HEAVY RAIN: and death in video games. ALBUM OF THE YEAR 
Within the discussion on the evolution of video games, both critics and creators, have always questioned to what extent can the emotional narrative of a game compared with written literature and cinematography. Can a videogame make us mourn as do the movies or books? To me, personally, has never made me mourn a book or movie, however, the last time you made me mourn a game was, if I remember correctly, Battletoads
nearly 20 years ago when it was spent. Anyway, in this case made me mourn feeling was frustration, not sadness, such as digital playwrights today want to achieve. Heavy Rain
get the PS3 as a revolutionary digital adventure where the player takes the role of four different characters which have a common goal: to discover who is Origami Killer and stop the spate of killings of children. Where is this so revolutionary? For in the way the player interacts with characters and Zambu experience. The player starts rising quietly from his bed one day, goes to bathe, shave and dress, all controlled by combinations of buttons that appear on screen. Subsequently, continues to experience a bit of family life, playing with the children and helping women in the kitchen, all very happy. You feel part of the family ... however, the roller coaster of emotions begins and everything changes quickly. The eldest son is killed in the arms of the player's wife leaves him, and finish grinding the youngest son is kidnapped by the murderer of origami, which demands that the father meets a series of challenges that sounds like films Saw
order to save the only son left.
Heavy Rain is full of personal details that the player looking to fall in love with the children, and then watching them die. 
Exciting action scenes complement this experience. In my opinion, the most important aspect is that if the player fails any of the sequences of buttons, known as
quick time events, the game ends in a "Game Over" or a "Try Again "The story goes if your character dies, either one or the four driving-the journalist, the FBI agent and private detective, in addition to the father. Of course, the happy ending occurs only when all successfully fulfill their duties, so stubborn and get players will be repeating the scenes again and again failed. However, in an interview, David Cage, director of game, said his intention is that if the player fails not retry the scene, so each who have their own history, shaped by their own successes, failures and decisions.
The Origami Killer always wait for the rainy season to lock up their victims in drains and wait for them to drown. 
The game puts an emphasis on facial expressions, another crucial factor in his quest to express feelings (in this case, aburriento). While this tactic follow the story no matter if someone dies had already given earlier in some RPGs, this was in supporting roles, seldom on the actors and much less in a game with the budget
Heavy Rain. But ... What is death in the game and what is it?
Early video games such as Pong
, did not handle the concept of "lives" or "death" but rather "attempts" and "defeat" like any other sport. It was not until the next generation that this concept began to gain momentum with titles like Space Invaders
and Galaxian
in the seventies. Ok, flash forward to 1987, which is the year I start to play games with ...
SUPER MARIO BROS . (Nintendo, 1985) The object is not only carried a monkey named Mario by an obstacle course free up some mushrooms and a little princess, NO. The aim is to bring an army of Marios in this field of obstacles, one by one, before they all die. Apparently these Mary was born of a green mold, because every time he had grabbed one another Mario.
My point with this is that due to the lack of a philosophical explanation of how the system lives by Nintendo, each player will form in your mind the logic of how it works. Some may imagine Mario as a cat nine lives, and each time it fell off a cliff or die burned, resurrected in a body just the beginning of that level. Or maybe they imagined a time machine back a few minutes just before he died, or maybe nothing.
But the narrative in video games evolved, and its justification of existence, and new proposals emerged. We have for example the game ...
HERC'S ADVENTURE (LucasArts, 1997) From the makers of the most successful game of Zombies Ate My Neighbors
, this game follows the adventures of a pseudo Herculecito full set in Greek mythology. The point I am trying this game is that when he dies, the player does not have to repeat a portion of the route that was already it is sent to the underworld of Hades where you have to spend time and effort to get out of this complicated area to return to the point where he left off. The more times perish, but is sent away to the underworld and later get back on track. There
series of games, like Final Fantasy
where there are two types of death, normal in battle, easily remedied by a Phoenix Down, and death "real" in the story where the character dies already irreversibly much will be seen again in spirit wing Obi Wan Kenobi.
Another way to handle death as a failure is justified ...
PRINCE OF PERSIA: SANDS OF TIME (Ubisoft, 2003) This action game, which is a prince who narrates his journey through Persia fighting against the forces of evil, he adds a very simple detail which justifies the idea of \u200b\u200bbeating about dying all the time. Every time the player dies, the narrator says: "Hmmm, no, I guess that was not history." I do not remember if this happened exactly in this game or in the aftermath
Warrior Within or The Two Thrones
, but the idea is this. It also handles the concept of going back in time when something bad happened, like a VCR, something I had imagined Super Mario Bros.
In order to incorporate all aspects and procedures of a video game narrative is, besides being an art, a subject that is quite enough to talk. Could be organized several round tables as well as writing several style manuals or books about it. Anyway, I leave here for now ...
SUPER MARIO BROS 
