Not many games compel me enough to make me spend an hour trying to piece together what had happened and then to try and figure out where things are going, but last Tuesday, when I first put a few hours into Heavy Rain, I did just that. It cost me about an hour of my sleep time that night, but was so worth it. I couldn’t wait to jump back in.

That’s where Heavy Rain grabs you by the balls. It’s story telling. Not so much in what is told, but how it’s told. The plot of this game might not be airtight, but Quantic Dreams has made a remarkably compelling game. One that got me frazzled for all the right reasons.

I went with my gut instinct on most every choice that the game presented. However, characters can pressure you to do something. Causing your finger to, literally, slip. Exactly like it might have in real life. “R1” can be a hair trigger sometimes. I spent the rest of that evening feeling remorseful for what I had done. Going so far as wishing I had taken that one last breath and assessed the situation.

There were a few times where choices were hard to read because the text was vibrating fast, and the symbols were small. The “all-white” text helped to keep it from being intrusive, but I had a damnable time telling “square” from “x” from “triangle.”  Though, I only noticed this on non-crucial scenes. It seems Quantic wanted to make sure that when things really mattered it was clearly presented before you.
 
Finally, a QTE game that is actually fun. I noticed when I played the demo, that I rocked the QTE sequences. I didn’t want my protagonists coming off as Superman, so I picked the hardest difficulty. I’m not sure what easy is like, other than the “slow” stick commands not being there. I assume there’s a bit more time to hit the buttons. I felt comfortable with the difficulty I chose. I missed a few, I hit a bunch and that gave it an organic feeling.

In most of these sequences, everything was at a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants pace. Speeding down a highway.  Chasing after a suspect. Forcing me to put my seat back in the full upright position and inch ever so closely to the edge of my seat. When all was said and done, I was shaking the adrenaline out of my system before carrying onward.

Same with the slower-yet-nail-biting sequences. You know those scenes in movies where you actually hold your breath, because you think that by breathing you will upset the delicate balance of everything and cause something bad to happen to the hero. This game is chock full of those white knuckled moments. Hell, I had shake out even more adrenaline after one of these scenes. On a side note, your nose makes a decent extra finger if you get finger-tied on the hold-the-buttons-down sequences.

If only the walking around worked as well as everything else in this game. I haven’t played movement controls this clunky since.. well.. ever! I wish this game moved, at the very least, like the first Resident Evil. I’ve had over a decade to get used to those controls. But I give this game a bye, because everything else works so very well, plus you know that you’re never going to have to out manoeuvre anyone. If things get that crazy, you’ll be tapping buttons. I could see potential for Arc controls. You point your reticule at the screen and hold R2 to make the character walk to where your cursor is. Kind of like the mouse controls of Diablo. That would probably make movement about half as clunky.

When you’re in the thick of it, though, you forget all about the walking. Instead you’re faced with life and death choices. Do you risk being tempted by the serpent for one more glimpse of glory? Do you see how far you can push the line? As you gain confidence, you can get pretty ballsy in what you choose. I’m came rolling into the finale with certain air of confidence. Holy shit did the game give me a wake up call. Since the story can go so many ways there isn’t much I can spoil here, other than the shit hit the fan. Any character can die at any moment, including the climax. In fact, to rub salt in the wounds, there is trophy for having that happen to you. The fact that it is possible to get so far only to fall flat on your face is a major testament to what this game represents. After completing this game so soon after Mass Effect 2, I really hope games continue down this path of storytelling, where I’m an active roll, and not a passive viewer.

Heavy Rain can be categorized with cult classic films. The kind usually directed by David Fincher. Hell, this game kinda gave me a “Se7en” vibe. The nice thing about this game though, is that you can experience different things each time you play it. Maybe there’s a different object in the box this time around. Maybe the box doesn’t even show up. That’s why Heavy Rain is going to be experienced over and over again.

Especially in my case, because I came so close… So close…

 Not many games compel me enough to make me spend an hour trying to piece together what had happened and then to try and figure out where things are going, but last Tuesday, when I first put a few hours into Heavy Rain, I did just that. It cost me about an hour of my sleep time that night, but was so worth it. I couldn’t wait to jump back in.

That’s where Heavy Rain grabs you by the balls. It’s story telling. Not so much in what is told, but how it’s told. The plot of this game might not be airtight, but Quantic Dreams has made a remarkably compelling game. One that got me frazzled for all the right reasons.

I went with my gut instinct on most every choice that the game presented. However, characters can pressure you to do something. Causing your finger to, literally, slip. Exactly like it might have in real life. “R1” can be a hair trigger sometimes. I spent the rest of that evening feeling remorseful for what I had done. Going so far as wishing I had taken that one last breath and assessed the situation.

There were a few times where choices were hard to read because the text was vibrating fast, and the symbols were small. The “all-white” text helped to keep it from being intrusive, but I had a damnable time telling “square” from “x” from “triangle.”  Though, I only noticed this on non-crucial scenes. It seems Quantic wanted to make sure that when things really mattered it was clearly presented before you.
 
Finally, a QTE game that is actually fun. I noticed when I played the demo, that I rocked the QTE sequences. I didn’t want my protagonists coming off as Superman, so I picked the hardest difficulty. I’m not sure what easy is like, other than the “slow” stick commands not being there. I assume there’s a bit more time to hit the buttons. I felt comfortable with the difficulty I chose. I missed a few, I hit a bunch and that gave it an organic feeling.

In most of these sequences, everything was at a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants pace. Speeding down a highway.  Chasing after a suspect. Forcing me to put my seat back in the full upright position and inch ever so closely to the edge of my seat. When all was said and done, I was shaking the adrenaline out of my system before carrying onward.

Same with the slower-yet-nail-biting sequences. You know those scenes in movies where you actually hold your breath, because you think that by breathing you will upset the delicate balance of everything and cause something bad to happen to the hero. This game is chock full of those white knuckled moments. Hell, I had shake out even more adrenaline after one of these scenes. On a side note, your nose makes a decent extra finger if you get finger-tied on the hold-the-buttons-down sequences.

If only the walking around worked as well as everything else in this game. I haven’t played movement controls this clunky since.. well.. ever! I wish this game moved, at the very least, like the first Resident Evil. I’ve had over a decade to get used to those controls. But I give this game a bye, because everything else works so very well, plus you know that you’re never going to have to out manoeuvre anyone. If things get that crazy, you’ll be tapping buttons. I could see potential for Arc controls. You point your reticule at the screen and hold R2 to make the character walk to where your cursor is. Kind of like the mouse controls of Diablo. That would probably make movement about half as clunky.

When you’re in the thick of it, though, you forget all about the walking. Instead you’re faced with life and death choices. Do you risk being tempted by the serpent for one more glimpse of glory? Do you see how far you can push the line? As you gain confidence, you can get pretty ballsy in what you choose. I’m came rolling into the finale with certain air of confidence. Holy shit did the game give me a wake up call. Since the story can go so many ways there isn’t much I can spoil here, other than the shit hit the fan. Any character can die at any moment, including the climax. In fact, to rub salt in the wounds, there is trophy for having that happen to you. The fact that it is possible to get so far only to fall flat on your face is a major testament to what this game represents. After completing this game so soon after Mass Effect 2, I really hope games continue down this path of storytelling, where I’m an active roll, and not a passive viewer.

Heavy Rain can be categorized with cult classic films. The kind usually directed by David Fincher. Hell, this game kinda gave me a “Se7en” vibe. The nice thing about this game though, is that you can experience different things each time you play it. Maybe there’s a different object in the box this time around. Maybe the box doesn’t even show up. That’s why Heavy Rain is going to be experienced over and over again.

Especially in my case, because I came so close… So close…

Honestly I thought heavy rain sucked in every single way except graphically.
 
The actual gameplay was QTEs...and oftentimes broken/non responsive even if you did the motion/hit the button.
The game is bug riddled, I had 4-5 crashes/freezes
The story is a joke Mnightshamamamalan style, with dozens of blatant plotholes.  OMG children you must feel emotion right player...right...please?
The voice acting is comically bad except for Shelby.
 
The reaction to the game has been even more annoying, hipster wanna be's fawning over it omg arty game boner!
 
No it's not a game it's just a really long really bad movie with bad actors, with a few buttons for the audience to smash.

" Honestly I thought heavy rain sucked in every single way except graphically.  The actual gameplay was QTEs...and oftentimes broken/non responsive even if you did the motion/hit the button. The game is bug riddled, I had 4-5 crashes/freezes The story is a joke Mnightshamamamalan style, with dozens of blatant plotholes.  OMG children you must feel emotion right player...right...please? The voice acting is comically bad except for Shelby.  The reaction to the game has been even more annoying, hipster wanna be's fawning over it omg arty game boner!  No it's not a game it's just a really long really bad movie with bad actors, with a few buttons for the audience to smash. "

" @bhhawks78:  I respectfully disagree on basically every point you just made.  Excluding an issue with the controls, when the SIXAXIS, predictably, was a bag of dicks. "

Why do people complain about the game they should know they're getting into?

I must've had the cleanest run through out most people then. Other than a few audio glitches, it only froze on me once and that was during the denoument. And not once did I ever notice that I missed something because of the sixaxis. Most of things I did miss what the "move the stick slowly" parts, cause the anlog stick on a PS3 controller is nowhere near as tight as the 360's so it would slip and cause me to screw up.(That's also why I want to play Skate and other analog crucial games on the 360 from here on out, even though I am more of a Sony supporter.)
Plus everything else in this game was just right up my style. The mystery. Character developement more fitting of a novel. Deliberate pacing. In spite of its obvious flaws, I still found it to be quite good.

hmm, the game never crashed on me, not once. I didn't notice any audio glitches, and I didn't make note of any bad voice acting. I feel very thankful that I enjoyed this game as much as it could be. Consequently it's one of my favourite games of the generation, in the same league as Mass Effect 1 and Mario Galaxy. I'm reading a lot that people had glitches and graphical issues, I only got one in the demo and that was it :S 
 
Sixaxis was predictably shit in parts where I wanted to hit all the QTE's (driving...) but the gameplay really is a peripheral concern for enjoyment of this game.

I hated the part right at the end when I shot the killer and the game crashed in the middle of the cut scene and glitched my save data for the entire chapter. But, I'm soooo glad they made such a big deal about the trophy alert, because that would have really taken me out of the moment.

i love this game. it is a very great game. i get sucked into the story everytime i play it at my friend's house.

Let me start by saying I enjoyed Fahrenheit even with its poor third half, but Heavy Rain has annoyed me throughout.
 
I think the reason this game is being given such attention comes down to one fact, it's an exclusive. Had it been multi-platform I am certain this would have received lower reviews.
 
The controls are bad, and basically transform into a finger twister, QTE based game, which drives a very simple story forward. After playing numerous games over the years I have to agree with anyone who says the voice acting is bad. Mass Effect 2 was the game I played before this and the two just don't compare in acting quality.  The only person who gave me any sense of talent is the Scott Shelby actor.
 
Graphically I felt underwhelmed also, I have seen far more impressive games this generation on both Xbox 360 and PS3. For all the developers focus on telling us how real this would seem, the strange facial animations, the fact that peoples teeth frequently look rotten and the overall look leave me uninspired.
 
Without spoiling it for people, I thought the twist in the plot was pathetic. I saw it a mile off and it just DID not make sense. Playing through a second time has given me the opportunity to see how many holes there are. Every single scene in the game just seems to end in a chaotic event. Just going to the shop to ask a question turns into life or death and it seems this way for all characters involved. Just how many mirrors would you have to break for one person to be this unlucky, never mind four people. Most of the drama comes in a very force way.
 
Then there is the matter of choice. The game promotes that you have choice. Where? There are a few places that you get the option to choose where you go next, but these are limited. In fact most of the choice or changes in the story's direction come as a result that you didn't respond quick enough, or it selects a response for you because you didn't decide from the circling options quick enough. How any of this comes down to you as a player choosing the direction of the story is beyond me, as most of the time you press a button and just see what happens. The game offers the player little for you to make an educated decision when a choice is presented, you just select something and hope your character does what you expect, doesn't die or find yourself completely flabbergasted when the complete opposite of what you expect actually takes place.
 
I am sorry, I waited patiently for this, looked really forward to it and found nothing of enjoyment. It only angered me, that Quantic Dream haven't move the formula on from Fahrenheit and that the story was of such poor quality that I didn't find myself enjoying any of it.
 
For me it is the biggest disappointment of the year so far.

" Honestly I thought heavy rain sucked in every single way except graphically.  The actual gameplay was QTEs...and oftentimes broken/non responsive even if you did the motion/hit the button. The game is bug riddled, I had 4-5 crashes/freezes The story is a joke Mnightshamamamalan style, with dozens of blatant plotholes.  OMG children you must feel emotion right player...right...please? The voice acting is comically bad except for Shelby.  The reaction to the game has been even more annoying, hipster wanna be's fawning over it omg arty game boner!  No it's not a game it's just a really long really bad movie with bad actors, with a few buttons for the audience to smash. "

" Without spoiling it for people, I thought the twist in the plot was pathetic. I saw it a mile off and it just DID not make sense."

" @Fur1ousApollo said:

" Without spoiling it for people, I thought the twist in the plot was pathetic. I saw it a mile off and it just DID not make sense."

Dude... what? It didn't make sense? So how on earth did you see it "a mile off" if there was nothing in the story that could help you come to that conclusion? MAKE SENSE!
 
And your arguments against the plot are ridiculous. Sure things always go to hell but that's what happens in any sort of narrative; movie, book, or video game. It's what makes a story a story. Same applies with the plot holes within a narrative. The difference with a video game, especially one that has multiple paths for the story, is that it's harder to hide the illusion of a seamless plot because of all the variation that must be taken into account. Do movies or novels tell you every little detail of a story? No, they expect you to piece things together and put some thought into it, not hold your hand.  I recall one of the giant bomb guys (I think either Brad or Ryan?) saying how the creator of Heavy Rain wanted people to only play through the game once, not because he felt people would be bored with the second playthrough, but because it would break the illusion they created. To purposely go back a second time to find holes within a video game is stupid. It's a video game so why expect so much out of it? Yes the controls were awful and there was one part in particular that go me so aggravated I turned my PS3 off, but that's not what the game is about. It's there to give the feeling of connectivity; to make it feel like you're responsible for the character. As for the claim that the game promoted choice, I wouldn't know. I saw the Quick Looks and the throwback to Indigo Prophecy and I was sold. "

  Everything you said about the designers wanting you to experience it once, just makes this a less worthwhile experience for me. For example I have recently played through Mass Effect 2 twice, once as a full on Paragon and then again as full on Renegade to get the different slants on the story and at the harcore difficulty. I enjoyed every minute of that game, the story and the gameplay fit perfectly. Heavy Rain didn't feel like I was choosing a path, just pushing the buttons to move it along. It feels more like I am along for the ride rather than choosing where the story goes and that isn't what I wanted from the experience that was promoted as me choosing that path.   I quote from the box, "Your decisions affect how the plot unfolds" but there were instances where the game chose those actions for me because I couldn't read the spinning text fast enough or because I had to press the camera angle button to be able to and then it just selected something for me. One of my characters actually died because I pressed the wrong button in a sequence of literally about 100 QTE events. How is any of that my choice?  I watch a lot of films and if this intends to be an interactive film that I press buttons in, I would much rather just watch a film rather than spend £40 with an interactive movie I am only supposed to experience once. I play a lot of RPGs these days like Fallout 3, Mass Effect 2 and even Borderlands which have amounted to 100s of hours of gameplay. I don't feel this has been value for money as a game and as a film would be subject to the same plot hole analysis I and many others have directed towards it.  If you enjoyed it that is absolutely fine by me, I am glad you did. From my perspective it doesn't advance in any way from Fahrenheit and is a massive disappointment. Still, I have God of War III to look forward to now. "