Heavy Rain - Part 1 - What not to say to someone who lost his boys...

As he looked through the gate, he saw his son. After all these trials, all these atrocious acts, all these horrors would finally end and his life would get back to normal. That's when he heard footsteps on wet metal.

This is one of the numerous ways in which Heavy Rain can end. Now, being a Trophy Addict, I did everything I had to do to get the Platinum Trophy (speaking of which, this guide was extremely helpful to get all the endings). Seeing all of the endings in less than three hour threw more than a few flaws of the game in stark relief. Although it would be fair to argue that this is not the way the game was meant to be played, watching all of these endings definitely made me detest Madison.

From the ending Tears in the Rain: Ethan is looking over his son's grave, Madison walks up to him. She talks about moving away and forgetting. Ethan tells her: "I can I forget that my two sons died because of me. I loved than more than anything in the world but I could not protect them." To which Madison replies: "I want you to give me a child. A little boy with your eyes." The scene ends with Ethan shooting himself.

As a father, I found Madison almost insulting. She is not trying to help Ethan through this, she just wants him to move on and forget. However, once you have a child, there is no going back. Once again, Madison proves how lost she is. I dare not call her stupid or dumb as there are some indications that she might just be crazy or insane. Which brings me to something else that bothered me with the game.

Madison seems somewhat out of place. A female character tacked in just to have a female character (which you must undress not once but twice throughout the game). Unlike the other characters, her motivations are never fully explored, she is never given anything significant to do (that only her can find) and, she appears to control differently (must be because of her butt). I have yet to play the Taxidermist chapter, so there might be some of that in there, but at the end of the day, within the main game itself, she definitely feels like she is out of place more often than not.

That being said, my first playthrough the game was a memorable experience filled with exciting and intense scenes that were fun to play through, even though they were QTE. If you like point-and-click style adventure games, you owe it to yourself to experience Heavy Rain. I believe that being a parent does add to the experience, though I would be interested to discuss the point with people who played the game but don't have kids.

For the record, in our playthrough (I played the game with my spouse) Ethan and Jayden saved the day, while Madison jumped through a window to save herself from the fire. In retrospect, I'm glad we  got the ending with Ethan and Shaun alone in the appartment, Madison "Let's forget" Paige similar ending is grating to say the least. And believe me, you should have seen my girlfriend when she saw Madison throwing herself at Ethan... Heck, even Bayonetta has more self-respect.

Next time on A Dad and his Blog: Is Heavy Rain a one trick pony?