Episode 111 - The Pizza Choice - Heavy Rain

If you’re looking for rain, dead bodies and podcasts, you came to the right place. Welcome to Mystery May! This time we’re starting with an arguably pretty contentious (or at the very least pretentious) title in Heavy Rain, a game developed by Quantic Dream. Heavy Rain is essentially an adventure game that is loaded to the brim with quick time events and branching narrative paths. Say what you will about the core engagement present here, but a lot of the story elements are pretty intelligently designed with paths branching and reconvening convincingly around a mystery that actually pulls off its twist elegantly. Other elements of the game don’t age quite as well, with stiff animations and a voice cast that fluctuates wildly between solid performances and laughably inconsistent ones. For these reasons mostly, this is a game we recommend enjoying (responsibly) with a few beers by your side or at least a couple of friends. We’re going to be talking about what the game gains by treating one of its characters mostly as a mechanical punching bag, how QTEs play out as the primary mechanical interaction and when it feels appropriate, and we debate the appropriate time to describe something as “in shambles.” I realize this is the second episode we released this month, but just bear with me. Or pretend that Dragon Age is more mysterious than it probably actually is. Either way, thank you for joining us for our most unlikely of continuing traditions. Did the mystery land with you in this game? Were you able to look past the gameplay itself to find something enjoyable underneath like we did, or does David Cage’s name equate itself to poison in your mind? Let us know in the comments or over on Discord! And if you thought QTEs were a dated mechanic, we invite you to brace yourself, because next time we’re going to be talk about the most classic of point and click adventure games: Grim Fandango! We hope you’ll dust out your A drives and plug in the PS/2 connector of your IBM Model M keyboards for it.