Returning to Heavy Rain

by Greg Miller - IGN.com | 20 May 2010 12:00
 
What Quantic Dream can do with DLC to bring us back.
 
Two months ago, Heavy Rain Chronicles: Episode One – The Taxidermist popped up on the PlayStation Network and gave us a brief chapter to keep the Heavy Rain saga going. It was the same unique control scheme that had you holding buttons to lift windows and swiveling the joystick to open doors, but it wasn't super-long and the voice of Madison Paige wasn't spot-on.
 
Still, we want more.
 
Yes, the Taxidermist came out a month after the retail game did, and we're ready for more. What's going on with Ethan? Can we answer some of the game's lingering questions? Give us answers, Quantic Dream. Rather than sit here and just patiently wait for something to come to the PlayStation Store, we thought we'd list a few things we want out of the next episode – if that's ever even coming.
 
Hope you're listening, Quantic Dream…

Need to see why Heavy Rain needs answers? Watch the Spoiler Room.

A few editors have gone on the record about being in love with Madison Paige before, so we were pumped when the first Heavy Rain episode starred our lady. However, it wasn't long before we noticed two glaring errors – one, players couldn't make love to Madison, and two, there wasn't one Trophy to be found in the whole download. As we move forward with Heavy Rain DLC, we need to make sure that Trophies are included from the get-go. Yes, the Taxidermist was actually a bit old and used to demonstrate Heavy Rain long before its release so that's probably why there wasn't a bronze trinket in the bunch, but your free pass is over, Quantic Dream. We want more episodes, and we want to get rewarded for playing them.
 

OK. For real, we loved Heavy Rain. Great game, but what the hell is going on with some of the title's plot holes? Why is Ethan blacking out and waking up with origami figures in his hand? Is he making them himself? Is the killer out there giving them to him? Is the killer following Ethan around just waiting for him to black out so that the bad guy can snatch his son? These issues are the main ammunition people use when they want to attack Heavy Rain – and DLC could give us something to fight back with. If Quantic Dream could put together an Ethan episode that covers what happens when he blacks out, we could put some of the glaring issues that haunt this game to bed. You don't have to beat us over the head with answers, but a simple flashback in an episode would set things right.
 

The coolest part of the Taxidermist DLC? All the awesome deaths. After playing Heavy Rain over and over again, we kind of had this idea that Madison was invincible. The only time she died in the original game was when we wanted her to – when we were trying to do something specifically. In the Taxidermist, Madison was getting killed left and right without our say so. Chainsaws, getting dragged back to the house, and so on – it was awesome and that's without mentioning the body in the killer's bathtub and horrific collection he had upstairs. We need more of that in future downloadable episodes. Keep players on their toes, keep us entertained, and keep the shock and awe at every turn.
 

Keep us on our toes.

After playing though Heavy Rain a few times, you got used to the way the game was framed and the way it looked on your screen – that's why the Taxidermist was visually exciting. The screen was set up at times so that you could see Madison desperately trying to hide in one part of the house while the killer slowly stalked her in a completely different section of the building. It was refreshing, it was exciting, and it hooked us. Too often, DLC feels like it was just churned out in the same mold as the game it's accompanying. Little stuff like these camera angles and the way the action was framed made the Taxidermist feel fresh. Let's have more of that.
 

The Taxidermist was fun, but it was a tad short even if you went back and tried to get each of the DLC's five endings. Worse, Madison's voice wasn't right – it was recorded before the full game was, so it's not the same as what we know. No matter who the next episode follows – Jayden, Scott, Ethan or so on – let's make it feel true to the character. Nail the voices, motivations and vibe of each of these people. Let's switch locations, tell a story, and give gamers something to come back and play through again and again thanks to branching paths, different endings, and so on.

---

What do you think? Did you play the first Heavy Rain episode? What would you want in future installments? Sound off in the comments below and let us know.
 
Supplied by IGN.com