For every thing that Heavy Rain gets right, there is some small flaw to detract from it.
For everything that Heavy Rain gets right, there is a minor flaw that is there to remind you that it isn't perfect. I frequently ran into little sound glitches where entire lines of dialog would be missing, and there were a few spots where I'd move my character around a room and the screen would go completely black, and my speakers would erupt with white noise. Technical glitches aside, I really feel like a game with this much dialog needs to have consistent quality from the voice actors. Most of the main characters pull off an American accent very well, but the supporting cast, especially the children in the game, are obviously French. It sounds a little weird to here so many accents from people who are supposed to be American. My other complaint, even though I'm sure we all saw it coming and knew it would be there, is that the game relies too heavily on cutscenes and QTE's. My favorite moments in the game were when I had downtime to explore environments and interact with the people and things within those environments. I feel like it could have used more of those moments throughout the game.
As for the QTE's, they really are well done for the most part. I may have wanted fewer, but they really did allow you to control a wide variety of scenes. I do feel like a better implementation of the sixaxis controls are in order, because most of the time when it was used, you were just supposed to shake the controller up and down as fast as you can. Towards the end of my game, there were things rattling in my controller that weren't rattling before. I'm also someone who has never been too fond of the 'mash the 'x' button as fast as you can' school of game design. It kinda sucked in MGS1's torture scene, and it hasn't gotten much better since.
As has been mentioned in other reviews, I feel like the 'tank' controls for moving your character could have been axed for something more user friendly. It mostly feels like an oddball and stubborn design decision, as there is no real reason I can think of to limit a player's movement through shoddy controls.
*deep breath*
Ok... I've gotten the bad stuff out of the way.:P
There are moments in this game that are like no other. I love the opening of this game. Spending a quiet morning at Ethan's home while you wait for your wife and children to come home is one of the more impressive bits of gaming I've played. They set the scene so well, and the sound design and phenomenal graphics all come together to make you feel like you are really there, doing these seemingly mundane tasks that are somehow very satisfying. I wish there were more moments like this, and like the evening you spend with your son Shaun. There is a complete freedom there that I haven't seen in other games. In that particular scene, your son doesn't really want to talk to you. I had the freedom to let him watch TV, force him to do his homework, make him a snack, or ignore him completely. After I'd tried to talk to him, and been more or less rejected by my own son, I went outside to play basketball in the rain. It was very powerful. In real life, I don't have kids, but for that moment, I felt like I understood the pain that fathers have to go through in trying to relate to their kids. Heavy Rain is at its strongest when going for these sorts emotions.
I felt like Ethan and Scott's storylines were the best out of the game. Norman Jayden didn't have much of a personality, and I feel like Madison was almost there for gratuitous nudity more than anything. In comparison to other games, sexuality is handled in a tasteful and mature way, but so many of her scenes seemed only to exist to give players some eye candy. She seemed to be the least developed of the main characters.
From a gameplay standpoint, I feel that Ethan and Jayden steal the show. Ethan goes through some horrible trials in this game to find his son, and his chapters are easily the strongest from both a gameplay and story standpoint. Jayden gets some of the meatiest scenes from a gameplay standpoint, although I feel like there were some missed opportunities with him. In the course of your investigations, you find that there is only one origami shop in town, but Jayden never goes to investigate. That doesn't seem like something an FBI agent would miss out on.
The story as a whole is fantastic. It took me around 9 hours to beat and I'm eager to go back and see how some of the scenes play out had I done things a little differently at key moments in the game. The mystery is rather well done, and there are lots of red herrings along the way.
I criticized the game for being a little on the unstable side, but all in all, it is one of the most beautiful games I've ever played, and when the sound isn't cutting out, it does sound amazing, especially the little things. I remember standing in Shaun's room looking at drawings he'd made in school and listening to him brushing his teeth in the next room. The great graphics and sound combined to make it all feel so real.
All things considered, this game really delivers. There are some missteps along the way, and it could have been more polished, but I don't think you could ask for a more impressive piece of interactive cinema. As an experience, I'd say this is something that no one with the means to play it should miss. As a game, I feel like it falls just short of greatness.
8.5/10