Aims high but misses the mark
Quantic Dream have increasingly used the term "interactive movie" to describe their design ethos. Sadly Heavy Rain is neither a particularly good movie, nor a game with satisfactory interactivity.
In many ways the problems with Heavy Rain's narrative can be found in the films on which it is clearly inspired: the movies Seven and Saw are clearly huge influences on the story and aesthetic design. The players enjoyment of Heavy Rain is therefore dependent on whether they found those movies to be pretentious, confused, cruel and nasty, or something they really enjoyed. Taking just the story and plot, Heavy Rain is a clumsy affair: major plot points are often revealed with no build up; characters motivations never explored; events often have daft conclusions or actions; and the twist, when it comes, defies logic with no conceit to motive or opportunity.
Heavy Rain's interactive design is equally confused and inconsistent. Most interactions are sign-posted and often involve various forms of button presses and stick motion controls. The game difficulty is balanced by just making these interactions increasingly more fiddly. During fights and action events, the QTE style button tapping is actually pretty rewarding provided you are also able to keep pace with the action on screen. Of greater concern is that illusion of interactivity that pervades many scenes: for example, put the controller on the floor and the game will actually play itself - choosing actions for you - with no consequence. Replaying a scene and choosing different options often has no impact - or simply forces you to make the same action in the end. The game's multitude of different ending are really the result of three or four key milestone scenes and not the effect of the choices you make throughout.
The issues with the story, plot, characters and interactivity are significant flaws, but it is to the credit of Quantic Dream that enjoyment can found if you overlook these issues. The presentation, 'mo-cap' animation and, in particular, the sound design (excluding dodgy voice acting) sets new standards. Heavy Rain is a game that is ultimately difficult to recommend for its story or gameplay, but its unique design and lofty aims make it worthwhile experiencing at least once. I do have one piece of advice for Quantic Dream however: aping cinema is not the way to make an interactive narrative; and taking inspiration from flawed movies will always result in a flawed adventure game.
