Exceptionally Jovial Entertainment

(I’m helping a site with some reviews, so I’ll be occasionally posting some of my work here as well)

If you’ve ever picked up a game (and dollars to doughnuts you have, since you’re reading this) you’ve probably encountered a cutscene.  It may have made you laugh, cry, or curse the designers who never programmed a button to let you skip them.  Much like gasoline or the Federal Budget, in the wrong hands cutscenes are dangerous.

As our ability to create more complex games progresses, some have proposed that cutscenes be eliminated completely.  They feel the medium should take the approach of games like Half Life, allowing you full control while carefully laying out how and when information is presented to you.  One proponent of this point of view is Steven Spielberg, who has often complained that cutscenes are intrusive and occasionally forgotten as soon as gameplay returns.  On the opposite end of the spectrum is Hideo Kojima, who wants to be a director like Steven Spielberg (see Metal Gear Solid 4).  Others have tried to mesh the cutscene with gameplay, creating a result known as a Quick Time Event.   Today’s game, Heavy Rain, is the result of such a union.

Those unfamiliar with the plot, Heavy Rain presents you with a cast of characters that you guide, all bent on stopping the serial killer known as the “Origami Killer.”  Not far into the fray, the player is given control of a private investigator by the name of Scott Shelby.  The man seems the quintessential PI, decked out in a trench coat like a middle-aged Sam Spade.  All impressions of a hard-boiled PI are gone the moment Shelby approaches a dumpster partially blocking an alley:  you have to play a Quick Time Event to squeeze the pudgy Shelby past.

I can appreciate the attempts to involve the player instead of making them a bystander, but events such as this quickly cross the line from “I’m really making a difference here” to “Oh dear, I’m in control of a moron.”  Soon after the ‘Dumpster Squeeze,’ Shelby finds himself in a shoddy apartment complex hallway, the victim of a nasty asthma attack. The game takes a sadistic turn and Shelby suddenly forgets how to deal with the attack.  You have to first search his pockets to find where his inhaler is hidden, pull it out, shake it, and finally use it.  I admit, this could have been my fault – I just came from a Quick Time Event fight where I didn’t fare too well.   Perhaps due to my poor performance, my character suffered blunt trauma to the head and was unable to remember anything about his inhaler without my help.

Yeah, I don’t believe that either.

Soon after, we’re put into the shoes of Norman Jayden, an FBI agent with an impressive arsenal of high tech tools at his disposal.  The game gets interesting here, giving you a glove and sunglasses combo that allow you to track anything and everything in a crime scene – DNA, footprints, chemical residues, the works.  While tracking some abnormal scents, I found a hill that was apparently the egress for the murderer.  On that hill, I found another Quick Time Event.  Or should I say series of QTEs, which I had to run through in order to make it to the top.  This I don’t mind, because this is a steep muddy hill in the middle of *groan* heavy rain.  However, I was incredibly annoyed to find that after I investigated the top of the hill, I was expected to perform more QTEs to make it back down the hill.

This is the point where I consider that the game designers truly hate me.

What really concerns me is I’ve felt this same type of frustration before when playing a game.  It’s the same feeling I got when playing one of the early King’s/Police/Whatever Quest games where I have to actually type in my actions.  Some of those puzzles were stressful merely because of poor word choices.  I would keep typing something like “grab squid” when I was supposed to be typing “obtain cephalopod.”  At this point I’m not fighting something in the game; I’m fighting the game designers.

Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of redeeming qualities to this game.  Dialogue options are plentiful, and can take the game down very different paths.  During an interrogation with the police regarding a missing child, your character is given several options for clothes descriptions, time last seen, and so forth.  From everything I’ve witnessed; each choice can have a significant impact on the story.  Don’t fret if this sounds intimidating – any wrong choice often results in a chance to correct it shortly thereafter.  Sure, your characters may be a bit jelly brained (and if you’ve ever enjoyed a character in a Final Fantasy game, you probably won’t mind your Heavy Rain cast) but they exist in a very detailed, fleshed out world and tell a very engrossing tale.