get through whole that psychological trauma, you start believing how it could be. Psychological impact on what’s happening on the screen is indeed comparable with “Seven”. It’s first game where I didn’t want to do something which game was expecting me to do to go forward. It was that terrible like in those movies where you moved your head away because you didn’t want to watch something drastic. Power of this story is there just because Cage does not escape from such situations. They make Heavy Rain even more authentic. It’s interesting to experience it, as it’s totally different from all controversial aspects in games we’ve already had. Having sex in Mass Effect or playing a terrorist in Modern Warfare 2 is like eating peanuts comparing to that one scene in Heavy Rain, I don’t want to spoil.

As for hard decisions in game, I found two situations where I wanted to have more time to think of. While playing I killed twice. In both scenes it was so fast that I had no time to reconsider my decisions. In both situation it was not like “kill or be killed” 1sec moment. Game mechanics helped little bit where you have options to push some button and you don’t exactly know what can happen. In both situations I was shocked how fast pressing the trigger was. Then, when it was done and dead body laid on the floor, my first thought was that I didn’t want to do it.

It’s very interesting from social perspective. I strongly believe no-one playing that game is a killer and then you’re put in a situation so strong and serious from story perspective to do so, with exact feeling. I’d not be surprised the find moral questions like what should and what should not be put in games coming from the Press once again. Media like challenges like this and put gaming controversy on the front page. Usually they fail to bring correct message. I presume Heavy Rain is so hard to comprehend, that it will never be covered. If killing in games is a problem considering silly shooters and other games that ignore almost all real aspects of what real death is, then Heavy Rain shows all possible physical, ethical and moral aspects of such. Hard decisions in Heavy Rain bring questions like this often. Playing it and replaying I had one on mind pretty often: “is this really necessary?”. In many cases, for the story, it was.

David Cage has invented very powerful tool to present dramatic and even traumatic stories. For me, Fahrenheit has built very high expectations for the next game from Quantic Dreams. Heavy Rain is even more interactive movie than a game. At the beginning failed to meet expectations built in my mind, I expected game. I changed my opinion and I exactly know why. Maturity and power of the story presented in that game is so tremendous, that with my own high expectations to the game based on Fahrenheit nostalgia, I for sure didn’t expect to see something like this. It’s simply a different thing. Expecting that Heavy Rain will be Fahrenheit 2, new sequel but better was wrong and misleading.