Game Review. “Heavy Rain” - Game or cruel reality? Review of the game Heavy rain description

: MA15+- Mature 15+
BBFC: 15 - 15 Certificate
CERO: D-Ages 17 and up
ESRB: M - Mature
PEGI: 18
USK: 16

Creators Supervisor David Cage Producer Charles Cotier Game designer David Cage Screenwriter David Cage Composer Norman Corbeil Technical data Platforms PlayStation 3
PlayStation 4
Microsoft Windows Game engine Havok (physical) Game mode single-user Carrier Blu-ray Disc, digital distribution Control Sixaxis, DualShock 3, PlayStation Move, DualShock 4, Gamepad, Keyboard, Mouse Official site

In an interview with GameDaily.com, Quantic Dream co-president and executive producer Guillaume de Fondomier stated that the characters in Heavy Rain are played by real actors.

Some time in early 2007 poster Heavy Rain appeared on Quantic Dream's website, which is currently under renovation. It showed an origami model called a "Spanish pajarita" (a pajarita is an ancient classical figurine that has become a symbol of origami in Spain), with blood dripping from one of the corners. The game's new subtitle has also been revealed. The Origami Killer, a list of (apparently virtual) actors (Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, Madison Page, Norman Jaden) and tagline: “How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?” (“How far would you go to save the one you love?”). It has been stated that all four of the "actors" (Mars, Shelby, Paige, Jaden) are playable characters.

Gamescom 2009

PS Move support [ | ]

Release on PS4 [ | ]

PC version [ | ]

Soundtrack [ | ]

Heavy Rain (Original Soundtrack from the Video Game)
soundtrack
Date of issue	February 23 (iTunes) March 4, (PSN)
Genre	Classical orchestral music
Duration	40:26
A country
Label	Sony

Track listing
№	Name	Duration
1.	"Ethan Mars" Main Theme"	3:31
2.	"Norman Jayden's Main Theme"	4:42
3.	"Before the Storm"	2:55
4.	"Madison Paige's Main Theme"	3:31
5.	"Scott Shelby's Main Theme"	6:01
6.	"Lauren Winter's Main Theme"	3:07
7.	"Painful Memories"	1:29
8.	"The Chase"	1:25
9.	"Redemption"	1:39
10.	"The Bulldozer"	1:34
11.	"High Tension"	1:16
12.	"The Fight"	1:31
13.	"The Hold Up"	1:28
14.	"Looking for Shaun"	1:36
15.	"Countdown"	1:33
16.	"Last Breath"	2:59

Ratings [ | ]

Sales [ | ]

Within a month of its release, more than 1,150,000 copies of the game were sold worldwide. PlayStrum writes: “Heavy Rain - popular game in the gaming industry has become unpredictably successful in the eyes of many people, what can I say, even David Cage was surprised..." A little more than a week after release, almost the entire circulation was sold, as a result of which, in order to avoid shortages, Sony had to reprint the game.

In 2013, at the Digital Dragons conference in Poland, one of the bosses of Quantic Dream and executive producer of all its games, Guillaume de Fondaumiere, gave the audience specific financial calculations. It turned out that the development of Heavy Rain cost 16.7 million euros. Together with marketing and distribution costs, the amount more than doubled to 40 million euros. But Sony eventually returned them, earning more than 100 million euros from the game.

In total, the game sold over 3 million copies on PlayStation 3.

Notes [ | ]

1. Jim Sterling. Sony has announced that Heavy Rain will be released in Europe on February 24th (undefined) . gambling addiction(January 11, ). Retrieved January 15, 2010. Archived April 1, 2012.
2. Heavy Rain is "interactive drama" - Sony (undefined) . Retrieved February 19, 2008. Archived April 1, 2012.
3. Stuart, Keith Heavy Rain creator: I am fed up with space marines! | The Guardian. (undefined) . The Guardian (21 March 2011). Retrieved May 6, 2011.

Heavy Rain- a game with which everything was difficult until the last moment. "Gaming Mania" closely followed all movements Quantic Dream from the very first technical demonstration at E3 2006, where it turned out that the new project from the authors Fahrenheit(“Best game of 2005” according to our magazine) will be a platform exclusive for the then not even released PlayStation 3. It seemed that this could not happen and some kind of miracle was happening: Sony suddenly gave almost unlimited financial and creative freedom to a small French studio, and everything that was asked in return was conventionally described by the phrase “Fahrenheit 2.0”...

As it now turns out, this is exactly what we needed for complete happiness. What started out as a curious experiment using other people's money ended up becoming almost one of the main reasons to buy a PS3. The main thing you need to know: Heavy Rain is mesmerizing, it's absolutely nothing similar game, a completely new way to tell interesting story and experience the deepest emotional immersion. For the first time in many years, in order to convey the whole essence of the game, a review of one simple and understandable word is enough: brilliant.

Precipitation

Architect Ethan Mars, after the death of his son, divorces his wife, quits his job, and for the second year in a row lives in a state of deep depression, trying to somehow improve his relationship with his second child, Sean. Ethan is tormented by ghosts of the past, memory lapses and nightmares, of which he remembers only rain and silhouettes of someone's bodies lying in the water. After another darkening, Mars wakes up on the roadway and discovers that Sean has disappeared. The next day, Ethan is given a shoebox, inside of which there are neat letters printed on colored origami paper strips folded in the shape of fancy animals and birds. detailed instructions about what needs to be done to save my son...

Meanwhile, along with Mars, the rest of the main characters of Heavy Rain are following in the footsteps of the kidnapper - a maniac whom the newspapers call Master Origami. FBI agent Norman Jaden works on official duty through the local police department; private detective Scott Shelby investigates the case of a previous kidnapping of a maniac and finds unexpected evidence; Finally, journalist Madison Page is collecting material for a book about the Origami Master and at first has no idea what she has gotten herself into.

The entire story of the hunt for a maniac takes five in-game days, each of which is divided into ten episodes. Heavy Rain has a fairly brisk and consistent timing, and the presentation is reminiscent of modern monumental series like “24 Hours.” The plot twists and turns like a forest path: the main characters wander among scenes and scenery from one key event to another, their paths converge several times, get lost, and then cross again in the most bizarre way in one of the episodes of the next day.

Theater

It’s very difficult to call Heavy Rain a “game” (as David Cage, the lead designer, screenwriter, director and, in general, the main ideologist of this whole difficult undertaking, once warned). But if we still describe it in terms that are familiar to us, then it is rather a very expensive and elegantly staged quest with a completely non-linear plot. The main narrative line is sketched out only in general terms: there is a maniac, there is a kidnapped boy, and there are a bunch of people who are trying to find them both in a limited time. As a player, you can influence both the course of the investigation (to a lesser extent) and the actions and fates of the central characters.

To understand the structure of Heavy Rain, it is better to try to imagine not even a movie, but a theater in which a protracted performance is staged, where in the same scenery the same actors play the same play... but each time according to a new script . The general direction of events is more or less monitored “from above,” periodically carefully directing insanely twisted storylines in the “right” direction, but the grand finale of the entire story, as well as the fate of the main characters, is completely in your hands.

In the first hours, the opportunities that open up cause sincere, incomparable delight, but, having delved into the system, you understand that, despite great amount alternative versions of events, in terms of the general structure and mechanics of the plot, Heavy Rain is still just a “very advanced” Fahrenheit. However, it is so “advanced” that there is nowhere to go further. Technical perfection, a well-thought-out story, and also exorbitant by the standards computer games the level of acting - all this leaves no time for petty geek quibbles.

Sleight of hand

Heavy Rain has one very important feature: you believe in this game in the same way as you believe in the plot of an interesting book or in the reality of a good movie. Moreover, such an amazing effect is achieved not only and not so much due to high-quality production, but for other, much deeper reasons.

The game is oversaturated with details, and compared to Fahrenheit, the level of interactivity of the scenery has risen to an unprecedented level high level. To put it very simply, the gameplay comes down to quickly pressing certain buttons at the moment when their image appears on the screen. However, the well-known types, shapes and combinations of quick time events are made in Heavy Rain at an incredible level of quality.

During some QTEs, you feel what is happening on the screen almost physically. Of course, you need to get used to the local controls, but after half an hour you will be amazed at how natural and simple everything is done.

It’s difficult to explain this in words: the sensations from some action scenes in the game are so natural that at some moments you begin to catch yourself thinking that calmness and composure are almost the most important components of the gameplay. What's especially nice is that the difficulty and frequency of QTEs can be changed at any time without leaving the game, so if the suspense level of Heavy Rain suddenly seems insufficient to you, just dig into the menu. On hardcore settings, the game does not allow second chances and requires incredible manual dexterity (for example, there is no name in human language for the figure that the author of these lines needed to twist his hands into in order to alternately pinch and hold eight the most unexpected gamepad buttons). And vice versa, at the lowest difficulty level, Heavy Rain can be easily mastered by even those who are infinitely far from video games.

Finally, now it’s not very common to write about graphics in games - it’s easier to refer to screenshots or videos, but in Heavy Rain the case is completely special. Until today, you definitely have not seen a more beautiful and technologically advanced game with such vividly drawn characters.

* * *

Heavy Rain is reminiscent of another important PS3 exclusive - Uncharted 2. Both games are clear representatives of the next generation of video games, prototypes, early casts of “interactive entertainment of the future.” And if Uncharted, for all its samovar brilliance and Hollywood scope, was still a game of an easily identifiable genre, then Heavy Rain in this sense is truly ahead of its time.

By and large, it doesn’t matter whether you’ve spent the last twenty years glued to the TV with a gamepad, or whether Heavy Rain is the reason to buy your first console: in both cases, this game will not lose its amazing ability to amaze. The impressions that will remain after two dense evenings watching TV will be enough for two dozen modern games, and you simply won’t find similar emotions and experiences anywhere.

TRANSLATION: As in the case of Uncharted 2, no budget was spared for the Russian localization of Heavy Rain: the quality of the final work, especially by the standards of the domestic game industry, is exorbitant. All the characters, even small children, are adequately and efficiently voiced; everything that happens looks like a perfectly dubbed blockbuster movie. Moreover, in the good tradition of all officially localized PS3 games, you can always switch the game on the fly from Russian to any other officially supported language (even non-obvious options: Russian subtitles + English soundtrack, German text + Polish voices, etc. ).

And although deep down the editors of Igromaniya understand that all this happiness became possible thanks to the gigantic amount of free space on the Blu-ray disc, we still will not tire of setting Sony’s serious approach to localization as an example to everyone else. After all, it turns out that you can still please literally everyone: from ordinary players to confused hardcore players with special linguistic deviations.

Game formula: 50% Fahrenheit + 30% quality thriller + 20% innovative QTE

Gameplay: 10

Graphic arts: 10

Sound and music: 10

Control: 9

Plot: 9

Stability: 9

Originality: 9

Grade: 10

Localization: 3/3

Applied QTE Master

The mechanics of Heavy Rain involve almost all types of quick time events known to science, which are presented using understandable symbolic language Episodes with fights are “classic” QTEs: be sure to press the right buttons... More intellectual activities (such as playing the piano) require simultaneously pressing two different keys within a second. In order to avoid cutting yourself when shaving, you need to move the gamepad very, very slowly in the direction the arrow points. But any decisive movement will require an equally decisive swing of the gamepad. Finally, real hardcore: pressing several buttons at the same time (often very unexpected ones!).

At the moment when the heroes of Heavy Rain make important decisions, their thoughts and desires immediately turn into words that start dancing wildly before your eyes. The main thing in such situations is, excuse me, to collect your thoughts and quickly make a decision. If you don’t have time, the game will automatically choose the objectively worst option.

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Plot

The game has a dark, complex, carefully crafted plot.

The game begins with an introduction where the player plays as Ethan Mars, whose life has been struck by tragedy: his 10-year-old son Jason separated from him while they were in a large department store, went outside and crossed the road to the other side. When his father finally found him, the boy ran to meet him, and at that moment a car rushed towards him. Ethan tries to save him, but everything ends unsuccessfully, and Jason dies, and Ethan himself falls into a coma for six months. Two years pass. Ethan blames himself for his son's death and is in a state of severe depression, which leads to his divorce from his wife and to the fact that his other son Sean, whom Ethan sees only on weekends, is completely disappointed in him. Since that day, Ethan has been tormented by fear of crowds and memory lapses that last for several hours. One day, Ethan receives a strange letter in the mail with a short text that tells about married couple, who, returning from church, did not find her children at home and could not find them anywhere. And some time later, when Ethan and Sean were walking in an amusement park, Ethan again experienced a blackout, and when he woke up, he discovered that Sean had disappeared.

The police conclude that Sean was kidnapped by the mysterious serial killer "The Origami Master". Origami killer), which appeared several years ago. His victims are young boys between the ages of 9 and 13. All the boys were abducted during the autumn rainy season, and their bodies were discovered a few days later. The cause of death for all was the same - non-violent drowning. An origami figurine was found in the hands of each victim, and an orchid lay on his chest. The time of death for all was somewhere around a few hours before discovery. The murdered boys have only one thing in common - they are all from poor neighborhoods and, in fact, no one needs them. FBI agent Norman Jayden, who was assigned to assist the police, believes that the presence of an orchid on the chest and the absence of physical violence (the victims were not beaten or stabbed) suggests that the killer clearly repents of his actions. Jayden also concludes that since the abductions took place during the rainy seasons, the children were clearly placed in a container that was flooded with water during heavy rainfall. This means they have less than three days to save Sean.

To escape the media, Ethan moves to live in a motel. In the envelope with that strange note, he finds a receipt from the locker at the local train station. Having arrived there and found the desired cell, Ethan finds a shoebox in it. The box contains a pistol, a cell phone and five origami figures. He finds a video on his phone in which Sean is in a hole with water covered with bars. The phone also contains a message - if Ethan wants to save his son, he must go through a series of difficult tests, instructions for which are written on the back of each of the figures. At the end of each test, he will find a small information card that must be inserted into the phone, after which a few letters of the name of the place where Sean is will appear on the screen. Meanwhile, the tests pose a real threat to life, associated with both enormous risk and physical violence (in one of the tests, Ethan has to cut off the phalanx of his little finger). Along the way, he meets a young girl, Madison Paige, who helps him recover both physically and emotionally. As feelings develop between them, Madison decides to help Ethan and begins her own investigation.

Meanwhile, Jayden and Lieutenant Carter Blake identify two suspects, but each time it turns out that they were mistaken. At the same time, Ethan's ex-wife contacts the police, who admits that after their divorce, she once met Ethan on the street, and he told her that he constantly sees boys drowning in water, and a few days after this meeting she was found another victim. This statement leads Blake and Jayden to Ethan's psychiatrist, who tells them about his memory loss, which began due to depression after the death of his son. Blake is firmly convinced that Ethan Mars is the “Origami Master.” Jaden, however, continues to study the collected facts, which makes him doubt Blake's version. They begin to track down Ethan, and the latter only manages to escape from them thanks to Madison's help.

Playing as the fourth character, Scott Shelby, a private detective hired by the parents of one of the murdered children, the player at one point begins playing as a fifth character, posing as the "Origami Master" as a child. At the age of ten, Scott Sheppard had trouble: he and his twin brother John were playing hide and seek at a construction site, and at some point John fell into a pipe in which there was a rapid stream of water. Scott could not pull him out alone and asked his father for help, but he was drunk and did not want to hear anything, which is why John drowned in front of his brother. After this, Scott's parents were deprived of parental rights, and the boy was sent to a foster family, where he changed from Scott Sheppard to Scott Shelby. Over the years, Shelby could not get rid of the thought that if it were not for their father’s carelessness, John would be alive now. Wanting to find out if there was such a father who would do anything to save his son, Shelby began to kidnap boys and send instructions to their fathers to pass tests (as one can judge from the plot of the game, Ethan Mars will become the first father who managed to save son, if he can do it). His job as a detective is just a cover because it allows him to discover and eliminate evidence that could identify him.

The game's ending centers on whether Ethan, Madison, and Jayden can find Sean in time to save him and at the same time establish that Scott Shelby is the "Origami Master." The final outcome of the final scenes depends on the decisions and actions the player has made throughout the game. Of the four characters, three can die in certain moments or fail in some way, which will either prevent them from getting to Sean in time before he drowns, or they won't be able to apprehend Shelby. The details of the epilogue also depend on which events were caused by which actions in storyline. If any of the three characters dies, the game will still continue, and his death also affects both the events of the game and the events of the epilogue.

Main characters

• Ethan Mars(English) Ethan Mars). He was portrayed (including voice acting and motion capture) by British actor Pascal Langdale. Pascal Langdale). The voice of Ethan in the Russian version was actor Ilya Isaev. Ethan is a talented architect who suffers from memory loss. He was by no means always like this: at the beginning of the game you will witness how a tragic accident destroyed his family. First, his eldest son Jason died, then his youngest son Sean was kidnapped by the “Origami Master”. Ethan will have to overcome the trials prepared for him by the killer in order to save his son. Because his son died, he has mental problems. He thinks that he is the origami master.

• Madison Page(English) Madison Paige). The heroine's appearance and movements were presented by model Jackie Ainsley. Jacqui Ainsley ), voiced the heroine Judy Bacher (eng. Judi Beecher ). Olga Zubkova became the voice of Madison in the Russian version. Madison makes her living taking photographs for glamor magazines. But her real passion is investigating murders. She meets Ethan completely by accident.

• Norman Jayden(English) Norman Jayden). The FBI agent was given his appearance by British actor Leon Ockenden. Leon Ockenden). The voice of Norman in the Russian version was Alexander Dzyuba. Norman Jaden is an FBI agent using a modern "augmented reality" system ARI for express analysis of evidence (obviously, it is taken from the movie “Minority Report”). Sent by the FBI to help the police catch the "Origami Master". Has a dependence on tryptocaine. He's the only one who didn't believe that Ethan was an origami master.

• Scott Shelby(English) Scott Shelby). The role was played by Sam Douglas. Sam Douglas ). The voice of Scott in the Russian version was actor Alexander Novikov. Scott is a private detective whose lively personality and quick speech are not spoiled even by asthma attacks. Hired by the parents of the murdered boys to find the "Origami Master".

Game process

The game has a unique control scheme. Trigger button game controller R2 allows the character to move forward. Uses analog button functions, allowing the player to control the character's movement speed by pressing the button hard or lightly. The left analog stick controls the movement of the character's head and the direction the character moves relative to the direction he is facing. David Cage explains that this allows the character's movement to be independent of the camera's perspective. All game process built around the use of a series of context-sensitive actions and Quick Time Events. Players can play out a character's thoughts by holding down the L2 button and pressing the corresponding buttons to make the character say or do what they are currently thinking about. These thoughts are sometimes vague, and choosing them at the wrong time affects the character's reaction, causing him to say or do something.

Action sequences where, for example, a character is attacked will play out as temporary events (example: Fahrenheit). The player is shown various symbols to indicate that they need to press certain buttons, move the right analog stick in a desired direction, or shake or tilt the controller. The correct execution of these commands affects the development of events that shape the course of the plot.

The game was also released in Platinum - version for Move.

Game development

Quantic Dream has begun work on Heavy Rain in February 2006. The project was announced at gaming exhibition 2006, where technology demo The Casting was presented to the media and the public.

Some game physics are available with support for PhysX technology from nVidia. Initially, it was planned to release two versions of the game for PC, designed for computers equipped with the appropriate physics processing unit, and for machines without this component. However, after the game was announced as a PlayStation 3 exclusive, development of these versions was discontinued.

In an interview with GameDaily.com, Quantic Dream co-president and executive producer Guillaume de Fondomier stated that the characters in Heavy Rain are played by real actors.

Poster The Origami Killer

Some time in early 2007 poster Heavy Rain appeared on Quantic Dream's website, which is currently under renovation. It showed an origami model called a "Spanish pajarita" (a pajarita is an ancient classical figurine that has become a symbol of origami in Spain), with blood dripping from one of the corners. The game's new subtitle has also been revealed. The Origami Killer, a list of (apparently virtual) actors (Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, Madison Page, Norman Jaden) and tagline: “How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?” (“How far would you go to save the one you love?”). It has been stated that all four of the "actors" (Mars, Shelby, Paige, Jaden) are playable characters.

Gamescom 2009

PS Move support

Soundtrack

Notes

1. Jim Sterling Sony announced that Heavy Rain will be released in Europe on February 24. gambling addiction(January 11, ). Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved January 15, 2010.
2. Heavy Rain is "interactive drama" - Sony. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2008.
3. Featured PhysX Titles. Nvidia. Archived from the original on March 16, 2012.
4. Heavy Rain Page. GamePro. Archived from the original on April 1, 2012. Retrieved August 22, 2008.
5. Heavy Rain
6. Inside the Story: Quantic Dream Interview
7. Preview- Heavy Rain - Bring on the storms, with David Cage’s new opus (English)
8. A Journey into Heavy Rain, Edge Link(2008-09-03). Retrieved October 21, 2008.
9. SCEE and Quantic Dream announce PS3 exclusive - Heavy Rain
10. ‘Heads-Up’ PlayStation Store Update (11th February 2010) - PlayStation.Blog.Europe
11. lenta.ru: “The addition to Heavy Rain will be released on April 1”
12. playground.ru: “Work on DLC for Heavy Rain is unlikely to continue”
13. HR will make friends with PS move
14. Heavy Rain will receive PlayStation Move support in September
15. Alexander Kuzmenko “Heavy Rain” // Gambling Light, No. 5 (20) 2010
16. Konstantin Govorun “Heavy Rain” // Country of Games, No. 4 2010
17. Igor Artyomov “Heavy Rain” // Absolute Games, February 21, 2010
18. Absolute TOP 2010. Heavy Rain.
19. Absolute TOP 2010. Voting main page.
20. Chris Roper "Heavy Rain" // IGN, February 10, 2010
21. Andy Burt “Hevy Rain” // GamePro, February 10, 2010

Who kidnaps his victims and drowns them in water when it rains. The interactivity of the game is limited - the player interacts with it by clicking on gamepad buttons corresponding to actions highlighted on the screen, or participating in Quick Time Event when you need to press the button shown on the screen as quickly as possible. The game's narrative is nonlinear and is influenced by the player's decisions; main characters may die, and certain actions may lead to different endings.

In an interview with GameDaily.com, Quantic Dream co-president and executive producer Guillaume de Fondomier stated that the characters in Heavy Rain are played by real actors.

Some time in early 2007 poster Heavy Rain appeared on Quantic Dream's website, which is currently under renovation. It showed an origami model called a "Spanish pajarita" (a pajarita is an ancient classical figurine that has become a symbol of origami in Spain), with blood dripping from one of the corners. The game's new subtitle has also been revealed. The Origami Killer, a list of (apparently virtual) actors (Ethan Mars, Scott Shelby, Madison Page, Norman Jaden) and tagline: “How far are you prepared to go to save someone you love?” (“How far would you go to save the one you love?”). It has been stated that all four of the "actors" (Mars, Shelby, Paige, Jaden) are playable characters.

Game developers - Quantic Dream- added support for a new controller to the game - PlayStation Move. With the addition of new controller support, the new boxed version of the game "Heavy Rain: Move Editon" also added "45 minutes additional video content" that you won't have if you just update old version