1) The scene takes place at the beginning of the game where the protagonist Ethan loses his son Jason in a shopping center crowd. Ethan finds Jason in the road about to be hit by a car and tries to shield him, but both are hit. 2) The music starts frantic to reflect Ethan's panic, builds dramatically as the car approaches, then stops abruptly when they are hit. Sad piano music plays as the wife finds Jason's balloon floating away, showing something tragic occurred. 3) Different instruments in the orchestral soundtrack are used to convey different emotions like rising panic as the seconds pass while Ethan searches or a high pitched build up to the car impact.

1. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
Game Title Heavy Rain – Jason’s Death
Provide detailed descriptions from chosen examples that establish… Clearly state what production technique(s) you think have
been used to create specific soundtrack elements
Setting (Note: the scene I am analysing takes place from 0:20 – 1:26 of the video)
The scene takes place near the start of the game, where the protagonist Ethan Mars
is out with his wife and 2 children at a shopping centre, however one of his children
called Jason walks off and Ethan loses him in the large crowd of people in the crowd.
After rushing through the crowd looking for him he finally finds him across the road
from the shopping centre, in which Ethan shouts him, but as Jason starts running
across the road Ethan notices a car driving down the road which is going to hit
Jason. Ethan runs up to Jason and tries to protect him by putting his body in the way
of the car, and the car hits both of them. Ethan’s wife then comes out and notices
and cries when she sees Jason (who is not seen for the rest of the cutscene), who
presumably dies from the impact, Jason’s balloon he got at the shopping centre is
then seen floating off into the sky as Ethan’s wife is heard crying and the scene
fades to black.
When the scene starts there is lots of frantic
music playing to symbolise what is going on and
the panic Ethan is going through in trying to find
his son. Then as Ethan notices the car and tries to
use himself as a shield for Jason the music builds
up and goes louder and higher pitched as the
scene goes in slow motion as it builds up to the
car hitting them. When the car finally hits them
the music quickly stops but when Ethan’s wife
notices Jason and screams out the music very
quickly goes sombre as the balloon is seen
floating into the sky, this creates the element that
something tragic has happened and the music is
used very well to symbolise this.
Mood When the cutscene starts the mood is very panicked as Ethan is trying to find his son
and when he notices him across the road, this mood picks up considerably when
Ethan runs to protect his son from the car and then transitions to a “oh my god”
mood as they are hit by the car. Then for the rest of the scene the mood turns very
sad and sombre as Ethan’s wife notices Jason and Jason’s balloon is seen flying to
the sky.
To signify the panicked situation the music has an
orchestral building tone with a violin playing,
possibly to show that the longer it takes for Ethan
to find Jason, the more danger he is in, also to
note is a low violin note as well that plays every
few seconds, maybe to signify the seconds going
past. When the car is about to hit Ethan and Jason
the orchestral music builds and goes very high
pitched, more than likely to build up to when the
car hits them. When Ethan’s wife start’s crying the
music has a lone piano playing sad music, this is
used to show what has happened and how it has
affected the characters in the scene.

2. Salford City College
Eccles Sixth Form Centre
BTEC Extended Diploma in GAMES DESIGN
Unit 73: Sound For Computer Games
Game genre Heavy Rain is a drama action-adventure game with noir-thriller traits added into it. As they are many action packed dramatic
situations throughout the game, the game shows
this with the majority if not all the music with an
orchestra, this is probably used because it can be
used to add a significant added effect to the
dramatic used due to the scale of sound and
amount of different instruments used.
Narrative There is not much narrative throughout the scene; the only narrative shown is when
Ethan is shouting out to Jason and when Ethan’s Wife is crying to Jason.
Ethan has a very panicky tone to his voice to
signify the situation and Ethan’s Wife has a loud,
sad, panicky voice to signify how affected she is
by the loss of Jason.