Heavy Rain and Firefly

Without going into too much detail, Heavy Rain is a groundbreaking game.  It’s ingenious, even.  Like many games before it, every choice affects the overall story, some causing little ripples in the yarn and others completely changing the outcome.  There are four main characters, each with different things going on in their lives.  Gameplay is essentially controlling everyday actions of the characters, from cooking food to taking a shower.  You control what they say, what they think, and how they act.  Basically, it’s a very personal and engrossing game, and I can’t help but feel connected to these people. 

A serial killer, dubbed the Origami Killer, has kidnapped one man’s (Ethan) son.  He gets a box full of clues that pose the question “how far would you go to save your son?”  Meanwhile, a private detective is investigating the killer by interviewing past victims’ parents.  Another character is an FBI profiler, and the last is an insomniac woman.

I haven’t played the game much, actually I’m only a few hours in, but I’m already loving it.  I’ve never been so tense and cautious about my characters.  See, in Heavy Rain, there are no do-overs, no restarts.  The game saves automatically after everything, and if one of the characters die, the story continues on.  This may cause you to miss vital clues to unraveling the Origami Killer’s identity, or it might result in the death of Ethan’s son, but it doesn’t matter.  To my understanding, the game can be completed with any combination of any characters surviving, from all to none.

I say all this because as I was playing last night, I had two moments that made me shake my head and groan.  First, I was playing as the insomniac for the first time, and she woke up during the middle of the night.  She walks around the apartment, trying to get sleepy.  After a shower she steps out of the bathroom and something runs across the screen.  She notices the fridge door is opened and she tenses up.  In these tense moments, the character’s thoughts and actions are very important, but they’re also more difficult to control.  Menus get blurry and shaky, and it’s a bit harder to decide what to do.    She goes to close the fridge, freaking out but thinking she’s dreaming from her lack of sleep.  Unfortunately, she wasn’t, and some masked men suddenly attack her.  I start fighting them, but miss a few buttons off and on.  Eventually I run into a room and look for something to defend myself, but someone sneaks up behind me and slits my throat.  I can’t describe the sickening feeling in my gut knowing that I just killed a main character the first time I used her!  (Thankfully, that’s not all to the story, so I’ll keep the rest a secret.)

The second thing involved the FBI profiler.  He entered a man’s house to ask him some questions.  The guy is a bit loony, evidenced by a house full of crucifixes hanging everywhere and covering every square inch of the walls.  Eventually the agent’s partner threatens the man to try and get a confession and the man feels scared and pulls a gun on my partner.  I pull a gun on him and we’re in a bit of a stand-off.  This guys convinced my partner’s the antichrist; I’m trying to talk him out of it so no-one gets hurt.  All the while, the only thing keeping the man alive is me not pushing the R1 button.  After several very tense moments of conversation, I convince the man to put his gun down and turn around to be cuffed.  At this moment I turn to tell Keisha something, as she’s engrossed as well, and the music suddenly tenses.  I look back to the screen and see the R1 button still up, and not thinking, I press it, instantly putting a bullet through the now weaponless man.  The shock on both my face and the character’s face was identical: open mouthed and silent.  I honestly felt horrible after killing the man, all because my lack of focus.

I don’t know how my game will end.  There are like nine different endings or something for Heavy Rain, and I plan to try and play through them all.  For now, I’m stuck with my actions, and hopefully will find out more later on tonight.  If you’re looking for a game that’ll keep you glued to your seat, Heavy Rain is it.

Firefly is one of the best television shows ever, and currently Amazon is running a special on the Blu-ray set.  I’m pretty sure I’m going to get it, as it’s only $27 for the entire series, and that’s 60% off the list price.  If you’re looking for a great deal on this series and you have a Blu-ray player, you might want to check this out before the deal expires.  Anyway, I need to get a Blu-ray for myself, cause the only ones at Stewartland right now are Snow White and New Moon.