A flawed gem.
As one of the most hyped and well-received cinematic games of 2010, it's easy to expect nothing short of a Stanley-Kubrick-quality tour de force from Heavy Rain. It's admittedly unfair to expect Quantic Dream to release an Oscar-caliber screenplay in the shell of a choose-your-own-adventure video game. But at the same time, for a game that has been so heavily hyped specifically for its characters and storytelling, the reality of playing Heavy Rain can be a little disappointing for those expecting a true story-driven showstopper.
It's a little ironic, considering that I expected Heavy Rain to nail the storytelling and show its flaws through technical or design problems. The opposite proved to be true, as Heavy Rain shows off some of the most impressive game technology seen to date. Painstakingly detailed environments, animation and character models truly bring this dour, moody world to life. The brilliant art fidelity is paired with film-quality cinematography and music to make a game that looks and sounds just as good as anything you've seen in television cop dramas or Hollywood suspense thrillers.
On the design-side, I loved the tension you physically feel while contorting your fingers through various QTE sequences that propel action and plot-defining decisions throughout the game. This is one of those things that sounds awful on paper, but you really need to experience first-hand to appreciate how well it works. Granted, the short window of time available to either make a decision or perform an action is unnecessarily complicated by the fact that it can be difficult to read the available options. It's far too easy to make an unintended mistake on major plot points simply because the options are spinning around so fast, you can't pick up the correct button to press. The same goes for action-oriented sequences, where you have maybe 1 to 1.5 seconds to perform an action, but some of the icons -- specifically those for either pushing the analog stick in one direction or physically moving the controller in a direction -- can be easy to confuse with each other.
Finally, the main reason you're playing Heavy Rain is the storytelling. Here we have a mixed bag. The first half of the game is brilliant, effectively immersing you in a realistic slice of life for four characters in four difficult situations. Voice-acting is serviceable, if not a little uninspiring. Dialogue often sounds like the actors are simply reading lines from a script. What makes the game so dramatic is how closely you sink in with the characters, performing basic life tasks initially and gradually seeping into their world in a genuinely provoking mystery. As with many mysteries, however, once some of the answers are unveiled, the story quickly becomes less interesting the farther you progress. This is exaggerated in Heavy Rain because of the bizarre romantic situations that can evolve, the equally bizarre final reveal of the real killer and their motivations, as well as the obvious "gaming" sequences that gradually pull you out of the real-world immersion and increasingly remind you you're just playing an action/adventure toward the game's final third or so.
All of this is not to say Heavy Rain is a chore to play. I found the game and story so addicitive, I played it in one gaming session, clocking in around 8 hours total. There's a lot to like in Heavy Rain. While it might not be replayable and the plot has its quirks, it's hard not to be impressed by Quantic Dream's sheer force of will to make this ambitious game into reality, and to succeed as well as they have.
