Totally Submerged

I had another subject in mind to write about, but I just finished Heavy Rain on the PS3, which is just about the most original video game I have ever played. I know I'm coming very late to the party here, but I had to get this down here.

This game is, in essence, an updated, WAY more hardcore/mature kind of Choose Your Own Adventure book, in which decisions are often made on the fly and ultimately affect the outcome of the game. Your mission? Find the Origami Killer, who kidnaps boys and imprisons them beneath the raining sky, where they are doomed to drown as the water rises, unless someone can rescue them. You play as four characters: Norman Jayden, an FBI agent with an addiction problem; Ethan Mars, a shut-in whose son's life is on the line; Madison Paige, an insomniac journalist who aids Mars in his frantic search; and Scott Shelby, a P.I. investigating the Origami Killer on behalf of the victims' families.

As you guide the actions of these characters, almost every choice makes a difference. You can interact with their environment through button prompts that appear on the screen. Timing and smart decisions are usually the difference between life and death - each of these characters have multiple brushes with death which require you to have not only good reflexes, but also good instincts.

I spent most of the game with a death-grip on the controller, swearing repeatedly at the screen - not in frustration, but because I was totally caught up in the atmosphere of the game. As you can probably tell from earlier (and likely future) posts, I'm a huge fan of Alfred Hitchcock movies. As such, the noir-esque feeling of doom and gloom coupled with the Bernard Herrmann-like music that swells whenever something has the potential to go horribly wrong was immensely appealing to me.

When I picked this game off the rack, I didn't know much about it and thought for sure it would be a shooter. I suck at shooters - I always have, since I have such crappy aim, and prefer to do my video game fighting hand-to-hand - right in the bad guy's face with a sword, thank you very much. I'm also not a big fan of blood and gore, though I've seen enough horror movies to dull the effect somewhat. Turns out the amount of blood and gore is largely controlled by the player, and two of the grossest things to happen (at least in my version of the story) were choices I could make. I went for one - with my eyes closed - and refused the other.

Considering I had so little time to get to know the characters before I was making decisions for them, I became quite attached to them and cared about what became of them. I think that helped me manage to have four characters alive by the end of the game. Since the game saves itself almost immediately after an important decision is made, there's often no time to think, and a gut feeling is usually all you have to go on. Let's just say I'm glad my instincts were reliable - though now I want to play the whole thing again making the opposite decisions to see how wrong things can go.

It's really hard to say anything more about this game without giving away all the twists - which are, of course, likely the biggest appeal to any mystery/noir fan. So I'm going to clam up now, and advise you to go out and get this game - if you haven't already - because it's one of the best things I've gotten for just $15.