Poll: Heavy Rain, a gaming masterpiece?

[SimuLord]

^This.

Never before in my life has a game made me feel so many things at the same time. It's like the best movie ever!

That's what I don't like about this. "Best Movie Ever". This isn't a game, it's an interactive movie, and that make it a failure as a game. It may have a great story, but it's trying to remove itself from the very thing that makes games unique.

I bet that if the same sort of thing was tried in any other medium, we'd burn it at the stake. A movie that plays like a book, or a book that reads like a bunch of pictures? No thank you.

"A book that reads like a bunch of pictures"? Nobody complains about this when Frank Miller or Stan Lee do it...

 

[The Heik]

^This.

Never before in my life has a game made me feel so many things at the same time. It's like the best movie ever!

That's what I don't like about this. "Best Movie Ever". This isn't a game, it's an interactive movie, and that make it a failure as a game. It may have a great story, but it's trying to remove itself from the very thing that makes games unique.

I bet that if the same sort of thing was tried in any other medium, we'd burn it at the stake. A movie that plays like a book, or a book that reads like a bunch of pictures? No thank you.

"A book that reads like a bunch of pictures"? Nobody complains about this when Frank Miller or Stan Lee do it...

Ah, but Frank Miller and Stan Lee used words in their works, hence the pictures are merely used to help the story. A book made only of pictures doesn't really get a story across.

 

[G-Force]

Here's a question then, how do you define a game. In Heavy Rain you can loose and it does take skill in order to achieve the ending thus "winning" it.

 

[Gethsemani_v1legacy]

"Not for everyone" Is a terrible excuse for any flaws a game has.

Which is not what I am saying either and I think you realize that too. Heavy Rain has its' share of flaws, as any game does. What I am saying is that Heavy Rain is also a game that catters to a specific category of gamers, just like grand strategy, mechanics heavy rpgs and Demons' Soul.
Not liking Heavy Rain doesn't have to be more complex than not caring for what it is trying to do, kind of like how I don't like Final Fantasy because I don't like JRPGs. Just because you don't like it, it doesn't become less of a game.

 

[Citrus]

I appreciate what it tried to do, but for a game so heavy on plot and characters, the storyline is pretty shoddy and the voice-acting can drift into some pretty bad territory (those kids in the construction yard... ugh). Also, the uncanny valley has quite a presence.

There were some great moments, though, and many aspects of the game were executed very well (the music, some of the more intense situations, and some of the graphics are fantastic). I guess, in the end, the game just suffered from putting heavy emphasis on factors that just weren't strong enough to support it.

 

[twasdfzxcv]

Saying heavy rain is a game is like saying China is a communist country. It can call itself whatever it wants and it still wouldn't change the fact that it's just a choose-your-own-adventure movie with one ending, and a mediocre one at best.

 

[O277]

It was, OK...

When I first started it was like "ZoMG!" Once you get to the end it was like "Hmmm, meh..."

I hope they continue with the style of game though and make more, should make for some interesting future games

 

[Valkyira]

I admit it was very fun and legitimately upsetting at times. But it has a lot of problems. I don't usually get put off a game because of minor flaws. But there were so many plotholes that I couldn't take it seriously.

So very good, original game. Yes. Gaming masterpiece, no.

My opinion, I welcome constructive criticism but I'm not trying to start an argument.

 

[Dana22]

Truly a interactive movie masterpiece.

 

[crazyjay321]

Heavy Rain is alot more original than this thread.

 

[Master Kuja]

Don't own a PS3 but I've played it at the behest of a friend.

My verdict? Piss poor as an actual game, but great as a story/film.

 

[Kurokami]

After playing through Heavy Rain my first time I realised that it is arguably my favorite game of all time.It's the first game ever to make me feel so many emotions. I felt everything from pity and anxiety to sadness and shame. These are normally negative emotions but Heavy Rain pulled them off so perfectly not to mention all those emotions take place in the controlled enviroment of a video game. I really, sincerely felt all these emotions for the characters throughout the whole game. On several occasions it even made me question my morals and even myself. Yes, it hit me that deeply.

In conclusion, Heavy Rain, while not perfect, is truly a gaming masterpiece IMO. They took everything that made Indigo Prophecy good and refined it all into something nearly perfect. Heavy Rain nearly redefines "video game". So if you have a PS3 and a spare $60, got get Heavy Rain now, you must save ingenuity in gaming such as this before it goes extinct. Before it all gets lost amongst the monotony of the mindless FPS genre

I've played it and felt it to be a very round and about way of telling a story, so far I haven't seen anything amazing, it doesn't look like any choices I've made have made ANY significant change to anything at all, and the whole quicktime sequence idea is so incredibly naggy that it feels like someone constantly trying to get your attention while you're watching a movie that tries hard to be intense.

This having been one of the few games I've actually spent money on, not to mention traded in a few loved games for, I would love for you to tell me when it actually drew that step for you into amazing.

So my take on the game so far: Predictable and shallow characters, lack of real choices and... I don't know, the game doesn't really have that much going for it for me to criticize. I'll say that from a visual perspective however, its often (note: not always) very beautiful.

Oh the loading times seem somewhat unjustified to me.

In any case, please tell me, in a spoiler perhaps, when the game really started getting intense in the way of choices.

I'll get right on that as soon as you tell me how to make a spoiler box (seriously). BTW where are you in the game right now?

Put in [ spoiler]message [/spoiler] takeaway the space, possibly spoil instead of spoiler.

As far as I remember... (haven't touched the PS3 in like a week)

Spoiler

I just had that rich guy confess to being the origami killer (I assume falsely for whatever reason, otherwise that's the one point of finishing the game I had maintained gone) and then getting his arse kicked by the chubby private detective, also did the test with the glass and electrical wires with the main character and... yeah I think that's about it.

If you still have problems with spoilers you can just quote me and it'll show you exactly how to do it.

 

[IamQ]

I wouldn't call it a master peice, but it's a game in a good direction.

We need more games like this. I see this game as a first game in a franchise, only that this particular genre is the franchise. The more games of this kind that get made, the more refined this franchise will get.

 

[GAME OV3R]

nothing that revolves around quick time events could be a masterpiece. it's just a glorified version of guitar hero.
would've been better as just a movie

 

[THEMILKMAN]

I figured out since you're not there yet that I don't even need a spoiler box but thanks for telling me how to make one anyway.

Although I felt that the game was pretty intense from the start, I felt it really picked up at the 3rd of Ethan's trials (the one you just described is the 2nd). That's when I felt that many of the choices became more extreme.

Also, I don't know if you're a parent or not, but having those paternal instincts gets you much more involved into the game as well. I'm not a parent myself but I did take care of a younger sibling like their parent for many years so I like to feel I have those paternal instincts. That makes it much more possible to relate to Ethan and make the game much more personal and immersive.

 

[THEMILKMAN]

After playing through Heavy Rain my first time I realised that it is arguably my favorite game of all time.It's the first game ever to make me feel so many emotions. I felt everything from pity and anxiety to sadness and shame. These are normally negative emotions but Heavy Rain pulled them off so perfectly not to mention all those emotions take place in the controlled enviroment of a video game. I really, sincerely felt all these emotions for the characters throughout the whole game. On several occasions it even made me question my morals and even myself. Yes, it hit me that deeply.

In conclusion, Heavy Rain, while not perfect, is truly a gaming masterpiece IMO. They took everything that made Indigo Prophecy good and refined it all into something nearly perfect. Heavy Rain nearly redefines "video game". So if you have a PS3 and a spare $60, got get Heavy Rain now, you must save ingenuity in gaming such as this before it goes extinct. Before it all gets lost amongst the monotony of the mindless FPS genre

I've played it and felt it to be a very round and about way of telling a story, so far I haven't seen anything amazing, it doesn't look like any choices I've made have made ANY significant change to anything at all, and the whole quicktime sequence idea is so incredibly naggy that it feels like someone constantly trying to get your attention while you're watching a movie that tries hard to be intense.

This having been one of the few games I've actually spent money on, not to mention traded in a few loved games for, I would love for you to tell me when it actually drew that step for you into amazing.

So my take on the game so far: Predictable and shallow characters, lack of real choices and... I don't know, the game doesn't really have that much going for it for me to criticize. I'll say that from a visual perspective however, its often (note: not always) very beautiful.

Oh the loading times seem somewhat unjustified to me.

In any case, please tell me, in a spoiler perhaps, when the game really started getting intense in the way of choices.

I'll get right on that as soon as you tell me how to make a spoiler box (seriously). BTW where are you in the game right now?

Put in [ spoiler]message [/spoiler] takeaway the space, possibly spoil instead of spoiler.

As far as I remember... (haven't touched the PS3 in like a week)

Spoiler

I just had that rich guy confess to being the origami killer (I assume falsely for whatever reason, otherwise that's the one point of finishing the game I had maintained gone) and then getting his arse kicked by the chubby private detective, also did the test with the glass and electrical wires with the main character and... yeah I think that's about it.

If you still have problems with spoilers you can just quote me and it'll show you exactly how to do it.

I figured out since you're not there yet that I don't even need a spoiler box but thanks for telling me how to make one anyway.

Although I felt that the game was pretty intense from the start, I felt it really picked up at the 3rd of Ethan's trials (the one you just described is the 2nd). That's when I felt that many of the choices became more extreme.

Also, I don't know if you're a parent or not, but having those paternal instincts gets you much more involved into the game as well. I'm not a parent myself but I did take care of a younger sibling like their parent for many years so I like to feel I have those paternal instincts. That makes it much more possible to relate to Ethan and make the game much more personal and immersive.

(sorry, my comp tarded out when I tried to quote you the first time)

 

[sephiroth1991]

I still got to rent it.