Heavy Rain first impressions

In the hunt for the mysterious Origami Killer in Heavy Rain on PlayStation 3, every mistake counts.

Meet Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler leading the investigation into the search for the mysterious Origami Killer in Quantic Dream's PlayStation 3 thriller, Heavy Rain. Determined, extremely clever and a little stubborn, Jayden also harbours a secret: an addiction to Triptocaine. He struggles with this weakness over the course of his perilous investigation that takes him at one point in the winding story to a washed out and muddy junkyard run by Mad Jack, a hulking mound of muscle and attitude who may or may not hold some clues as to the whereabouts of the elusive killer in the game.

Crime scene investigation

In Heavy Rain, players take control of four different characters, each with their own attributes that can play a part in solving puzzles and completing certain objectives. Jayden's keen detective prowess is enhanced by the addition of Added Reality Interface (ARI) glasses, which allow him to analyze a crime scene in unheard of detail.

When players equip the glasses, the perspective shifts, and every single shred of evidence from fingerprints, to blood droplets and tyre tracks are highlighted for you to investigate and catalogue. Developed by the Pentagon, these glasses are your most important tool in your search for the Origami Killer when controlling Jayden.

With so many ways in which a scene can unfold in Heavy Rain, the results are based entirely upon the kind of evidence you spot on your examination of a room or location, so it pays to spend time scrutinizing every nook and cranny in order to find the most important pieces of data that can make your job a lot easier. If you fail to spot crucial evidence, you may not be able to solve certain aspects of the crime, but this doesn't mean you fail the game, it just leaves certain pieces of the puzzle unsolved.

One of the most intriguing aspects of Heavy Rain is that characters you control can in fact die, yet the story itself continues on in their absence. For example, in this scene in the junkyard, Jayden can be killed on three or four occasions, with the final outcome of the game being affected by his death at the hands of any of the nefarious characters you meet.

With or without you

Mad Jack is one such character who poses a formidable threat as you search his yard for evidence of a car linked to the killings. When he does attack, the pace instantly shifts as you try to avoid his brutal attacks following the on screen button prompts. From avoiding swipes with a steel pole, to dodging punches and kicks, players must react fast to stay alive. Once you've slammed Jack to the ground, you can interrogate him using a number of different tactics that are available to you such as threatening to burn the place by shooting the barrels of gasoline in the garage, or firing a round off close to his head to scare him into talking. It works, until Jack then gets the better of you.

The action then shifts pace as you come to, handcuffed to the steering wheel of your car, dangling over a crusher staring death right in the eye. To escape you must follow the quick-firing prompts to kick open the car's glove compartment and shimmy a gun on the dashboard, allowing you to shoot the chains on the cuffs and free yourself. Then it's a scramble to get out of the car as Mad Jack lowers you to into the gnashing steel and titanium teeth.

Once outside, the fight continues as you battle Jack in the muddy sludge and soaking rain performing evasive moves and counter-attacks, finally taking him down as he's trapped and crushed under the tracks of the crane he used to lower you into the crusher.

Of course, you may not make it this far if you're not fast enough. In fact, you may not even make it out of the garage if Jack catches you off guard at the outset of the scene and executes you in cold blood. This is what makes Heavy Rain such a truly unique experience for players. Whether you live to see the end credits or die because of a foolish mistake, the story goes on and the world in which Heavy Rain inhabits continues to function. In this city, no one is safe. Not even you.