Heavy Thoughts Reign

I finally finished Heavy Rain – and it was simply astonishing! I might have a serious spoiler issue, but I will not tell you, who the killer is, so don’t worry about that while reading this article.

Ethan Mars is the father of Shaun, who gets kidnapped by the Origami Killer and locked up in a well. Before that his oldest son Jason gets killed in a car accident, for which he, of course, blames himself. I assume that as the reason for his blackouts (his brains can’t cope with some situations and deserts him) and neurosis. Not long after suffering from the loss he then receives instructions to save his son, but these contain not only information about the whereabouts but also orders which wished to be fulfilled. For every succeeded trial Ethan earns some numbers and letters, so after all of the five trials he should have gathered enough for an address to find the well. These trials however are truly to die for: Soaring with the first trial, a simple “Find the car and drive five miles on the wrong side”, across “Cut your finger if you want to see your son” and concludes in “Are you prepared to give your life for the retrieval of your son?”, it’s getting worse and worse to even play. I remember it clearly how I gathered the saw, the scissor, an heated iron stick, a butcher knife, etc., placed them on the table und tried to calm Ethan down, before trying and then actually cutting the pinky – I never felt this way in a game. It was gross and absolutely morbid, but on the other side it had to be, it was for Shaun. Ethans screams made the digital man even more pitiful and … I raised my hands and stared at my TV, because I couldn’t believe what I just did. Later, during the same scene with Blu I couldn’t stand to watch and begged to finish it as soon as possible.

Madison Paige is a journalist, successful or not is not mentioned in the game and so is the fact of her interest in Ethan: In my story she didn’t know that he could be the Origami Killer until the very last moment, so she was not only with him for a story, but Blu discovered the origami figure in his jacket early on. Well, matter of fact is, that she tried her best to get Ethan cured, fed, warned and sexually provided (Madison = Medicine, phonetically very similar). She tries, using her very own methods, to find the one who is putting Ethan in such dangerous situations, like one time she called someone who could give her data about a doctor or even found Paco. Another way to interpret her effort is the reason that Madison suffers from insomnia and needs something to render her time useful. And to be blatantly fair, Ethan is not the only one with Saw-events, just one advice folks: When approaching the doctor, please be careful. You can save your life, literally her life, with listening to some of your mothers advices.


Scott Shelby is a detective, who tries to narrow the Origami Killer down, but as he is a man who represents the law, one side or the other, I never thought about his motives about finding the killer. Very late in the game we learn that his reasons are not justice solely, but that Scotts mentally involvement is due to a pitiful experience in his past. Absolutely breathtaking, I guarantee you. There is this one part, close to the (at least some of them) ending, where the detective shows his gun skills and where I thought “Nah, BÄM! That is what I call Heavy Rain.” Not only that, but since I liked the synchronization of that person the most, he evolved into my favorite character. At the very end he then shone extremely well, having a firm and strong tone, but also keeping a little bit craziness and somehow the speaker managed to put a crack in the voice to show Scotts mentally illness. Absolutely breathtaking, I swear it.


Norman Jayden is an agent from the FBI and is mentioning that fact very well and almost every time you play him. What makes him so cool is ARI. Although I don’t know what ARI stands for it is pretty amazing (.) in laying all the important information out so that any guy could solve the puzzle (with little brains). With ARI everything seems easy: Get to the crime scene, put it on, see anything abnormal, have ARI run over it, get an explanation for everything, put it on a map and see where it is leading you to. But it is essential for solving the murders, since the Origami Killer makes no mistakes. Playing Jayden does not mean spending the hours with ARI only, there is more to it. Unfortunately Blake, a lieutenant from the local police and something like the counterpart of Norman, a guy who loves to jump to conclusions, is mobbing the FBI agent and is putting him under a lot of pressure. To make things worse Jayden is addicted to some kind of drug. Until now there is not much known about it or how he became addicted, but it does play a serious role later on (might be good thinking to know, that some drugs can kill you).


Heavy Rain has a total of 18 different endings, depending on your choices throughout the game and all of them are worth the hours, I swear and guarantee that.

Heavy Thoughts Reign

Now almost half way through, at least that is what I guess, Blu finally rescheduled everything and even abandoned his last bit of social life (neither meeting a friend for playing an exclusive PS3-Game nor talking with the Pizza Guy does count as ‘social interaction’ if you ask me), just to get his own impression of Heavy Rain. Kind as I am I let him play until he catches up to me, and also hope he’s not choosing the same decisions I did.

In most cases seeing the complete first half of the game again would mean a boring stand-by session, since you are familiar with the majority of scenes and sometimes even know a part of the catchphrases, but this is Heavy Rain we’re talking about, or rather I am writing about. Not long after the prologue Blu walked down a different path than I did by striking his own judgments, leading to completely different sequences with different contents. Still, the story goes on the same way, but with a diverse background story, since, for starters, he killed the religious guy and I did not. Therefore has his Jayden way more pricks of conscience, which could drive him into problem with another situation in the future. At a party, trying to find Gordi I used Lauren as distraction while Blu baited two guys to a clash in front of the bodyguards. Both lead to the same conclusion, but one route means a meaningful use of Lauren and the other one declining her help, which could help getting rid of her.

Bringing another change in point of views is Blus perception of game viewing, as he is a future game designer he knows exactly how hard animations of various settings are and helps me understand, that his future life is covered in hard work, producer orders and almost no social life at work (excluding the already mentioned points). It is very interesting to see, how quantic dreams worked with the not-so-important-stuff like using the same models in the mall and at the press conference or just letting Ethan cover his hand, when trying to unfold a dollar out of his pocket, since the trouser pocket is just a texture.

As the night goes on and sky grows darker, my PS3-System seems to try to test our patience. More and more glitches, bugs (at one point we tried to find Shaun but he disappeared and was nowhere to be found, so we had to reboot the System or the one time we had two people walking through each other) and/or freezes (which also had us reboot the system, hinder our journey through Heavy Rain). None the less he managed to catch up to my save file, which was somewhere between 3 or 4 am. Maybe it’s easier to say, it was the time I fell asleep. Let’s see how long it’ll take him to finish his very own Heavy Rain.

Heavy Rain

or Heavy Thoughts Reign
For everybody who wants to play Heavy Rain but didn’t have the opportunity yet, and for Blu, I recommend the little ‘X’-Button on the far right top of the screen, as the ongoing review-category ‘Heavy Thoughts Rein’ may contain a serious amount of spoilers – intended or not.

There are just a few games I buy for the full price but after playing the demo with Blu at the gamescom I was dead sure about owning this game – and now I know: It was worth it.

First of all I want to start with the graphics: The setting is very dismal and gloomy, the kind of dull you never want to experience, but it is also crucial for carrying the vibe and delivering a sad tone. In every spoken or thought line wavers the oppressive feeling that you could be too late or could die at any given second. I am not quite sure whether my TV is just too bad at showing that sort of color or the little disturbance of showing colors is meant to be, but I am willing to face it as an important way of getting the player into the right mood. It is just that kind of game, which drags you emotionally all the way down and never lets you rest, until you know what’s behind the next scene.

So, that’s it for my first impression, from here on I want to begin with my ‘Heavy Thoughts Reign’.

Today I started playing seriously and encountered all four main characters, but just wait, we’ll get there soon enough. The prologue and all other chapters with Ethan are simply astonishing because you, as the player, as the one navigating Ethan, not just one bystander or a simple viewer, you really feel like you lost everything, struggling to keep the last piece of relationship you have. Knowing that there will be nothing left when losing the tiny straw as only option leading away from your miserable life, you come back to consciousness, alone in a lonely street, with an origami figure in a tight grip.

That game-movie is totally variegated, but killer-grey yet.