Heavy Rain: The Next Step to Emotional Gaming

While many people still can't get a hold on what Heavy Rain truly is (including me), from the trailers we've seen and the previews we've read from sites such as IGN, we still can’t really figure out Heavy Rain's potential. Will it change how stories are presented to us? Will it make us so emotionally attached that we will react to things the characters feel? Will it be the next step forward to emotional gaming?

I for one would love to play a game that made me feel what the characters felt. It would be a whole new experience to the world of gaming and one I would never forget. I would love to sit down and play a game that felt real and emotionally driven, a game that presented an amazing story with characters I would feel attached to and felt what they felt, while making decisions that would change the way the story turned out and how things came together differently through each decision you made during the course of the game.

All we have in most games nowadays is a simple story, without much thought or emotions put into it. You play a character you verily know and never really understand their purpose or reason for being there. The stories have no depth to them. It’s like eating a pie, but without the pumpkin mix and whip cream, just the pie crust. You never really feel anything toward the character, you just know you have to kill a bunch of bad guys or beat some people in a race, but what if there was more? What if you weren’t just some dude who has nothing better to do than kill some people or win a race just for money?

I want to remember the stories of games I play and think about them on random occasions just because the story was that good and had characters that touched my heart, but most games (like Modern Warfare 2, Resident Evil 5, Killzone 2, and ect.) just don’t have anything close to that and I tend to forget them. I’ve played lots of games, but only a few really have been kind of close to what I’ve described. Only Games like Metal Gear Solid 4, Uncharted, Uncharted 2, Heavenly Sword, and Ratchet &Clank Future: A Crack in Time has had an impact on me, but they’ve only touched on what emotional gaming could be. There’s much more that gaming can bring us and I can’t wait to enjoy games like that, in the years to come.

While I believe Heavy Rain will defiantly be the next step toward emotional gaming, I think it’ll only touch on what the future holds, I just hope more game developers try something like Heavy Rain, so that there will be more games like it. It’s almost untouched in the world of gaming and it defiantly could bring some amazing stories for us to enjoy. I’m sure I’ll be getting Heavy Rain as soon as it comes out or soon after and enjoy it immensely for its story and characters.

Quote: “One second… the blinking of an eye… a breathe… enough to change the course of a life… we only know how much we love someone, when we know what were willing sacrifice… I never asked myself that kind of question… Without knowing why, without asking how far I was willing to go for love… sometimes it’s better not to know…” –Heavy Rain

Reader Questions: Do you think you’ll be buying Heavy Rain (why or why not)? What games has had the most impact on you with its story and characters? Would you like more emotional games? How far will you go to save someone you love?

[I_LOVE_MYSELF]

Good blog :)

Now I am NOT going to be buying this game. Well if it turns out to be amazing then of course I will, but at this point in time I dont see what the fuss is about. The main reason I am not excited for this game is because it just looks lackluster in terms of actual gameplay.

Now theres a lot of great games around the corner, and so little money. Honestly I dont see why this game deserves my attention when theres games coming out where I have enjoyed the previous installments. God of War 3, BFBC2 and Final Fantasy 13 are all franchises that I know I enjoy. Putting my faith into a title like Heavy Rain is a lot harder to do.

[thor]

Heavy Rain doesn't have "waves of enemies". Nearly every other game is a variant on the arcade game format where you take out hordes of demons/soldiers/spaceships/mon sters and try and beat your high score. This is effectively what you would refer to as "gameplay".

I doubt the main component of Heavy Rain will be you sneaking around with a pistol taking out guards. For one thing, in Heavy Rain, you are meant to deal with the consequences of your actions - killing a man has repercussions. Heavy Rain is trying to be an interactive movie. How many movies have been turned into gamaes, where whilst the main component of the movie is dialogue and scripted "boss" battles, the game itself features nothing more than a few cutscenes between hours of shooting at random henchmen?

Heavy Rain, like a film, will feature plenty of (interactive) dialogue, plenty of variety in its (interactive) action scenes and plenty of variety in the actions that you can perform. What makes it different from QTE is that you are making a choice each time. It's not just success or failure.

So if you keep thinking that some miracle "gameplay" will appear for Heavy Rain, set sail for dissapointment. It's not going to feature waves of enemies, a racetrack where you can improve your time, or high score leaderboards. It's an interactive story. Not a game that happens to have a story.