Heavy Rain feels like a clinical depression served up in a shoebox. Possibly that’s what David Cage intended it to be–and more than a million copies have sold, so it’s a successful depression.

- Nicholson Baker, “Painkiller Deathstreak,” The New Yorker (August 9, 2010)

For various reasons, depression is a topic fresh in my thoughts; most recently, I was pointed to Singapore-MIT Gambit Game Lab’s Elude, a “metaphorical” game about depression. Elude‘s handling of depression is slightly too opaque and cute for my tastes, but I certainly appreciate the effort to make games and interactive narratives that tackle something that afflicts so many and yet is so rarely treated with candor.

Also, I just completed Heavy Rain, a game whose release earlier this year was met with critical praise and a smattering of groans in gaming blogs. Both reactions make sense: In many ways, Heavy Rain is a technical accomplishment for the ages; in others, it’s an M-rated Dragon’s Lair with voice acting and storytelling of uneven quality.

I thoroughly enjoyed the game, but for reasons I would never claim to be anywhere close to objective, reasonable, or fastidiously academic. Sometimes you simply experience a book, game, movie, etc. that gels with who you are or what you’re going through at a particular moment in your life. Heavy Rain just happens to encapsulate a lot of what I have been feeling in ways that were frankly unexpected. For that, I owe the game and its creators a great deal of gratitude, but I certainly don’t expect anyone else to feel the same way.

Without going into too many dry details, let’s just say that I have struggled with depression my entire life, often to what is considered a clinical extent (i.e., major depressive disorder). While I did not always comprehend that my actions or feelings were affected by illness, it has been the root cause of long periods of anxiety, sadness, stress, and lack of motivation in my adult life, particularly in the last several months. This is not uncommon. Chances are you have similar experiences or know someone else who does.

I don’t mention this for want of commiseration; rather, I’m sharing the key reason for my own attachment to Heavy Rain. On the most superficial level, I can appreciate that for the first time in awhile, I had something in my life that let me look forward to getting home and turning on a game console. The lack of motivation that accompanies depression is not about avoiding work; it’s about avoiding life in general, and that includes things you enjoy. For someone who adores video games and makes it a point to write about them, this can be particularly unnerving. Luckily, Heavy Rain‘s mystery-based gameplay kept me hooked; I lament only that it took less than two days to play through.

As noted above, the game was also imminently relatable: While I would not go so far as to say that Heavy Rain deals primarily with depression, elements of the game’s story and mechanics obviously resonated with me. At its core, it is a game about reasonably good people who deal with their own demons in different ways. The protagonist, Ethan, and the game’s mysterious villain, the Origami Killer, are two characters who have disappointed themselves and their families and have chosen to sublimate their guilt in entirely different ways (one of which is decidedly sociopathic). That said, having characters with personal demons does not make Heavy Rain special, not by a long shot. Every RPG under the sun features characters with baggage.

Yet Heavy Rain could very well be the first video game with playable characters who are three-dimensional, well-rounded human beings; characters who are not merely single-minded stereotypes, but actually care about different events for multiple reasons (which is not to say that the game lacks stereotypes; sadly, Quantic Dream made some questionable choices with regard to its treatment of race and gender). On the surface, these characters want to get to the bottom of a mystery. At the same time, they often have very mixed feelings about what they do to get there (or at least what the player has them do). This is less obvious for some characters than others, but the feelings of doubt and despair that accompany a character’s mindset–his or her quite literal thoughtfulness–are so extremely palpable in the way the game operates.

Heavy Rain is a game that makes you feel these things by observing the banality not just of evil, but of simply carrying on in life. For example, a scene early on in the game puts players in the role of a despondent Ethan taking care of his equally distant son, Shaun. There are multi-button quick time events for everything from preparing pizza for Shaun’s dinner to tucking him in.

For the average player, I imagine that this comes off as simply tedious and exhausting, but that’s sort of the point. When you are depressed or anxious, everything becomes a chore and more than a little forced. The game doesn’t beat you over the head with this, however. It manages to save its most complicated QTEs for action and puzzle sequences related to the game’s central conflict. But the fact that it forces you to participate in a character’s mindset and wellbeing in this manner is something quite astounding. At other points during the game, the player cares for a baby after its mother has attempted suicide, tends to a fellow hero’s possibly self-inflicted wounds, and wrestles with the shakes of drug withdrawal. (Steven O’Dell has written a terrific post on such sequences in the game, although his interpretation is slightly different from mine.)

When has any other game ever included offbeat, observant moments like these? These sequences are not only moments to breathe in between breathless action sequences; they are moments to truly imbibe the sadness and stillness that permeates the entire experience. In that sense, Heavy Rain is very much a game about depression.

Perhaps it says more about me than it does the game that I recall these moments as fondly as the action sequences, but it’s rare when a video game so vividly captures the difficulty of life in slow motion, not simply the more obvious difficulty of escaping danger.

When life is a slog, you come to appreciate the people who appreciate what you’re going through. Does this actually make the game fun, as the title of this post suggests? I would never say that being sad or even playing at being sad is fun, but there is something admittedly pleasurable and cathartic about seeing your own life among the pixels and polygons and then being given the chance to right a ship that remains submerged for months on end in the real world. The wonderful thing about the sad, still moments in Heavy Rain is that because they are contrived and part of the forward thrust of a narrative with resolution, they amount to something in the end. They are significant.

If only the same could be said for such moments in real life.

[Note: This post originally appeared on the wonderful, and now defunct, Gameinmind. We thank Mr. Kaplan for allowing us to republish his work.]

That's not Kool-Aid on those blades.

[Halloween Games is a retrospective highlighting horror-themed video games. This entry sees Jeffrey L. Wilson spewing love for Human Entertainment's Clock Tower.]

Resident Evil and Silent Hill are the twin faces of the survival horror genre, but there’s a little known PlayStation-era title that truly conveyed panic, fear, and helplessness–Clock Tower.

Developed by Human Entertainment (the same folk behind the marvelous Fire Pro series), and published by ASCII Entertainment, Clock Tower differs from Resident Evil by not focusing on clunky gunplay and horribly awesome dialogue. Instead, this point-and-click adventure game emphasized puzzle solving, and hiding from the antagonist–the blade-carrying, appropriately-named Scissorman. And you will hide. A lot. Fear and tension are a vital part of the gameplay, and Human did a stellar job of conveying that within the game world using both audio and visual techniques.

I never actually owned Clock Tower–I played the heck out of a demo disc that came bundled with a video game magazine of some sort, and later borrowed the full game from a friend. Still, two things have stuck with me well over a decade later: The sense of panic that caused me to hide in any nook that I could find, and Scissorman’s horrible, horrible sound effects. Not horrible bad, but horrible frightening.

"Oh, hai!"

The sounds of the bastard’s heavy breathing and clinking of his humongous death-blades, which got louder as he approached your whereabouts, was the most frightening video game experience of the mid ’90s. It tapped the fight-or-flight response that all humans possess; you know danger is afoot, but not it’s location–do you flee or stay put? Not that it really mattered. Scissorman could randomly pop-up in hallways, in places you would normally hide (WTF!!!), appear or as a result of your interaction with an in-game object. In short, he can be nearly anywhere at anytime. While toting a pair of scissors that could tear you asunder.

Unfortunately, should you happen to come face to face with the brute, your character enters “Panic Mode,” which requires you to pound the “Panic Button” to mix it up with Scissorman. If your character is low on health, or if you didn’t tap the panic button quickly enough, Scissorman goes to work on you with his blades. Needless to say, you’ll see a Game Over screen quite quickly.

Sadly, the Clock Tower sequels didn’t carry the same fright levels, but the murderous original still remains a horrorfest that never fails to bring back the goosebumps over a decade later.

[Halloween Games is a retrospective highlighting horror-themed video games. This entry sees Chris Gampat reflecting on DreamWorks Interactive's Goosebumps: Escape From Horrorland.]

If you’re a late ’80s/early ’90s kid, you’re probably familiar with R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps novels. They were scary, entertaining, and featured some pretty damned good writing. Now, how many of you remember the PC game, Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland? Not many perhaps. If you played it, you understand why that game scared the crap out of an entire generation: The game was basically a greenscreen with actors in monster suits popping out at you. Needless to say, it inspired a string of nightmares when I was eleven.

The plot: You and your companion Lucy attempt to rescue your friends Luke and Clay from Horrorland, an amusement park that has legitimate monsters lurking on its grounds. The dark graphics, haunting architecture, eerie howls in the night, and menacing creatures bring the audio-visual creeps, but the frights go even deeper. Much deeper.

The game manages to nail several different fears, both of the gaming and horror variety. For example, there are sections of the game where you have to quickly solve puzzles in order to stay alive.  You know, the typical “complete-this-task-in-X-mount-of-time” mechanic that builds tension, but every gamer hates.There’s also a segment where you have to race through a labyrinth to escape a mummy that wants to kill you. Like, really kill you. There are many recurring themes and monsters from R.L. Stein’s Goosebumps series such as horned monsters, vampires, and plants that try to eat you. Dracula makes an appearance, but isn’t scary; his crazed bride running around chasing Lucy, on the other hand, is quite the opposite.

In truth, I almost stopped playing the game because the sounds were so scary. There’s a part in Werewolf Village where you enter a butcher shop after losing Lucy for a while. After you enter, there’s a pounding on a door, but you don’t know who’s a-knocking. For all you know, it could be the werewolf himself trying to get in. When you open the door, however, you free Lucy – -but you then have to outrun the werewolf through a cramped and dimly lit forest. That may not sound like much now, but when you’re a pre-teen, these elements get under the skin.

In the end though, it’s all a real joke. You encounter Madison Storm, the amusement park creator, who has your friends and their parents tied up and you need to save them. So what if it’s a joke in the end: there are a couple of different conclusions to the game, and some may creep you out more than others. But either way, you realize that you’ve just been frightened and have been experiencing nightmares for the past couple of nights only to realize that you’ve basically been punked in a very Scooby Doo-like manner.

Overall, Goosebumps: Escape from Horrorland gets my vote for scariest game played when I was a young one. Play it in the dark after watching something like Paranormal Activity 3 to see if i can give you the willies as an adult.

Back to the Future: The Game is coming back…in the future. Telltale Games will be releasing two new versions of the hit multi-chapter game. The Collector’s Edition and the Deluxe Edition will include all five episodes of Marty McFly’s adventures as well as exclusive never-before-released artwork and footage for PC and Mac. The Collector’s Edition will contain all five episodes of the game as well as:

• A behind-the-scenes series consisting of five in-depth videos, spanning the game’s development with hours of commentary from the artists and designers
• Cinematic game trailers for all five game episodes
• Fun character profile videos for Marty, Doc and the Tannens
• Comprehensive production art gallery, showing the development of the game’s unique visual style

You get all of that goodness for $24.99 and shipping. But wait–why not sign up now and become a season owner? Season owners get all that and only have to pay for shipping. Why stop there? Get the Back to the Future: The Game Deluxe Edition and pay $44.99 plus shipping (season owners get the good deal yet again only having to pay $20.00 and shipping). I know you’re saying that the Collector’s Edition seems great, but you haven’t even heard what Telltale Games is offering with the Deluxe version. You get EVERYTHING that comes with the Collector’s Edition, along with:

• Newly discovered pages from Doc Brown’s archives including sketches for the original flux capacitor, rocket drill, canine retrieval apparatus and even a short sonnet
• Selected and authentic page reproductions from the Hill Valley Historical Society Album from 1875 through 1986
• A postcard featuring Trixie Trotter, the Winsome Wench of Winnipeg, welcoming travelers from the Great White North

You better hurry; these copies will definitely go fast, seeing as how the Deluxe Edition only has 2,500 copies.

As if that wasn’t enough, Telltale is also releasing all new Back to the Future memorabilia including an art portfolio with 12 amazing illustrations and drawings of Doc, Marty, Trixie and other notable Back to the Future pieces created by Telltale Games artist Ryan Jones. Not enough? How about a movie-style poster of the game that is 26×40 inches?

Along with these wonderful offers, why not get some more swag from Telltale? Anyone who orders more than $50 worth of items from the Telltale store by August 31 will save 15% off of their full order. All items are to start shipping out in September and won’t be found anywhere else because they are exclusive to the Telltale Games’ online store.

What are you waiting for? The sooner you place your order the sooner it hits the road; but where you’re going, you won’t need roads.

It certainly wasn’t an issue with the visuals. Costumes were the same as in Shattered Dimensions. Cinematics had that Activision/Beenox style we’ve seen before. Even the fighting styles looked the same from what I could tell. Overall, this game definitely had the same look and feel of a Shattered Dimensions sequel with the exception of a few missing Spideys.

But midway through the trailer something odd happened. The voice of Spider-Man Noir in Shattered Dimensions, Christopher Daniel Barnes, is revealed to be coming from none other than Spidey 2099. Then it hits me.

They pulled a friggin’ Bewitched.

For me it was Bewitched. For some of you it may have been Fresh Prince of Bel-Air or Family Matters or Days of Our Lives or any of the many shows that decided to replace the actor for a main character. In most cases, fans are usually left in a state of confusion and struggle to really establish the same connection with the replacement.

Voice actors are no different. Imagine playing God of War 4 and hearing Rip Torn’s voice come out of Kratos’ mouth. Sure, you might get used to it after a while but you know deep down what Kratos really sounds like. In the case of Edge of Time, it just seemed odd to me that Activision would replace a veteran actor like Dan Gilvezan. Especially after so many fans were happy with his performance in Shattered Dimensions.

Message boards have been flooded with possible explanations for the substitution. Did he retire? Was he asked to come back but just decided he was done with Spider-Man? Did Chris Barnes win an epic game of paper-rock-scissors?

Well, I went straight to the man himself and was a little surprised by what he said:

“This is actually the first I’ve heard of the game. I have no idea why I wasn’t asked to return as Spidey 2099. If I had been, I would have been delighted to reprise the role.”

I might feel a little different about the situation if they had changed enough of the aesthetics to sell this as a standalone title. Hell, even if they used a whole different cast then it would be a little more clear that this wasn’t a Shattered Dimensions sequel. But when Activision keeps two actors from the last game and makes everything look just like the last game, how does it lose sight of consistency?

What’s your opinion? Let us know below.

There’s been no official word regarding the voice cast yet but judging from the teaser trailer below it seems Dan Gilvezan won’t be returning this time around to voice Spidey 2099. Unless my ears are deceiving me.

Check out the trailer below and let us know what you think.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

Cowboy Bebop is one of my favorite things ever (really—it’s in my bio) because it’s an engaging sci-fi/film noir/space opera. Frankly, I wish that the entertainment industry tapped into that mashup more frequently. Luckily for me Wadjet Eye Games and Joshua Nuernberger partnered up to create Gemini Rue, a LucasArts and Sierra-inspired adventure game.

A 2D adventure game with a gritty, sci-fi space-noir feel, Gemini Rue opens on a rainy broken down street corner then zooms into outer space, letting gamers witness the memory wipe of a man known as “Delta-Six.” Immediately afterward, you’re thrown into the grimy, rainy city of Pittsburgh on the planet Barracus in the Gemini System—in the very same street corner you saw in the opening. A seedy ex-assassin named Azriel Odin waits for a late rendezvous, and we learn that he’s looking for his brother… and that he’s out in deep space. Flashback to Delta-Six and we learn he was trying to escape from a hospital. What the heck is going on? Play the game and find out.

Gamers play as both Azriel and Delta-Six throughout Gemini Rue. Left click allows you to move while right click controls inventory. Azriel’s got hands, eyes, mouth and legs to work with, as well as lock picks, a communicator, and several improvised weapons. Delta-Six can use the same body parts, but when you first play as him you learn the intricacies of shooting and moving boxes.

There are also plenty of puzzles  to solve as you make your way through Gemini Rue. The puzzles are typical Wadjet, meaning that they’re highly contextual. Pay close attention to your surroundings: your answer will always be close at hand, which is good. You should also mind your surroundings, since you can get killed before properly completing a puzzle (fortunately, the game resumes at a point right before you die, but still. Don’t get shot).

You can alternate between being in and out of cover, but you can only shoot when out of cover. You don’t simply mash a button to fire off rounds, either: there’s a box with a marker and green and red markings. Tap CTRL to move the marker and once it’s in the green zone you’re cue for a one-kill headshot. Everything else is a randomized body shot.

Gemini Rue features over 60 hand-drawn moody backgrounds that convey a very noir-like atmosphere, though the game was so dark at times that it was difficult to identify objects. I did not like that. The soundtrack had a dark, spacey vibe that fit the game well.

Being thrown into Delta Six’s life head-on is a very effective way of drawing the gamer in, since his lack of memory makes him learn everything all over again – just like us. I liked that, too. The only element of the game that I didn’t like so much was its insistence on using low-tech methods to solve puzzles. One of the first major challenges Azriel faces is opening a locked door, and because it has an electronic lock he can’t use his lock picks. For a game that takes place in space, on another planet, that’s loaded with technology, I just didn’t understand why he couldn’t use more futuristic means to hack the lock. It’s a surprisingly low-tech sci-fi game – and that takes some getting used to.

Gemini Rue is a worthy download for noir, puzzle, or adventure game fans. Sci-fans may not dig its lack of high technology, but considering the relatively low price of admission ($14.99 for the digital download), it’s worth checking out.

Remember how awesome Back to the Future: The Game was? Of course you do – you read Jay Boots’ review. Well, soon you can chill with Marty and Doc on your PS3.

Featuring all 5 games in the series (released episodically), Back to the Future: the Game is coming to the PlayStation network. Soon you’ll have everything you know and love about the Back to the Future movies available on your TV —Marty McFly and Doc likenesses, challenges and scenarios from the brain of BttF scribe Bob Gale, and Christopher Lloyd voicing Doc.

All the games ask you to play as Marty McFly. Through your partnership with Doc, and time-travel shenanigans typical of the films, you’ll do your best to work through crazy schemes and save time… or the universe… or something like that. You’re Marty McFly: that’s all that matters. You’ll even have a brand new storyline featuring Doc and Marty to play through.

The series comes in five parts, and with a one-time purchase of $19.99 you can own all of them. The first episode will be immediately available upon purchase.

Back to the Future: the Game series will be coming to the PSN on February 15. An iPad version is coming out later this month.

Bulkypix has announced a sequel to its iOS survival horror adventure, Hysteria Project. This iPad and iPhone interactive live action movie features choose-your-own-adventure gameplay mixed with what the developer calls “a Hitchcock feel.” That’s a loft statement for sure, but  Hysteria Project 2 attempts to live up to it by continuing where the original video game ended, in the grips of hysteria and a deep mystery. Words from Bulkypix!

“Hysteria Project 2 offers a terrific, suspenseful action experience like no other,” explains Vincent Dondaine, COO of BulkyPix. ” The set-pieces are so potent, they can galvanize (and frighten) even a gamer who’s seen them before and add much to the excitement. You’ll love it!”

Hysteria Project 2 will be available at the App Store January 27th, 2011.

I’m a sucker for narrative adventure games: I like being told a story with pictures that I have some control over. It makes me feel like I’m part of the in-game happenings – and that’s the best experience any game could hope for.

Wadjet Eye Games’ The Blackwell Trilogy is a collection that provides exactly that experience, and even though they’re old school point-and-click style adventure games they’re well-suited to modern gaming. They’ve got a gritty film noir style with plenty of creepy atmosphere and scares–and you get to play as a ghost.

The Blackwell Legacy
The game opens on the Brooklyn Bridge where Rosangela Blackwell is scattering the ashes of her aunt Lauren. After speaking to Lauren’s psychiatrist at Bellevue, she’s off to convince the door guy she lives in her own building, figure out a suspicious suicide, and meet the family spirit guide – Joey Mallone, a wise guy ghost fresh out of the 1940s. Turns out she’s a spirit medium who specializes in guiding lost spirits into the afterlife. It’s a hell of a day.

Blackwell Unbound
Originally designed as part of The Blackwell Convergence, this game takes place in 1973. You play as warmly sarcastic Lauren Blackwell this time, working out the rules of the whole saving spooks deal with Joey. You can also control Joey this time around, which is a good thing since several tabloid murders centered around a suspicious reporter bring them face-to-face with one doozy of a problem.

The Blackwell Convergence
We’re back to modern day Manhattan with Rosa and Joey, and it’s nice to see them bicker the same way Joey and Lauren did. A drunken encounter in nether space with a Queen Victoria-style ghost leaves Rosa shaken about her whole purpose as a spirit medium, while the possession of an actor’s ghost leads Joey and Rosa on their strangest quest yet.

The Blackwell games are adventure titles that ask you to find clues, combine clues, and help ghosts pass into the next world. Puzzles and clues don’t easily present themselves, so you really have to pay attention to the text and concentrate on the environments to get everything you need, like the Choose Your Own Adventure books.  Between chatting with witnesses, sorting through information, and combing through notes in the Notebook, there is a lot of reading involved. The amount of text can be overwhelming at times, but the vivid characterizations almost make up for it; Joey’s Cagney-style phrases always do (though I kept waiting for him to threaten rapping someone in the snoot), and the games are much more fun when he’s involved.

Joey’s main feature is being able to talk to spooks. They won’t talk to the living, and they’re usually several shades of crazy, so it takes a lot of talking to get anything useful out of them. He can even get rough with them when necessary, though that’s seldom the best way to accomplish your quest.

When playing as Lauren or Rosa, you store and combine clues in a Notebook. The notebook is a pain in the neck as it records only what the game considers important and doesn’t always save the information you think it should.  Be warned: there is no way to complete a quest if the notebook does not have the right clues (I had to restart Blackwell Unbound because I missed combining a clue – don’t let that happen to you).

The inventory system allows you to hold and combine items, though once you choose to hold something you can’t let it go. I found it strange that left click was the action button and right click was the look button, but that could just be me.

The visuals in all of the games are simply rendered but colorful. The soundtrack was sparse and gritty, very much in the film noir world. In fact, all of the games felt like mini-movies – complete with in-game commentary by creator Dave Gilbert and beginning and end credits (Dave personally thanks giant quantities of coffee). The games felt like a film trilogy, very much part of the same consistent world where Darla and Humphrey Bogart took over The Ghost Whisperer. The experience of playing through areas of New York that went beyond the tourist traps was a treat, though the NYU suicides hit a little too close to home. If I had any misgivings, it’s that the VO for Rosangela in the first game was rather whiny; I was happy to hear her voiced differently in Blackwell Convergence.

The Blackwell Trilogy is available on wadjeteyegames.com for $19.99. The individual Blackwell games are also available on Steam and Big Fish.

Well done, Dave. Give us more.