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Is "Heavy Rain" the first real video game for grown-ups? Brett McCallon makes the case ...

Special to MORE INTELLIGENT LIFE

"Heavy Rain", a game that was released for Sony's Playstation 3 console earlier this year, is not a game at all. Its creator, a French former musician named David Cage, refers to it as an "interactive movie", ideally one that will point the way to a better future for gamers and gaming. "I often say that buying 'Heavy Rain' is a political act," Cage said in an interview with Eurogamer. "It's a way of voting. Vote for what you want this industry to be in the coming years. Do you want it to be just trolls and goblins and zombies? Then don't buy it."

This self-serving declaration contains a measure of truth. The surest route to success in the industry is in creating games that ape popular franchises. Instead, Cage has spent years developing a deeply personal, uniquely implemented and sometimes extremely frustrating vision that is quite unlike anything else on the market.

It was a significant risk, for both Cage and Sony, the game's publisher. But given the rapturous reviews and solid sales his game has received, perhaps the near-term future of "interactive movies" is ensured. A better question is: should anyone care? Does "Heavy Rain" herald the future of "mature" gaming, or is it simply an interesting oddity?

"Mature" content in video games tends to be the racy stuff deemed inappropriate for minors (think the dead prostitutes and cops in "Grand Theft Auto"), not the details necessary for telling nuanced stories to adults. But while no one will mistake its writing for "The Wire", "Heavy Rain" manages a rare feat, combining a compelling narrative with substantive gameplay and empathetic characters.

Experienced gamers will notice a difference in "Heavy Rain" the moment they pick up the controller. Most games share a common "language" in terms of which buttons do what; eg, a certain button almost always allows characters to interact with the environment, and moving the right stick almost always changes the camera angle. Gamers tend to take such things for granted, just as filmgoers instinctively understand the grammar of wide, tracking and close-up shots.

"Heavy Rain" requires players to learn entirely new routines for everything, including basic character movement, and pairs these odd controls with unfamiliar actions. At first, this choice seems perverse—why make even experienced players uncomfortable with the control scheme? Many tasks, especially at the game's start, are quite run-of-the-mill. For example, in the game's opening moments, players control a thirty-something man named Ethan as he gets out of bed, takes a shower, dresses, goes downstairs, gets a cup of coffee, puts out the plates for his son's birthday party, and roughhouses with his children in the back yard.

In a film, we would simply watch him do these things. Actually, in most films such mundane details would simply be glossed over. But in "Heavy Rain", players are required to participate. For example, when placing plates on the table, one must move the right stick in specified patterns at a slow, methodical pace dictated by onscreen prompts. Move too quickly and Ethan smacks the plates on the table, earning a gentle reprimand from his wife. "Heavy Rain" uses these activities to set a mood and create bonds between players and characters. After all, if we're privy to the intimate details of Ethan's home life, we become more engaged with him when that world begins falling apart.

In fact, players can begin to see the fruits of this approach by the game's second scene. Ethan buys his son Jason a balloon, only to have the boy wander off as Ethan (and players) fumbles in his pockets to find the money to pay for it. Moving frantically through the crowd, Ethan's mind is overwhelmed by emotions, represented in a cloud of jittery words above his head. If players find the one useful thought "balloon" amid the chaos, they can push the corresponding button, and the effect is a good imitation of achieving clarity in the midst of panic. The scene has a tragic end, and players can't help but share Ethan's agony. I challenge any parent to play this segment without feeling a tinge of real fear.

Unfortunately the game's action-heavy sequences leave a lot to be desired. The most eventful scenes consist of pre-scripted situations in which players are expected to execute specific actions when prompts appear on the screen. All of this makes "Heavy Rain" less "fun" than other games, which offer players plenty of very powerful tools for eliminating opposition (the gun-mounted chainsaw from the "Gears of War" series comes to mind). Yet players can also aid the characters' attempts to deal with adversity, which makes aspects of these scenes feel more involved. Players are, like the characters they control, surprised and confused by the need to react in unaccustomed ways to surprising situations. Diving out of the way of a speeding car, fending off the blows of an attacker—there's tension and reward in reacting quickly in order to survive.

Though the game's third-act revelations are rather ham-fistedly conveyed, and some of the lines (delivered by talented but decidedly European actors in their best American accents) would be at home in a soap opera, "Heavy Rain" more than makes up for this. This is the first big-budget game of this console generation that challenges players to live the lives of ordinary, nearly powerless people, struggling to make the best of an awful and very human situation.

(Brett McCallon is a writer based in New Orleans who often writes about gaming for More Intelligent Life.)