HEAVY RAIN
The incredibly exciting thing about video
games is the medium is constantly improving as technology allows it to do
bigger and better things. Every time I think it might have peaked, along comes
a Grand Theft Auto 4 or an Arkham City or an Uncharted 3 and the medium has another
gold standard. It’s not just technology improvements making the same crap
stories look better, either. The storytelling is improving at the same level as
the technology.
Heavy
Rain is not the best game I’ve ever played, but it’s
the one that had the strongest affect on me. (It also didn’t come out in 2012,
but that’s when I first played it). You take charge of four different
characters over the course of the story, each of who can die at any moment.
Even more unusual for a story-based game such as this, when somebody dies, they
stay dead. The ending of the game changes drastically if a character dies or
fails on certain missions. It all sounds fairly standard for games these days,
but as with anything, it’s the execution that really sells how incredible this
game is.
Take, for example, the unsettling (and
possibly deal-breaking) opening sequence, which sees protagonist Ethan taking a
shower (and they don’t shy away from nudity) and walking around his house,
arguing good-naturedly with his wife and playing with his kids. This sequence
takes about twenty to thirty minutes depending on the time you feel like
taking; and the glacially-moving action, male nudity and unusual, fiddly
control scheme is pretty much anathema to the traditional gamer. Only when you
reach the end of the game do you realize how important that opening sequence
was to the events that followed. The choices you make, the things that motivate
you and the characters you identify with all spin out of that opening sequence.
I don’t want to spoil anything that happens in the game by gushing over it any
further, so I’ll just say this; Heavy
Rain had the most emotional impact on me of any game I’ve ever played. It
is an absolutely compelling experience for the open-minded gamer; hell, it’s a
compelling experience for anybody.
Honourable
Mention: Uncharted 3: Drake’s Fortune is a
rollicking adventure in the mould of the Indiana Jones adventures, a game where
you take down huge armies of guys in treasure-filled ruins, encounter sneering
villains and punch guys while hanging from cargo planes. It also features an
existential, artistic, emotional interlude about two thirds of the way through
that, if you’re invested in the game at all, will absolutely knock your socks
off.
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