Board 8 > Rate the VG Story Day 217: Heavy Rain

(+) Yeah! (+)

In keeping with yesterday, todays game is Heavy Rain. How would you rate the story on a scale from 1-10?

You can still rate previous days games if you missed them, just write <game name><rating>. If you want to change your rating you can just specify that you are changing your rating. Nominations for future days are also welcome, nominate as many games as you like and I will get to all of them.

Previous Results:
Planescape: Torment - 9.85 (13 votes)
Clannad - 9.75 (4 votes)
Omori - 9.67 (6 votes)
Outer Wilds - 9.61 (22 votes)
Silent Hill 2 - 9.5 (20 votes)
Higurashi When They Cry - 9.5 (9 votes)
Deus Ex - 9.32 (12 votes)
428: Shibuya Scramble - 9.27 (9 votes)
Nier Automata - 9.25 (31 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky SC - 9.2 (20 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Trials and Tribulations - 9.19 (35 votes)
Last Window: The Secret of Cape West - 9.15 (10 votes)
13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim - 9.1 (14 votes)
The House in Fata Morgana - 9.06 (11 votes)
Yakuza 0 - 9.03 (13 votes)
Red Dead Redemption 2 - 9 (8 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater - 8.95 (31 votes)
Steins;Gate - 8.94 (9 votes)
Mother 3 - 8.91 (15 votes)
Umineko When They Cry - 8.89 (14 votes)
Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward - 8.88 (21 votes)
Return of the Obra Dinn - 8.85 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 8.83 (6 votes)
Suikoden II - 8.8 (11 votes)
Persona 3 - 8.76 (22 votes)
Grim Fandango - 8.75 (14 votes)
Xenogears - 8.73 (24 votes)
AI: The Somnium Files - 8.73 (12 votes)
Tales of Berseria - 8.71 (15 votes)
Final Fantasy Tactics - 8.67 (27 votes)
Metal Gear Solid - 8.67 (28 votes)
Pyre - 8.64 (7 votes)
Portal 2 - 8.64 (19 votes)
Bastion - 8.63 (12 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty 8.63 (32 votes)
Dragon Quest V - 8.6 (15 votes)
The Legend of Zelda: Majoras Mask - 8.57 (28 votes)
Persona 4 - 8.56 (32 votes)
Disco Elysium - 8.56 (17 votes)
Fire Emblem: Path of Radiance - 8.53 (18 votes)
Fate/Stay Night - 8.48 (12 votes)
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic - 8.47 (16 votes)
Undertale - 8.45 (42 votes)
Mass Effect 2 - 8.44 (29 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky the 3rd - 8.42 (12 votes)
What Remains of Edith Finch - 8.41 (19 votes)
Chrono Trigger - 8.4 (41 votes)
Yakuza: Like a Dragon - 8.4 (5 votes)
Snatcher - 8.33 (6 votes)
Final Fantasy X - 8.31 (56 votes)
Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door - 8.31 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VII - 8.29 (38 votes)
South Park: The Stick of Truth - 8.25 (18 votes)
Wolfenstein II: The New Colossus - 8.23 (6 votes)
Ghost Trick: Phantom Detective 8.21 (19 votes)
Parasite Eve - 8.19 (9 votes)
Dragon Quest XI - 8.19 (17 votes)
Final Fantasy VI - 8.19 (43 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - 8.19 (43 votes)
The Walking Dead Season 1 - 8.16 (22 votes)
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney: Dual Destinies - 8.15 (17 votes)
Wolfenstein: The New Order - 8.14 (7 votes)
The Last of Us - 8.13 (35 votes)
Lufia II: Rise of the Sinistrals - 8.11 (9 votes)
The Wolf Among Us - 8.11 (15 votes)
Horizon: Zero Dawn - 8.06 (18 votes)
Silent Hill - 8.04 (14 votes)
Portal - 8 (26 votes)
The Legend of Heroes: Trails in the Sky - 8 (18 votes)
Xenoblade Chronicles - 7.98 (28 votes)
Hades - 7.96 (22 votes)
Tsukihime - 7.94 (7 votes)
Persona 5 - 7.92 (27 votes)
Life is Strange - 7.92 (32 votes)
Spec Ops: The Line - 7.9 (17 votes)
Bloodborne - 7.88 (20 votes)
Kid Icarus: Uprising - 7.86 (13 votes)
Psychonauts - 7.79 (7 votes)
Deadly Premonition - 7.77 (11 votes)
Final Fantasy IX - 7.77 (26 votes)
Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn - 7.75 (14 votes)
Mario & Luigi: Bowsers Inside Story - 7.75 (10 votes)
Silent Hill 3 - 7.75 (8 votes)
Professor Layton and the Unwound Future - 7.75 (6 votes)
The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind - 7.75 (4 votes)
Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors - 7.73 (32 votes)
The Sexy Brutale - 7.7 (5 votes)
Bioshock - 7.65 (24 votes)
Skies of Arcadia - 7.63 (15 votes)
Doki Doki Literature Club - 7.61 (28 votes)
Celeste - 7.56 (26 votes)
Half-Life 2 - 7.55 (10 votes)
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - 7.51 (31 votes)
The Last Story - 7.47 (6 votes)
Mortal Kombat (2011) - 7.46 (13 votes)
Marvels Spider-Man - 7.43 (16 votes)
Tales of Symphonia - 7.42 (30 votes)
Earthbound - 7.37 (20 votes)
Mass Effect - 7.33 (29 votes)
Batman: Arkham Asylum - 7.33 (23 votes)
Zero Escape: Zero Time Dilemma - 7.27 (20 votes)
Tales of the Abyss - 7.25 (29 votes)
Hotel Dusk: Room 215 - 7.25 (12 votes)
Red Dead Redemption - 7.23 (11 votes)
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves - 7.21 (30 votes)
Resident Evil 4 - 7.19 (25 votes)
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - 7.17 (25 votes)
Mass Effect 3 - 7.16 (21 votes)
Metal Gear Solid 4: Guns of the Patriots - 7.11 (23 votes)
The Stanley Parable - 7.11 (14 votes)
Super Mario RPG: Legend of the Seven Stars - 7.1 (30 votes)
Broken Age - 7.1 (5 votes)
The Last of Us Part II - 7.09 (16 votes)
Ratchet and Clank: Up Your Arsenal - 7.08 (6 votes)
To the Moon - 7.07 (7 votes)
INSIDE - 7.06 (16 votes)
Warcraft III (overall) - 7.06 (8 votes)
Assassins Creed II - 7.04 (13 votes)
Final Fantasy VIII - 7.01 (31 votes)
The Vanishing of Ethan Carter - 7 (6 votes)

I'll preface this by saying I've only watched an LP of the game on YouTube, so feel free to disregard this vote if that's not enough.

5.5/10

I like switching between characters with one of them being the real killer, and it has some good unintentional comedy moments (JAAAAAAAAASON). I do like that it has multiple endings that are very different from each other, too. However, I don't think it does a good job of reconciling the killer's actions and motive with the actions of Ethan though.

5.5/10

I've played through this game multiple times. I can't get enough of it. It's so over-dramatic to the point of non-sense. Yet, it also has some quite interesting themes of isolation, depression, social anxiety, agoraphobia, addiction, and grief seen across all characters in various ways. The opening chapters are especially effective. The color palette switching from bright stark colors to these constant greys and browns is perfect emotional resonance and smart visual storytelling in Ethan's line. Madison's nightmares demonstrates her insomnia through horror. The titular "heavy rain" consistently feels threatening and overbearing much like the weight on each characters' shoulders whether its Norman's Triptocaine addiction or Scott's increasingly complex investigation. As the game marches on though, characters become more and more amalgamations of what humans are supposed to sound like, stupid twists abound left and right, and it becomes a victim of its own influences, clunkily combining Saw with Se7en that seems thrilling in isolation but amounts to as much as a wet fart by the time a conclusion is reached. At times its miserable because miserable is "deep and edgy" and other times I am baffled at what I am witnessing on the screen, while still yet other times I'm legitimately enraptured by some smart, subtle storytelling choices through location and aesthetic. It's a total mess but hey it's one I'll still continue to see through again and again.

5/10

David Cage is someone who has seen movies and stuff and wants to make games like movies, but has no idea how to do that. Also really shouldn't have cut corners with all the European actors. The main characters are all convincing but everyone else has strange accents or clearly don't understand their lines. It's very goofy. The flashback to the killer's childhood is especially cringeworthy.

Gotta love press x to jason or shawn though.

4

6

Man uh. I really liked it when I first played it but as many have said it does not hold up to any sort of scrutiny at all. Let's go with...

5/10

JASON/10

3/10

3 points for the finger scene, nothing else.

LeonhartFour posted...

I'll preface this by saying I've only watched an LP of the game on YouTube, so feel free to disregard this vote if that's not enough.

I too am rating it on this basis.

6/10

Mostly for the reasons already stated. The thematic qualities to the writing are excellent, and the early story is intriguing and involving. However, the eventual payoff is seriously lacking, and something just feels... off about the revelation. It doesn't fully add up, because of things shown when the player was previously controlling the character contradicting the rest of the killer's actions. The climax is fun in a vacuum but it's not satisfying. It doesn't turn out to be a dream or anything like that. And there are too many things that don't have payoff.

The multiple endings are pretty good though, as is "Press X to Jason." There are some sidequests that don't amount to much; a lot of Madison's story strays too much from the others'.

6

It's really hard to rank this; it's kinda dumb but also great

7

3

Like others have said, if you think about it even a little, the whole plot kinda falls apart. Fun for its campiness but not much else.

6.5

Biggest flaw is that I knew the twist going in and yet there is zero foreshadowing. Pretty fun otherwise

1.5

David Cage is the worst writer in the mainstream games industry by a mile. This game completely lacks subtlety, intrigue, depth, or any shred of humanity, and the plot is teeming with holes. The only thing it really has going for it is being so bad it's funny

3

It's dumb fun, but that's about it.

Up.

5

4

6/10

Not gonna lie, I enjoyed it. It's tropey and not particularly mind-blowing or memorable, but it kept me curious till the end.

LeonhartFour posted...

I'll preface this by saying I've only watched an LP of the game on YouTube, so feel free to disregard this vote if that's not enough.

We're rating story, and you're not influenced by the gameplay, which is great IMO.

Strife2 posted...

3 points for the finger scene, nothing else.

That has stuck with me the most.

Nominate SOMA

Eh, how the gameplay and story impact each other is also important, which is why I mentioned it up front.

6

I was entertained at least

6

I enjoyed it a good bit more than that number indicates though.

7/10, my first Platinum Trophy, and I was really hooked. But yeah its really dumb at times.

2.5/10, shocked at how lenient you are all being.

3.5

Better than Indigo Prophecy and Beyond but still godawful like almost everything Quantic Dream touches.

2.5 - Has really dumb twists and straight up gaping plot holes that, IIRC, resulted when the game was rewritten to be less supernatural. Hard to tell if that was the right call but the result is kind of a mess even if it is reasonably enjoyable in the moment.

lol

2