A great experience like nothing i have ever played before.
Graphics: 8.0/10.
Heavy Rain's graphics are what can I say, up and down. The graphics are amazing at times ands at other times they are not as good as you would want. When it comes to characters and capturing character's faces, it beats all. When it comes to capturing each scene though Heavy Rain's graphics do not stand up to the how excellent the characters look. It is like the game polished each character before they shipped it up but then they forgot to polish the rest of the game (weird right?). I mean it does not ruin the game that much or even necessarily take away from the experience but it is upsetting to see such up and down graphics.
Story Mode: 8.0/10.
The story mode in Heavy Rain is great and at times you will be at the edge of your seat, waiting, and dying to see what will happen next. The whole premise of the story without giving away too much is that there is this mass murderer named the origami killer. He is basically a sick and deranged person who finds fun in killing children. Now the Origami killer's identity does not get revealed to you until the end of the game and the killer is not the same person depending on your in game choices. Yes, this game has many choices in it that you will have to face and the decisions you make can alter the game in more ways than you would expect. The game actually has over 20 endings and each ending has some unique thing to it which makes it different from the other ones. Even with all the choices and the crazy amount of ending, Heavy Rain does have some down sides to its story mode. The first thing is that every decision you make can alter the game. Yes, I know I just said that what was great about it but it is also what is bad about it. You can end up making one different decision by accident or messing up one intense fight scene causing a scene to go bad and sometimes even killing characters. Another bad thing is that the game has many plot holes. It does not take away from how well the story mode's premise is but it still can affect the experience when you have no idea why one guy is the origami killer when some other guy clearly looks like he should be. The Heavy Rain story mode is not perfect but it is still great even though it does have some problems when concerning the plot.
Online: N/A.
Game play: 7.0/10.
The game play in Heavy rain is really quite simple. It consists of you controlling a character from third person view. The characters in Heavy Rain go through actions and other things and to complete these actions you must follow buttons and six' axis actions that appear on the screen. If you hit every button perfectly, you will complete the action perfectly. The setup here is good and it can be intense sometimes especially during a fighting scene but, overall it just makes the game feel shallow in this area and boring.
Immersion: 9.5/10.
Immersion ahs always been an area were games seem to fall short. In Heavy rain this is an area were they succeed in. The game does a great job at bringing immersion because they let you interact with so many things. Actions such as showering, watching TV, and playing basketball make the game feel more realistic and make it seem like you are there and that everything around you is real to. Another reason why they succeed here is that every character around you looks unique. Every character in this game is unique and this really brings out the feeling like Heavy Rain is larger than one person. This game also does a great job at including many scenes were you can clearly view a whole entire area surrounding the one were your scene takes place and this brings out the immersion even more.
Voice acting and characters: 9.0/10.
During Heavy Rain you will play one out of four characters. The first character's name is Ethan Mars and he is the main character. Ethan Mars is a terrific character who is trying to prove that he ahs the strength to save his son from the origami killer. To say anymore about Ethan would run it for you so I will stop there. But realize that all you need to know is that Ethan Mars is a brave and crazy man that you will grow to love. Another payable character is Madison Paige. Madison Paige is a reporter who is studying the Origami killer cases and she finds a way to get herself raped up in the whole mess. Next on the list is private detective Scott Shelbey. Scott Shelbey is another amazing character who is investigating the Origami killer cases for one of the previous families that had their son killed by him. His asthma problem and his great fight scenes make him a blast to play. The last playable character and my favorite out of all of them is FBI profiler Norman Jayden. Norman Jayden is by far the character in Heavy rain with the best voice acting and if you chose with him wisely you will love him the most out of all the characters. Now that the characters have been summarized it is time to talk about the voice acting. The voice acting in Heavy rain can seem amazing at times it can seem sub-par. Some lines and some scenes are executed beautifully and other scenes fall short of that mark. Also, some lines do not sound right and they sound out of place to what just happened. The Heavy Rain characters are amazing and you will grow to love them more and more as the story folds out even if a few lines here and there seem out of place or are executed badly.
Sound: 9.0/10.
When thinking about a game's sound the first thing that comes to my mind is soundtrack. The soundtrack of a game can really alter how the game feel and games like Heavy rain bring amazing sound tracks to add to the feel. Yes, you heard correctly Heavy Rain's soundtrack is absolutely amazing and every scene has noises and actions sound perfect. The one problem is that sometimes the sound can be bad. During some cut scenes a person could be talking to you without the characters lips moving and other times what they are saying is cut sort and the characters lips continue to move. It not to big of a deal but it will get annoying at times when a intense scene falls short of what you want because of a mistake like that.
Biggest Pros:
-Amazing characters.
-You can interact with almost everything.
-Characters look beautiful.
-Great soundtrack.
-Every decision you make can alter the game.
Biggest Cons:
-Some corny lines.
-Game play is fairly easy and boring.
-Plot Holes.
-Some scenes look unpolished.
-Every decision you make can alter the game.
Final Verdict:
Heavy Rain is one of the most unique games out there. With barely any game play and a story mode that adapts to every decision you make, Heavy Rain is like nothing I have ever played before. It has many heights including awesome characters but it also many lows including boring game play. Overall, Heavy Rain is a great game with an ever adapting story mode that PS3 fans should be happy to add to their collection because of all the reasons above.
Final grade: 8.4/10.