Heavy Rain

Intense overall intensity
Highest flag: Mutilation / body horror — player performs it
AdventureModern/Realistic

What's in it

Substances player uses or trades
High

An FBI agent is addicted to a fictional drug (Triptocaine) that the player can choose to snort on screen; alcohol also appears.

Dark themes graphic
High

Central themes of a child's death, parental grief, the kidnapping and drowning of children by a serial killer, and desperate self-sacrifice.

Suicide & self-harm graphic / interactive
High

A protagonist can drink poison on camera in a self-sacrifice attempt, and inflicts serious self-harm to complete trials.

Mutilation / body horror player performs it
High

In one trial the player can guide a father to cut off one of his own fingers, shown on screen.

Sexual content strong
High

An optional, fairly explicit consensual sex scene between two adult protagonists, with movement and partial nudity.

Language strong
High

Frequent strong profanity in tense dialogue between characters.

Violence realistic
Moderate

Realistic violence in a serial-killer story, including shootings, stabbings, brawls, and drownings of child victims, with blood but limited gore.

Nudity partial/artistic
Moderate

Partial nudity appears in the love scene and in a sequence where a woman is coerced into stripping at gunpoint.

Crime & lawlessness player commits crime
Moderate

The plot revolves around serial murder and kidnapping; the player can be pushed to commit murder as one of the killer's trials.

Torture depicted
Moderate

A police lieutenant beats and abuses suspects during interrogation, and a father endures self-inflicted agony (glass, electrical hazards) during the killer's trials.

Prostitution / sex work depicted
Moderate

A sex worker appears as a supporting character connected to the investigation.

Sexual violence depicted
Moderate

One scene menaces a female character sexually, forcing her to strip at gunpoint.

Horror & psychological spooky
Low

Tense, dread-heavy scenes and grim crime imagery, though it is not a horror game.

Who can reach your kid

What it is

Heavy Rain is a cinematic interactive drama in which you steer four adults through the hunt for the 'Origami Killer,' a murderer who kidnaps and drowns young boys. Play unfolds through on-screen prompts and quick-time events, and your choices branch the story and can get characters killed. It carries heavy adult subject matter: a child's death and a father's grief, serial murder and kidnapping, realistic violence and bloody crime scenes, drug use (a fictional inhaled drug the player can take), strong language, an optional adult sex scene with partial nudity, a scene of a woman forced to strip at gunpoint, brutal self-harm including a father cutting off his own finger, and the option to drink poison in a self-sacrifice.

How it's framed

The game frames its darkness around a parent's love and the lengths a father will go to save his child; violence and self-harm are presented as anguished, weighty choices with lasting consequences rather than empowerment, and the story treats the killer's crimes as tragic and morally serious.

Details

Developer
Quantic Dream
Publisher
Sony Computer Entertainment
Released
2010 (PC 2019)
Metacritic 87critic score (third-party) · out of 100

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