6) Saving My Son – Heavy Rain
Yup, this is Remy bringing up Heavy fucking Rain again.
Listen, people. In my personal opinion, as rough as some of the motion control sections were to manage, Heavy Rain is the most cinematic game of all time. It was very much a movie whose ending relied on how you played it. Honestly, a few hours into the game I thought there was NO WAY I was saving my son. I had failed the electricity section, and just didn’t feel a lot of hope about how it would all play out. Then I came to find out that the hopelessness is intentional on the developer’s part. That is what drives you to keep going.
So, when it finally came to the moment where I had to find my kid or he was going to drown, and I was in the car as Ethan, it was more pressure than I had ever really felt in a video game before. Half the address I needed was missing, and time was running out. But then I listened to the phone for at least a minute in real time, and I heard a fog horn and figured out he had to be at the location closest to the water. When I got there and saw I was right, and also managed to get the grate open in time, the feeling I got was completely badass and beyond gratifying for me.
Then I got shot. But that is exactly why I love you Heavy Rain.