by Jason L Blair
Those who only view footage of Heavy Rain or whose button presses are laden with skepticism may well file away game developer Quantic Dream’s latest release as nothing more than a pretender to the Dragon’s Lair throne. Anyone who plays the PlayStation 3ñexclusive though will find little beyond superficial connection to Don Bluth’s old-school animation sewing kit. Where Dragon Lair’s control prompts were little more than thread tying together sequences of canned animation, Heavy Rain differentiates itself with lots of innovative ways players control the characters, and the game controls the players in turn. In a postñGod of War world bursting at the seams with Quick Time Events and treasure chests vulnerable only to relentless button mashing, Heavy Rain’s simple button prompt mechanics can be misleading. It is not a glorified DVD game nor is it strictly an interactive cut scene. It is a new breed of media that will, if you’re a willing subject, engage you harder than any video game ever has before. Yes, even BioShock.
But I’m not here to review Heavy Rain. I’m here to study it. As a student of story, I am interested in all forms (and most theories) of narrative, particularly the sticky in-between places where story attaches to character and character to observer or, in this game, participant.
// Read this one.
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