My Take on Heavy Rain's Controls

I'm enjoying Heavy Rain. And while my complaints about the demo in regards to the terrible dialogue writing and the awkward voice acting still hold true, there are elements of Heavy Rain that I feel work amazingly well. And one of those things just happens to be the contextual controls.

While I initially felt the way Ben did about the games contextual actions, I have completely come around on the controls. I feel like this game is doing something revolutionary with the controls that I haven't experienced since possibly Ico.

Brad says

In Heavy Rain, the player has direct control of the character’s actions that range from mundane tasks like opening a refrigerator or flushing a toilet, to more dramatic actions such as steering a car away from on-coming traffic. The actions are executed very similarly despite the context of the situation; but it is the design choices that surround these controls that allow for more detailed interaction during action scenes, as well as increase the physical connection the player has to the game. And it does all this by maintaining an extremely cinematic look and feel.

I do agree with Ben about the “only being able to drink the OJ once” problem in Heavy Rain. But I feel it's not so important that the actions of doing something are consistent throughout the game, but more importantly, that the game is effectively communicating that these mundane movements are challenging to execute when in a precarious situation. Grabbing something might be easy when you are walking around in your apartment in your underwear; but if you are having to grab something quickly while being chased by someone with a knife, then you start to understand why the "mundane" actions are anything but mundane when the pressure is on.

This isn't a traditional twitch action game like Far Cry 2 -- you are essentially guiding your player-controlled character through a cinematic story. While simple button presses might make the gameplay accessible in more traditional game experiences, Heavy Rain is aiming for a much different feeling. It's trying to mimic and communicate the physicality that the in-game player-character is experiencing to the person playing the game. And for the most part, it does a really good job with this. There are two very specific applications of the context controls that work really well in this game.

I'm not entirely sure what difficulty Ben or other players have played Heavy Rain on, but on the "I play a lot of video games and am very familiar with the controller" difficulty, there are actions that require delicate motions. Actions like rocking a baby or applying disinfectant to a friend’s cuts are the "mundane" versions of these actions. The motions with the analog stick allow the player to dictate the speed and force that the player-character chooses to use. Now, it's the application of this type of motion in precarious situations that allows for really interesting narrative moments. For example, what was mundane before, becomes really intense when that sensitive motion control is applied in the scenario when you are sneaking up on the criminal holding-up the store clerk at gunpoint. The player presses a quick button to prevent a box from falling and hitting the ground, but then has to use the pressure and speed sensitive motion to put the box back on the shelf without making any noise. This is a physical sensation that cannot be achieved with a simple button press. This type of tense situation has been in plenty of games, but only Heavy Rain's context sensitive control system allows the player of the game to experience the same physical carefulness the player-character has to in the scenario. This is often attempted in other games, but it usually involves simply walking slowly as to not be heard (e.g. stealth games) -- an action that requires delicate use of the analog sticks. Well, by mapping context sensitive actions to the analog stick as well, Heavy Rain is able to achieve this feeling in other cinematic ways.

The other type of motion that really adds a physical nature to the gameplay is the Twister-like button holding the player has to execute during very specific points in the game. These moments require the player, when prompted, to press and hold a button, and continue holding the button as more prompts appear. During these situations the player is often holding numerous buttons awkwardly at the same time. Now, Ben would probably argue that this pulls the player out of the game as they have to focus on their button presses. But I'd argue that these moments help the player feel some of the same physical awkwardness the player-character is experiencing in the game. These situations are only thrown at the player when the player-character is doing an action that requires awkward movement or tricky coordination involving multiple limbs. Throughout the game there are "mundane" situations in which you use this style of control. Changing a baby, squeezing through a tight spot, or lifting a hurt stranger from her bed is a few of the physically awkward examples that come to mind. But these situations become a lot more exciting when the stakes are really high. In one scenario you control the player-character as he tries to maneuver through a labyrinth of live electrical wires. Knowing that my player-character could die (and permanently) if I let go on the several buttons I was holding, had me clutching onto my PlayStation controller in a way I have never before playing a video game. There are even crazier examples of this technique, but I will ignore them for the sake saving readers from spoilers. Let's just say the physical use of sharp objects in a certain scene would have had much less of an impact if I only had to press a button.

The controls are not perfect though. Simply walking was problematic until I realized I "was doing it wrong". You "drive" the player by holding down the walk button, and you turn by looking in various directions with the left analog stick. My problem is I kept pointing the "look" in the direction I wanted to go when I was already walking in that direction; so when the angle of the scene changed, I often found my character moving around clumsily. This was remedied when I started relying less on the "look" and more on the "walk". I do think this was a smart choice for the game, as the game offers a lot more cinematic angles than even the old Resident Evil games (angles that you can change at will as well). The learning curve is steep, but it works.

The other problems I have are with the context controls specifically. I hate how awkward it looks when I fuck up an action as mundane as reaching for something in my pocket. The strangeness is magnified when there is no real pressure (why would you fail to get something from your pocket?). The biggest problem I have though, is not knowing what the hell it is my character is about to do when prompted with a stick movement. For the most part, the game communicates these actions well enough. But there are always moments where I pause and wonder just what the hell the player character is going to do. This comic explains my frustrations better than I can. Luckily I haven't had this issue in potential "life or death" scenarios. I also really hate having to use the motion control in "life and death" situations, as sometimes imprecise motion recognition could lead to some real trouble for my character.

I'm not looking for immersion when I play Heavy Rain -- the bad voice acting and terrible dialogue has already ruined that. But what I am getting is an interactive story where I am physically experiencing things my player-character is doing in the game; and it is the contextual control design choices that allow for this. These controls are unique, but I don't necessarily believe they should be applied to other games. All I know is that they work for a game like Heavy Rain.

The controls are not the only part of the game I'm really surprised by either. Some of the choices (and their consequences) I have to make as the player of the game have also surprised me in a way I have not experienced in other games that require choices (think Bioware). I'm still not finished with Heavy Rain, and it might not be one of my favorite games by the time I am done with it; but it is, at the very least, remarkably different and worthy of discussion.

Brad

P.S. This isn’t a rebuttal Ben. I didn’t even address many of your silly Far Cry 2 infused complaints. I wanted to my share my opinions on the controls, and you simply beat me to the punch. Maybe if Far Cry 2 was a bit more cinematic with its control choices it would be a hell of a lot less boring to play. As it stands, drinking OJ in Heavy Rain is more exciting than like… anything in Far Cry 2.