![]() Predictable genre elements do not have to be a killer in games. The plot that results, moreover, depends on many characters acting against their own self-interest. ![]() They're stock bits, and the fact that they come from the vocabulary of movies rather than the vocabulary of games does not make them any less predictable. The killer who cannot resist laying out puzzles for his victims' families. ![]() But there it draws on a large pool of existing cliches. Heavy Rain does daringly strike out from the range of genres that video games typically cover: instead of space warfare or car racing or fantasy heroism, we have a thriller about a serial killer. It's too bad, then, that the story just isn't very good. The cinematic aspects are beautiful, the split screen moments much more effective than I would ever have expected, the graphics superb. ![]() Personally, though, I would have been happy to forgive Heavy Rain its defects as a game in deference to its strengths as story and interactive movie. All too often I felt like I was handling a character with a degenerative nerve disorder, nobly struggling with the quotidian trials of brushing teeth and drinking orange juice. Plenty has already been written about Heavy Rain's defects as a game: the tiresomeness of the Quick Time Events, the fact that characters often walk back and forth in front of their own refrigerators in confusion, the inconsistent controls. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |