Having played Heavy Rain for the second time now, however, I can see (even more so now) how these repetitive actions are there to add context to situations and build things up, giving you an insight into the normal lives of the characters while developing relationships between them before throwing a curveball in to send you reeling. At times, this can slow things down to a snail’s pace when you just want to move on and unravel the next piece of the mystery.
Whether you’re opening the fridge, brushing your teeth or rocking a baby to sleep, there’s a specific action for it that you have to replicate on the DS4. It could be argued that Heavy Rain takes things a bit too far with its intense levels of interaction, which can occasionally border on the mundane. In the various guises of a victim’s father, a detective, a member of the FBI, and a chronic insomniac, you’re essentially tasked with piecing together the clues by interacting with almost everything you encounter, and then responding like your life depends on it to the scripted, intense and dramatic QTEs that can kick in at a moment’s notice, and often involve violent clashes. Heavy Rain is essentially an interactive adventure with a chunk of the gameplay involving quick-time-events (QTEs) where players have to respond quickly to the corresponding signals on screen, twisting and shaking the DualShock 4 (DS4) controller, or manipulating the right thumbstick in the prompted directions.
Like any stereotypical movie serial killer, the ‘Origami Killer’ also likes to leave clues to tease the police and Ethan, which sends the narrative spinning off in a surprisingly twisted direction. When the investigation kicks off proper, you discover that the killer places an origami animal in the hands of its victims, covers their faces in mud and leaves an orchid lying on their chest. It doesn’t get any cheerier either, especially when there’s life and death choices within your hands. It’s as dark as it sounds, with the heart-breaking story of one of the main characters, Ethan Mars, kicking off the misery with a lengthy prologue that sees him lose one child in a car crash, and then have the other one kidnapped. Taking place from the viewpoint of four different playable characters, there’s a serial killer kidnapping young children, drowning them in rainwater and then dumping their bodies near to rail-tracks. Having already reviewed Heavy Rain on PS3, I’m not going to go too much over old ground here – this is essentially just a better looking version of exactly the same game – but it is worth reminding new players, or those who wish to revisit the serial killer flick, what all the fuss was about.
For that reason alone, Heavy Rain is worth revisiting, and even more of a treat for those who have yet to sample its grisly delights.
With the resolution pushed up from 720p to 1080p, the mo-cap work is taken to new heights with stunning facial animations that are eerily life-like, while improvements to shadow and lighting effects increases the visual impact of environments to make the deathly journey even more intense, gripping and scarily real than before.
In the PS4 remastered version of Heavy Rain, which can be bought separately or as part of a collection with Quantic’s other moody interactive adventure, Beyond: Two Souls, the narrative and general gameplay remains untouched, yet the PS4 shines a new light on the award-winning drama by managing to make it look even better than it did first time around no small feat when Heavy Rain was considered to be one of the best-looking titles on PS3.