Heavy Rain is an extremely important game; it’s also a very divisive one that will spark arguments akin to the days of playground fights over whether Mario or Sonic was best. You see, calling Heavy Rain a game is a difficult one. Nor is it quite a film considering its interactive element, although it certainly tries the hardest I’ve ever seen a game try in its effort to be cinematic. It’s best to consider Heavy Rain as an interactive experience. One that will reside in your consciousness for a long time to come, assuming you allow it to that is.
Set in an unnamed American city, Heavy Rain focuses on the lives of four characters whose lives are intertwined through their search for a serial killer named the Origami Killer. Notably, unlike many other games, all the characters are rather flawed. There’s Ethan Mars, a man wracked by guilt and grief after the death of his son in a car accident, Madison Paige an insomniac journalist, Norman Jayden a drug addicted FBI agent and Scott Shelby an asthmatic private detective. Crucially it makes each of the characters more human and simpler to relate to. These aren’t gung ho action heroes like we’ve seen so many times before; they’re all vulnerable souls and much more indicative of ‘real’ people.
