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Editor's note (to self): Play Heavy Rain alone. Sounds uncomfortable with an audience. -Demian
Ever since I first heard about Heavy Rain, it hasn’t done much to hold my interest. The medium could use more mature storytelling, but what I saw of Heavy Rain up to its release seemed to interpret mature as language, blood, and boobs. Also, I hate quick-time events. I hate quick-time events a lot.
So, Heavy Rain was set to come and go without making much of an impact on me. Then my boyfriend, fellow Bitmob member Will Harrison, got a Gamefly account. His copy arrived, and for the next week I spent every evening watching him play.
Overall, it was a very uneven experience. For every genuinely compelling moment, there was a glaring plot hole or laughable characterization. Every time I became engrossed in the story, the bad voice acting or stereotyped characters pulled me out.
Now that I’ve witnessed the whole game and many of its various endings, I really don’t know how to feel about it.
But I am sure of one thing: I hate Madison Paige.
I could go on for quite awhile about Madison Paige, Heavy Rain’s female journalist who takes off her clothes within the first several moments you encounter her. Wait no, that’s wrong. She doesn’t take off her clothes, the gamer takes off her clothes using contextual controls.
But that’s all right, because the undressing is necessary to the development of her character. You see, Madison is an insomniac, and she thinks that taking a shower might help her sleep. Insomnia must be a truly horrific condition if it would drive Madison to such an extreme as taking a shower. Truly, if I hadn’t watched my boyfriend undress her, Madison’s psychological agony would have felt hollow and meaningless.
Perhaps I’m a bit harsh, but it was impossible from the outset for me to take Madison seriously. As soon as the shower event began, Will rushed through the scene without looking at me. (He knows how much gratuitous female nudity in video games annoys me.) It would seem the moment was over when Madison stepped out of the shower. But no, it wasn’t. Will had to towel Madison off by shaking the controller up and down. By then I was gaping at the TV, not so much offended as blown away by the shamelessness of the scene. Will hesitated before proceeding, then said, “Um, hey you can do this part if you want.”
By that point we burst out laughing. It was such a ridiculous way to introduce us to Madison as a believable character that we couldn’t help it. Later, Will would get three more chances to undress Madison as I watched, but by then we weren’t surprised anymore. That’s sad, considering that Heavy Rain was supposed to change the way we view video game narratives. Maybe next time guys.