Guest Review: Heavy Rain DLC – The Taxidermist
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Our Easter Sunday began pretty typically: we woke up, made coffee, ate breakfast, and planned dinner. Nothing says Easter quite like hand-made gnocchi, lemon meringue tarts, and Heavy Rain DLC. We passed the time by urging bad-ass investigative journalist Madison Paige through her investigation; cringing when she made (sometimes fatal) mistakes, cheering at her triumphs, and struggling to get all five endings.
Heavy Rain was an experience of excellent storytelling, exquisite graphics, and unique game-play. If you managed to snag a pre-ordered copy, you were given access to the first chapter of Heavy Rain’s downloadable content (DLC), “The Taxidermist”. Didn’t pre-order? No worries. It’s available for purchase on PlayStation Network for $4.99.
“The Taxidermist” is set in 2009, two years before the beginning of the canonical storyline of Ethan Mars. Madison is working a lead on the identity of the Origami Killer. Armed with nothing but her camera, she explores the home of a taxidermist. There was no shortage of heart-pounding, adrenaline twitching action as Madison goes about her investigation. Much like the full-game, the setting was oozing with personality. Even the smallest detail (the windows, curtains, doors, floorboards, etc.) had a part to play in the chapter. The lush detailing of the house provided an atmosphere that made my skin creep. Everything about the house felt wrong. Like how it felt walking into Doctor Death’s house and being offered that nasty yellow cocktail.
It was shorter than I expected, with about thirty minutes of game play, depending on the decisions you made and how you reacted to certain situations. My first reaction to the succinct nature of the DLC was distaste. I figured that there was no way that I would ever pay five bucks for a game that only lasted me an hour. Five different endings with many different ways of discovering said endings provided me (and my geeky family) with two solid hours of play. It was tricky trying to get all of the endings, especially if you wanted to rush through and skip some of the rooms in the house. Constant vigilance, as they say.
All in all, the DLC was worth playing but I’m not entirely certain if it’s worth buying each chapter separately. Might be worth it to wait for all the chapters to be bundled and buying it in one fell swoop. That is unless you’re completely and totally enamoured with the game and must play each chapter as it debuts. Who can blame you?






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I still haven't managed to play through it more than once, but I am curious to see how I can change it up! I'm currently a Heavy Rain addict, so I'll figure it out soon enough...
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