Heavy Rain

[Forsaken Lover]

And that's Heavy Rain. Everyone made it to the warehouse and only one person died. you know the one.

Guess I'll just spoiler the rest.

(SPOILER)I teared up a bit for the first time all game when the timer ran out and Ethan thought he was going to die. Then he didn't. It is this that makes me think none of what we saw from Shelby was an act. I truly believe he cared for Lauren and all the rest of it. Now some might say he's a psycho, and that's true, but I don't think he is an unfeeling psycho. It was his feelings that made him what he is. Quite frankly, I didn't come away hating Shelby like a lot of people. I guess it's because I knew he was the killer all along but overall I think it all makes a lot of sense and transforms him to by far the most interesting character in the game.

Now I do need to comment on something because I was reading TVTropes' Character Sheet for HR characters. (SPOILER)The one character who lives and doesn't get a happy ending is Jayden. The poor guy is losing his mind.... Now I thought it was on account of the drugs but the trope page says it's due to the ARI System. I don't recall the game ever saying the ARI System was such a massive danger to a person's brain or that's why Norman took the drugs in the first place.

But apart from feeling bad for the two of them, the ending was pretty nice. Ethan has another chance for a good, happy family with Madison and Shaun.

The game was very interesting. I'm sure if I felt like it I could think of some plotholes...god knows I've seen so much hatred for the game that there's possibly a whole bible dedicated to Why Heavy Rain Sucks. But the game was so unlike any other game I've ever played.... I recently played "myself" for the first time due to Dragon Age but here, while I wasn't playing myself exactly, I was still so engrossed in everything that happened that it might as well be me. I'm not Madison or Ethan but that doesn't mean I wasn't freaking out at certain scenes for those two. Everything is just so visceral in Heavy Rain that it really gets inside you in a way I've never really felt with other video games.

And of course the soundtrack is fantastic. I hope not even HR's critics can disparage the great music.

On a less positive side of the game's audio...well, is the voice-acting better in Beyond Two Souls? Obviously Page and Dafoe are gonna be good but what about everyone else? I think Shelby and Madison had the best voices in HR and Jayden's VA has a queer charm to him. Ethan was okay, but it varied a lot from scene to scene. Everyone else was meh to awful.

Overall, great game, loved it. I might even play it again someday and just let everyone die or whatever.

I think my fave characters were Shelby and Madison.


EDIT:

I forgot to say, Madison visiting Ann Sheppard was also heartbreaking. It's an all too realistic and grim situation - a poor old woman wasting away in loneliness. And when you finally jog her memory she worries her only living son hates her.