Let me say that firstly, I don't have children. I have a cat. Nowhere near the same level of care needed. I do have a best friend though, and in all honesty my best friend is a personal hero of mine. He didn't do anything heroic on a level of epicness like rescue a bunch of children from a burning bus, or even dig through the rubble in downtown New York City on 9/11. His heroic deed which he continues to do today, was fairly small in comparison. He became a surrogate father and a role model to a child whose real father couldn't keep pants up long enough to stop procreating. This kid, who had no real male role model in his life now had someone who he could look up to as a positive in his life. My friend didn't have to do any of this, but he was of course in love with the kid's mother. He eventually married her and continues to this day be the primary father figure in his life.

Watching my friend Richard and the small boy whose name Jayden, go through the daily routine was definitely always an interesting trip. Like any kid, Jayden would plop his shoes off infront of the couch for some Television. Kind of rush through and/or protest when it came to Homework and of course whenever I was over at the place Jayden would NEVER want to go to bed. I felt bad, even if I was the cool Uncle that clearly he wanted to stay up and party with. His mother in the end would help put a stop to the bed time shenanigans and Jayden would reluctantly head upstairs, drawing out toothbrushings as leverage for more time and excuses to slink his way back downstairs for the grownup hijinks. Jayden is a typical kid with parents who love him.



It really does shock me though when upon playing Heavy Rain for the first time, how much a video game for what seems like the first time on any real human level, captured not only a caring father but a loving family. Richard might as well leapt out of the PS3 at me. Don't get me wrong, they're are definitely differences in character but what stood out to me was not only the fact that it showed Ethan Mars, loving father of two, it was an accurate representation of a stable family in which horrible unimaginable things happen to and end up breaking apart their world. This was that Alternate Reality seeping into the Real world, making tiny cracks but effectively so.

What amazed me more, was despite circumstances Shaun Mars was portrayed a real kid. A little later in the game, on an evening like any other Shaun and Ethan arrive back at Ethan's less than stellar new place. Shaun walks to the T.V. and plops his backpack down next to the couch and takes his shoes off right next to where he'd spend the majority of the night fixated on the T.V. Ethan asks if Shaun's homework is done, to which protestations arise but eventually Shaun saunters over to the table to finish up so he can jump back to the T.V. which has his almost complete attention. Dinner was served, and as time moved on I remember clearly letting Shaun stay up an hour later than his bed time. I'm a good Dad right? Of course Shaun never wanted to go to bed and it all seemed like I was actually getting a chance even briefly to see what my friend dealt with everyday.



The eventual loss and my foreknowledge of it made the moments with Shaun seem even more precious and heart wrenching. I can't and hope I never know how it feels to be in the same shoes of the real life Ethan Mars' out there. I can only imagine it's a horribly numbing experience. Especially in Ethan's case where he carried around the guilt of a split second mistake that cost him the life of his son. It's also a situation we can empathize with, it's the loss of someone who barely had a chance at life and it's the trials and reprocussions of that loss that shine through and give Heavy Rain weight where some find few. Beyond that it continues within the relationship of Ethan and his son Shaun who like any normal kid is having to adjust to no longer having a brother. It seems Ethan and Shauns relationship is suffocating, under the weight of a seperation and in the way he views his father. You can tell through all this Ethan loves Shaun like any normal father would. I can't speak for the peanut gallery on this one but I was actually quite exhilirated when through all Shaun's lack of interest in his father's attempts to remain close to his son through these trials, he was finally starting to make headway.

Shaun smiled again.
Shaun laughed again.
Shaun was being a kid again.



I can't recall a game before Heavy Rain that made me glad for a character in a way that warmed my heart much like any feel good movie can. Even if you considered the rest of Heavy Rain a failure, this is it's shining moment where for an instant the Alternate Reality mirrors Reality in an involving way. If that eeriely life like mirror taught me anything, it would be the secondary nature in which a child becomes your life. It's an envious position the child-less section of Destructoid can only congratulate the parents and soon to be parents of our little community.