heavy rain game review

TEST HEAVY RAIN: THE CULT GAME OF DAVID CAGE FINALLY ON PC, ALWAYS ALSO ESSENTIAL?

Playing Heavy Rain in 4K and at 60 frames per second, without even having to own a console, you can't help it! The arrival of David Cage's title on PC is good news for everyone. Pure PCists and some Xbox players can finally catch up, while fans of the PlayStation brand have the opportunity to (re) discover the most beautiful version of the game to date. In addition, the adventure retains all its qualities in terms of atmosphere and scenic connections. We still regret the absence of downloadable content "The Taxidermist" released in 2010 on PS3, a camera and trips that are struggling to work well together, and QTE not always very interesting. Generally speaking, and this is hardly surprising, the game is somewhat over the years, whether in terms of content or form. We are now eagerly awaiting Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human, which are newer and therefore potentially more interesting.

MOST

Heavy Rain in 4k and 60 FPS, we say yes!

A real PC version (graphics options, mouse, etc.)

All heroes can die

Many different endings

Classic but effective scenario

THE LESSERS

The game has aged in nine years

Bad camera and movement

Some unnecessary QTE

DLC "The taxidermist" absent

Exclusive to Epic Store, so no success

THE TEST

Linked to Sony for twelve years, the French studio Quantic Dream recently gained independence from the Japanese manufacturer and joined forces with the Chinese company NetEase. For players, this new partnership essentially means that David Cage's games will now be cross-platform. The good news is that this ecumenism also concerns the old productions of the studio. Thus, in the coming weeks we will be entitled in particular to PC versions of Beyond: Two Souls and Detroit: Become Human. And today, Heavy Rain opens the ball!

Heavy Rain Before returning to the adventure itself, let's look at the specifics of this PC port. First, it takes advantage of the power of computers to be able to shoot in 4K and 60 frames per second, which neither the PS3 version nor the PS4 version allowed. The game also offers a multitude of graphic options (quality of textures, details of the decorations, quality of the shadows, anti-aliasing, ambient occlusion, quality of the reflections…), so that everyone can find the best compromise according to the power of his machine. Do not panic, for most players it will be possible to push everything to the bottom. So we are simply entitled to the most beautiful version of Heavy Rain that has ever seen the light of day. But make no mistake, we are not dealing with a remake, or even a remaster. Originally released in 2010, the game was not really born from the last rain and, despite the various graphic improvements, it shows. The facial animations that impressed at the time became much more banal, while the modeling and the animations of the bodies took a good old look. Nothing catastrophic, but their rigidity and the clumsiness of certain interactions can lessen the emotional aspect of certain scenes.

Originally thought for the PS3 controller and its Sixaxis motion recognition system, the gameplay has been reworked to be able to suit standard controllers (including those from the Xbox ecosystem), for example by replacing the shaking the joystick by shaking the right stick. The keyboard / mouse pair was not left out either, the QTEs being achievable thanks to the ZQSD keys and mouse clicks and movements. The game has the good taste to switch instantly between the display of joystick or keyboard / mouse commands as soon as one of the two types of controllers is touched. In any case, the camera and movement system is far from ideal. Because the camera angles imposed by the game, associated with an absolute rather than relative displacement system, lead to the famous problem of "I enter a room by pushing the stick in a given direction, the camera angle changes and .. . I come out of the room involuntarily ". We thought the concerns of this kind resolved since the first Resident Evil ... Bad point also regarding the absence of downloadable content "The Taxidermist", released nine years ago on PS3 but not found in this PC version. Fortunately, its lifespan does not exceed half an hour, it is a relatively anecdotal DLC. In the category of the little details that make you happy, we can however mention the possibility of finely personalizing the linguistic experience, since the languages used by the audio, the subtitles and the menus, can be configured independently of each other (forward for VOST!). Finally, this PC version is released exclusively on the Epic Games Store, and is therefore deprived of a Steam success system, while there were fifty-seven trophies to unlock on the PS3 version. It may seem anecdotal, but in a branching game, success is a significant motivation to test the different paths.

Because from this point of view, Heavy Rain has lost none of its strength. With seventeen different endings, and some sequences that change completely according to past events, the game has all the advantages of an interactive film, in the good sense of the word. Besides, the modern thriller vibe is largely inspired by cinema, with Seven in mind. Recall that the story features a serial killer who kidnaps children, lets them drown in rainwater, and stages their corpses, placing an origami in their hand and an orchid on their chest. The scenario is very classic, with the little twist that goes well, but its effectiveness is undeniable. The production also borrows from the seventh art, since it does not hesitate to use cinematographic angles and split-screen effects. The player's involvement is reinforced by the possibility of alternating play of four different characters, who each have their motivations for taking an interest in hunting serial killers: Scott Shelby is a private detective, Ethan Mars is the father of one of the abducted children, Madison Paige is a journalist, and Norman Jayden is an FBI agent. The latter offers us an additional touch of gameplay, because his virtual reality glasses allow him to discover clues to crime scenes and then analyze them in a virtual office with the most beautiful effect. For the rest, it's very simple: almost everything is done through QTE! You can occasionally choose between two options of action or dialogue, but most of the gameplay uses the famous (and often decried) "quick time events".

PRESS X TO SHAUN

With Heavy Rain, Quantic Dream took the concept to the extreme, trying somehow to match the movements of the controller to those of the characters, and especially by applying them to anything and everything. If this system makes it possible to offer finely choreographed combat sequences (thanks to the motion capture), it seems superfluous at many times. Was it really essential to impose QTEs to open cupboards, wash hands, cook an egg, or change a baby's diaper? On the other hand, we can salute the game for the audacity of possible branches, since all the main characters are likely to die at one time or another, which explains in particular the high number of different endings. And these deaths may as well be due to a bad decision (it's a good war) or a failed QTE (there it is immediately more questionable). In the end, this PC version comes a little too late to establish itself as a must, because we have seen many other games of the same genre since 2010, including the many Telltale productions. But his presence remains welcome, if only to enrich the gaming culture of PCists!