I am not a fan of console wars, a great is a great game & it really should not matter what console it's on. Over the years I have bought quite of few game consoles & all of them had something great to offer. That all being said I did & still do have a tendency to favor my XBOX 360 over my Playstation 3, generally because for me I feel there were more games I liked on the XBOX 360 & loved the user interface.
The Playstation 3 has a lot to offer in terms of design; it features an in built Blu-ray drive, there is no traditional drive tray instead it just sucks in the games, the dual shock controller feels really light & comes with a charging cable & it sounds silly but I am going to say it any way I like the sound it makes when you power on the console.
The Playstation 3 boasts many great titles & I wanted to take some time out to recognise & talk about them. As normal I have picked three titles that really stood out for me.
I want start the review by saying this game is amazing! I am not a big hype fan & for me I thought the game could not live up to what others had told me about it - it did. Quantic Dream the developers of the title focus on three key things essential to any truly great video game; story, visuals & gameplay.
The story focuses on four main characters: Ethan - a family man, Scott - a private investigator, Norman - a FBI profiler & Madison - a journalist. While their backgrounds are very different they all have one thing in common, The Origami Killer. While all four characters have a key role to play Ethan's is probably the largest due to very early on one of his children being kidnapped. With such a rich story I can't afford to say more without spoiling it for you, for those of you who have already played it you know what I mean.
The name Heavy Rain is not just a good title but also a big feature of the game, the rain effects look great & help add to the bleakness of the story. One of the first places you get to see is Ethan's house. It may sound strange but it feels like you're actually in someones house. Often with games there is the world & the story, while they are two separate components they are always intertwined. For me the better the game the harder it is to distinguish one from the other. Whether you are inside or outside the world you are in always feels organic & really adds depth to the game, this is something Quantic Dream do very well.
The music used is perfect & adds another layer to an already rich game. Often it lingers in the background subtle & unintrusive while other times it is intense & abrasive. I regularly found myself moved from a state of calm to an almost white knuckle panic, by doing this the game teaches you never to be complacent & ever ready for what might come next.
The gameplay is interesting as no matter what your play style is normally Heavy Rain forces you to adopt a new one. Every place you are in holds importance & every action helps drives the story even if it is only in a minor way. An example of this is when you are in Ethan's House & your wife asks you to get plates out for dinner. You have to go the cupboard, open the door, grab the plates & put them out. If you don't do this quick enough you get told off for it. This happened to me as I took too long to help out as I was putting some music & got a little too distracted. This is something that regularly happens in the game & with so many choices you won't get the chance to see & hear every outcome on your first play-through. Sometimes you are required to make a decision & you get little time to think about, this is not only punctuated by the music but also by the floating options that circle the character in question. This can cause you to make decisions that given more time you may not have chosen. This adds a pressure & realism to the gameplay that really keeps you focused.
It is very difficult to find a flaw with this game & if I was forced to mention one I would say
that simple actions like opening or closing cupboards for example can feel overly complicated in regards to the analogue controls. With the exception of the minor issue the game is fantastic & I am really looking forward to playing the remastered edition on Playstation 4. If you have a Playstation 3 or 4 I would highly recommend purchasing a copy of this game, you wont regret it.
You might be thinking why did he pick another game from Quantic Dream? Well multiple reasons but there are few key titles I missed out on & still need to play, namely; Uncharted & Killzone. Had I played through these my selection could have been different. This game was highly underrated & while it is not as good as Heavy Rain it is like trying to compare Chinese Food & Pizza - both tasty & satisfying but in very different ways.
You take control of Jodie (played by Ellen Page) a young girl with a special friend named Aiden, he is an entity connected to her since birth. She possesses supernatural & psychic abilities that allow her to manipulate objects, communicate with Aiden & do much more. Her father figure in the game is
Dr Dawkins (played by Willem Dafoe) a researcher at the Department of Paranormal Activity. Even more so that Heavy Rain the game focuses on story so to save on spoilers I won't say anymore.
Visually the game is very different to Heavy Rain (see Chinese Food & Pizza). The earlier parts of the game features a research facility which looks futuristic & cool! Other areas include Africa, a military base & one of my favorite sections of the game which sees Jodie homeless. I know what you are thinking, how can someone being homeless good? It's not that it is good but the story, visuals & characters are so well done that part really stuck with me.
The music used in the game is deep & often feels very somber. The sound reminds me of something you would hear in a film rather than a game but this I feel was purposefully done as the game is more story driven than a lot of others. What this means is that you take more time to listen & watch than focus on movement.
For some critics I know they felt the gameplay was an issue as it often feels like you are part of an interactive story rather than a game. While that is a slight over simplification I liked the direction & is the same reason I really enjoyed Tell Tale's The Walking Dead (Can't wait for Season 3!). Playing as Jodie was great but I really liked playing as Aiden as it was a lot of fun manipulating objects in the game, throwing stuff around & sometimes doing it for no other reason than to scare people (muwhahahha!). Games evolve & change just like the music that is in them & while the play style is different I don't think it is bad thing & is a welcome change. I also really respect that Quantic Dream were willing to try & do something different especially with a triple A title. For a lot of companies out there it is less about taking risks & more about just rinsing & repeating what came before sticking a new number on the box.
While the game may have it's flaws including dialogue that sometimes feels a little clunky & some control issues, I enjoyed the experience & I know I will play the game in the future. If you never played it because of the bad things you heard about it I would say to you march down to your local game shop & pick up a copy & try it for yourself.
I am not sure I can say anything about this game that has not already been said, being honest there is probably not a single Playstation 3 owner that has not played this title. Naughty Dog has come a long way from Crash Bandicoot & if you have told me back then they would or could create a game of this caliber I would have called you a liar - I am sorry to the fictional person I never said that too.
Outbreaks make for a great back drop for a story, I think the big reason for this is that if we were going to be brought to the brink of destruction in today's world it would be most likely from a virus or a crazy fungus. You play as Joel a loving father just trying to escape for a crazy fungus out break with your daughter. As bad as things are they get worse for Joel who loses his daughter. Years on you see him working as a smuggler & through a turn of events you find your self helping to smuggle a girl called Ellie to a rebel group called the Fireflies. Sounds simple enough until you find out Ellie is infected by the virus & might be key to curing it. That's your lot, that is all I am telling you.
Visually the game looks amazing, when I say this I mean post apocalyptic & grim. There are old failed check points that litter the world showing the devastation the virus caused. In some areas it feels like nature is starting to reclaim the world & presents you with some visual delights. There is an area later in the game covered with snow that just looks beautiful & stunning. When it comes to visuals this game does not disappoint.
In terms of music in the game it is used sparingly, while this may sound like a bad thing it is not. If you ask most people what sound they remember hearing from the game they will mention the guitar solos, somber, poignant & more than that very fitting. It help captures the world Joel, Ellie & the others live in; scattered, broken & isolated.
The gameplay is really fun to play, lack of ammo & a constant worrying that using a gun may attract others to you make you rely on other tactics. The key one is take downs & using a shiv to stab those annoying fungus guys in the head or just regular crazy people. Often it was not essential to kill everyone & everything in sight, survival is key so avoiding conflict can be advantageous. I doubt I am the only one that feels this way but there is section where you play as Ellie & to me it is almost the best section of the game. I can't say too much on the off chance you have not played it or don't want to remember, what I will say is; snow, lots of crazy guys, creepy old guy, diner.
There is a multiplayer aspect to the game but it did not really do anything for me. This is not that surprising as for me games are more about the single player experience, that is not say I don't occasionally enjoy playing with others but for me I play games for me.
I had a few minor issues like sometimes when you were with people & they ran in front of patrols & were not seen but if you looked in the wrong direction you would get seen. The take down ability you get for the fungus head guys never really worked very well. There are a few characters I was not too keen on but being honest I think most of that was done on purpose. This being said the game was really great & well deserving of the praise it received. I can't wait to get the Playstation 4 to play the remastered edition.
The end has come again of another console/game review. There are so many great games on this console, some of which I still have to play, below is a short list of those games:
Uncharted 1-3
Killzone 1-3
Journey
Time Crisis 4
Little Big Planet (may not be great but a lot of fun)
Next up, the Nintendo 3DS!
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