Editor’s note:This review was written by Michael Wolf, future game designer and student at Full Sail University. Videogames are an art to Michael. He thinks they play such an important role in the entertainment industry that he must be a larger part of it. Michael highly enjoys writing game stories and reviewing other games as learning experiences and to help others determine the right games for themselves. He is also very highly educated and experienced in the telecommunications and retail industries as he has spent the majority of his professional life between sales, management and technical levels of this field. Michael currently is the senior smartphone specialist for Wireless, a Verizon Wireless Premium Retailer. His heart goes into everything that he does, and he is excited to become a large part of this growing industry.

Over the years, I have lead myself to believe every game should have a standout story. Most games these days are shadowing some sort of hero along his journey to fix all the wrong in the world or to save a person in trouble. Heavy Rain, developed by Quantic Dream, stands out of this mixture by removing itself and creating a great story that revolves in its own world that does not focus on the traditional hero storyline.

Heavy Rain is loosely set in a fictitious East Coast city. Although the actual game setting is never mentioned throughout the game, a lot of the artistic views used are loosely based on various settings in Philadelphia. The story of Heavy Rain does not focus on one character but several, switching lead characters every time a new chapter in the story is reached. This constant change brings the player into the game, giving them a feeling for each person’s reason to be involved.

Heavy Rain is an Interactive drama or thriller that takes place in a city where a killer, known as the Origami Killer, uses the endless rainfall as the murder weapon to his victims. The game places you in control of four different people (Ethan, Norman, Madison and Scott) who all have a different reason of catching this psychopath.

The game begins by placing you in control of Ethan in his home as he is just waking up. To get you familiar with the unique control scheme, you assist Ethan in doing basic things like getting out of bed, getting a shower, brushing his teeth and playing with the birds. Once this is done, you lead Ethan downstairs, which is where you begin learning about his character and background.

The gameplay in Heavy Rain is extremely basic by being fairly linear throughout the course of the game. The basic controls lend a helping hand here by having the player control everything using various button presses or controller movements. As an example, the player could use the left joystick to move to the left and then up to open the drivers side car door, which the game assists you by giving you on-screen gestures to tell you how. Although, it becomes faster and more difficult as the game moves on to create a difficulty. Heavy Rain is very much like a full-length cutscene that has you along for the ride behind the wheel.

With Heavy Rain having such a linear approach to the gameplay, it was very possible to make sure from a design perspective the graphics and sound were dead on. The graphics are among the best I have seen in the industry, and the drab sound and music make the suspense work really well. The designers were able to make sure all of the attention to detail was spent in all of the right places to make this game an authentic experience.

One of the best additions Heavy Rain has is a multiple ending sequence. Creating these ending changes is based on various choices you make in the game. For instance, if you get into a fight with someone and lose the fight causing your death, you do not get a game over status, but it does end the life of that individual. The story of Heavy Rain becomes altered due to various choices you have made, which presents us with a possibility of 22 different endings. Not all of the endings are happy endings, but I will not ruin any for you; go play the game.

Even when I speak very highly of Heavy Rain, it is not without issues. Heavy Rain focuses highly on the sense of feel and being dramatic by giving you an absolutely beautiful presentation of both visual and audio glory, but this falls short when some obvious mistakes pass through. The voice acting is very good for most of the game, but every so often, you will catch a few hiccups that do not match the qualities of others. That, with a few cases of low-resolution items in a few background scenes, does not change the output of this game at all; it just became noticeable because the game is so highly focused on these elements.

Videogames are purely for having fun, and in this regard Heavy Rain will give you that 22 times over. This game had me on the edge of my seat from the minute the main plot began. Heavy Rain is a complete success at trying something different, and this all works because the story is amazing enough to capture you from beginning to end. The game does start slow to introduce you to the cast, but it picks up fast when the final plot starts. This game is enjoyable and one I would recommend to anyone. If you own a PlayStation 3 and have not played Heavy Rain, then go play it right now. If you do not own a PlayStation 3, well ... you just found a reason to go buy one.