IT'S NOT LINEAR here's proof, spoiler free of course
Me and my friend played it at the exact same time and ended up comparing our story...on my part all the character had died except one and on his part none of the character died....
We compared the different events that happened in the game and we had a totally different storyline depending on how we did react to each situation....sometimes the good choice is the bad choice and the bad choice is the good choice...and you trully test how far you will go to save someone you love...
Heavy Rain is an amazing game/interactive movie, we both finished it in about 10 hours and I don't think anyone will have the patience to give it a second run after finishing it once, since you will who did what in the game, but if you can find someone to discuss how his experience turned out compare to yours you will be truly amazed at how different of an experience you had....anyway for all those reason I can only recommend a rental, but also want people to buy it so we can see more titles like this in the future, couldn't stop playing once I did start....
The movement control scheme is the weaklink tho...one of my character ended up dying because of it....and in Heavy Rain there is no going back to a previous savegame....it's like real life....
The music score, the mood, everything makes it a superb immersion...only character that I found annoying after a while was the FBI agent
One more complaint about the game, is pretty much the same complaint I have about all the kidnapping movies.....why the hell don't people go to the police right away and tell the truth...who cares if the kidnapper says don't go to the police....if your not sure that you are being watch/followed, send someone else instead of you for god sakes!!!!