Heavy Rain Review

Heavy Rain

Platform PS3
Created by Quantic Dream
Published by Sony

 

Overview

In Heavy Rain you assume the role of one of four characters in your quest to solve the riddle of who the Origami Killer maybe and to find and save a boy before it's too late.

Gameplay

The game is very similar to Shenmue in terms of play style it's very open ended and offer a unique way of playing the game. Most action is done by doing a move with the Right Thumbstick. Walking is done by holding down the R2 button sort of like how you used to in the old RE games. Sometimes the controls seem a little sluggish and unresponsive but for the most part they work fine. Each character plays the same so there's really no difference between them. The only difference is the FBI Agent character has a special set of glasses that can help him find clues at crime scenes, which is done by pressing the R1 shoulder button.

8 out of 10

Graphics

This is where the game really shines. It really pulls in the power of the PS3 here. Most of the stuff is really good looking but there are a few bad textures here and there. One issue is the game does suffer from screen tearing (lines across the screen when you move the camera to fast) but for the most part the graphics are incredible.

9.5 out of 10

Sound

The game features a lovely sound track but more often than not a lot of the game's cues get repeated. As for sound effects they're really nice and to sadly I didn't play this game with my Dolby Digital Headphones so I can't comment on how well the game does surround sound.

8 out of 10

Content

With an intriguing story that borrows some elements from Saw and the support of downloadable content in the form of more single player stories plus multiple endings and different results for several scenarios there's more than enough here to keep busy here for awhile. Defiantly worth picking up if you have a PS3.

9.5 out of 10

Overall 8.75 out of 10

Pros
-Intriguing story
-Different endings to unlock and different ways to do scenarios
-Downloadable content
-Interesting control scheme

Cons
-Repetitive controls
-Controls sometimes not responsive
-Soundtrack cues play often.

Dragon Age: Origins Review

Dragon Age Origins (Xbox 360 Version)
Platforms Xbox 360, PS3 and PC

Created by Bioware

Published by EA

 

Overview:

The game Dragon Age Origins tells the tale of the fictitious land of Ferrelden which is plagued by creatures called Darkspawn. These creatures where created via man's greed and every few hundred years the Darkspawn come to the surface to try and take over the world in what the topsiders call a "Blight". You take control of a character you create and become a Grey Warden to try and defeat the blight. You have several creation choices to choose from including Human which can become a warrior, a mage or a rogue; an Elf which can become the same and a Dwarf which can become a warrior and rogue. Then those choices are further divided into other choices. Can your character defeat the Blight or is Ferrelden destined to become over ran by Darkspawn?

Gameplay

The gameplay is one of DA: O strong points basically all Bioware RPGs are modeled after the action RPG genre in which you don't take turns doing attacks. You can map your attacks to X (Square for PS3 version I assume) Y (Triangle for PS3 I again assume) and B (O for PS3 I again assume). These are your special abilities and by default you can press the A button to do your basic attack (X button for the PS3 version I would assume). During combat you can hold down the Left Trigger to bring up the radial menu where you can select your inventory, do a quick heal or assign tactics to your party members as well as cast spells or abilities you don't have mapped out. You can have up to four party members at a time and there are several different party members to get including Alistair a templar (warrior), a Morrigan a witch (aka a mage) who specializes in shape shifting, Wynne a healer (again a mage type), Sten a Quannari warrior, a dog which you can name and it acts as a warrior. Finally there are two Rouge bard type classes, a bard and a thief. With day one DLC they had a golem party member. For the most part the AI is pretty competent but other times you have to select them in combat and do heal them or else they'll end up dying. Overall I give the gameplay an 8.5/10

Graphics

This is where the game takes a nose dive the only bad thing about the game is the graphics. They can be distracting but once you get further into the game they grow on you. The reason for the graphics being so bad is the game was started shortly after Bioware's Jade Empire game and it was originally supposed to be a PC game that came out shortly afterwards. By the time it was switched over to a 360 and PS3 game too much work had gone into it to create a new engine. The main complaint is the textures which on the 360 (the worst version for graphics) looked muddled some look like last gen graphics. Cut scenes are well done and show up quite an improvement from in game graphics but overall this is the games downfall. 6.5/10

Sound

Sadly I haven't been able to play the game in a nice surround so-so I don't know how well it does that but the games sound from the TV speakers is great another strong part for the game. Sound also covers the soundtrack which is one of the most amazing scores I've ever heard thankfully the CE comes with a soundtrack so I'll be putting this on the iPod for sure. Excellent stuff here, defiantly a highlight of the game. 9/10

Content

This category I'll talk about the story as well as lasting appeal. The story as paraphrased in the overview is about you trying to stop the Blight from happening. It has a slow start but then again all Bioware RPGs start off slow but once you get into the meat of the game Bioware has crafted yet another masterpiece in RPG gaming one that's sure to please fans of the genre. There's enough side quest and stuff to do to get you to play through a few times and plus the game supports DLC to help keep it fresh. 9.5/10

Overall 8.4

Pros
-Excellent story
-Enough content to keep you busy for awhile (my first play through I had over 30 vested in the game)
-Great controls

Cons
-Graphics could be better (only con I can think of)