Now that Heavy Rain has been completed, it looks like I have a week before I start getting hit with the Final Fantasy, God of War, Dawn of War platter. To be honest I still don't know what to think of my experience playing through the game, made even harder to convey without spoiling anything. I will say this - I turned the difficulty to Easy around the doctor sequence. I wanted my choices to dictate the story, not a missed press of the X button.
If I am to look at Heavy Rain as a movie, I think it would not be believable at all, mainly due to how elaborate things are set up throughout the game. I did enjoy 'playing' through it, but the desire to play through again to see different paths just isn't there for me. I also think that the story, while having a few points that you can heavily influence, still is focused enough that I can easily imagine what would happen if I made X decision instead of Y.
Even though I am really not a fan of quicktime events, I would say that overall the game was a success. While it was cumbersome at points (sometimes on purpose, sometimes not) it was rarely a mystery as to what was needing to be done. It also refrained from the 'you missed one press and now you lose' for the most part, at least giving you 2-3 fails in a scene before you are screwed. I did get my slip for the free download of the first add-on story, so hopefully they keep building onto the foundation with some good additional content.
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New Dragon Age: The Veilguard Trial with EA Play
3 weeks ago
You left off Dragon Age: Origins - Awakening. Dude. Madness.
ReplyDeleteWord up @ turning the difficulty down. After playing through Indigo Prophecy a few times, I wasn't even about to fuck with the QTE Funhouse that Heavy Rain is.
I also applaud you for making sure to position your first block in the building of your 'this is not a $60 game' fortress. To be fair, I don't think any game should be $60, let alone $50, $40, or even $30, so in a way, I agree with your inevitable position, if not necessarily your logic. Oh, and I haven't even finished it yet, so SUCK IT.
-Blaine
Nice write up man. I'm about half way through the game, and I like it thus far. I agree with you on the whole QTE thing, but QD did a pretty clever job with the motion control actions. I'm really excited to see where they take this, seeing as they have a created a viable platform for episodic content.
ReplyDeleteBlaine - Well you know this falls into my whole 'if there is no multi, and the game is only 10 hours long, why on earth should I buy it for $60?' thing, and Heavy Rain is much more akin to a $20-30 Blu-Ray movie/season than a $60 Mass Effect 2.
ReplyDeleteJon - Thanks for commenting! The motion controls were ok, but I liked the 'fling sideways' much more than the 'shake up and down,' which tended to just annoy me. Also, the 'hold X but character is shaking' and the 'tap X' are way too similar. It wasn't enough to turn me off, and it worked more than it was broken, so I am really looking forward to see how long the $5 episodes are. If they are an hour or two each and well written I will certainly be getting each one. A game like this will go only as far as its writing can carry it.