Revolutionaries the way stories are told in video games. Not to be missed!
Story.
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The game follows 4 characters, Ethan Mars, whose son Shaun has been kidnapped by the Origami Killer and is thus trying to find him before he dies. Jayden Norman, an FBI agent, who is investigating the murders along with the local police force. Scott Shelby, a private detective hired by the families to the Origami Killer to investigate the murders, as well as finding the killer, and Madison Paige, a journalist who's writing a book about the Origami.
Heavy Rain's story can branch entirely, depending on what you do in the game and how you treat your characters. If one of them dies, the game will just continue without them and if everybody dies, then the game finds a proper conclusion, though the game doesn't really branch out before sometime around the middle or the end though.
That being said though, Heavy Rain offers one of the best stories ever to grace a video game. The game successfully manages to put you in the right atmosphere, as well as having a lot of great character development, and it'll keep you guessing throughout the entire game. The only few drawbacks are a slow start and a plot hole, but even if you notice these issues, it doesn't make the story any less great.
9.5
Gameplay
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Heavy Rain's gameplay is almost a controversy in itself. It's not really a shooting game, but more of an adventure/quick time driven gameplay. It's true that most of the game is actually quick time based; you move the right analog stick to pick up items, drink milk, open doors and so on, while the face buttons are used for various other things, the same with motion controls. Surprisingly though, they are actually used in a mannered way, not whenever they feel like it, like in Darksiders or Dante's Inferno.. Furthermore, the inputs you are required to do, actually makes it just as hard as doing it in real life. It's really about immersing yourself with your actions and how you do them, and to this extent, the game does an excellent job. It also allows you to other wise do some stuff that you wouldn't be able to do in other games, though I won't spoil what that is, but one thing to say, it's defaintly not a game for the youngsters, with the game's violence (especially one certain scene) and it's nudity.
All of the game's fights happen in quick time events, and again here, everything is placed cleverly. Button mashing moments are placed whenever there's any need of pushing anything off of your character and sometimes you are required to hold down multiple buttons at once, and at some points it can even be around 5-6 buttons at once, which can become a bit too much. Thankfully, these moments are forgiving. If you screw up one input, then don't worry, it won't affect the fight too much, though keep up failing the inputs, and it could leave with a dead character. Some of these are however hard to see, especially the conversation choices you get, but it's only a minor annoyance.
When playing as Jayden, your job is to look for clues to find the Origami Killer, and to do this, you need to use the ARI glasses, which lets you scan the area and find the clues, which can later be used to analysis in order to move on with the game. Furthermore, holding down L2 and let you hear your characters thoughts, which can provide some useful hints on what to do next.
Again, like I mentioned earlier, the game has a slow start, but it's needed to get people familiarized with the gameplay, and walking around can be annoying as well. You hold down R2 and your character will start moving by itself, leaving you to steer him or her. It can get a bit annoying, trying to stand in the right place, but considering the numerous camera angles and the control scheme, there probably isn't any other way to do this, and it's actually the only issue with the control scheme, which is otherwise really responsive and easy to get the grips on.
The game's freedom is a bit restrictive at fist however. In the first few levels, making different choices only alters the scenes a little, but as you get further and further into the game, your choices starts having a big impact, and the ending can be totally different as well.
The game does have a few glitches, such as crashing (though it only happened rarely) and for some weird reason, the North American version has issues finding saved files at times, but those are the only gameplay bugs to speak of really.
The game takes well around 10 hours to finish, and while there's no other game modes to speak off, there's a lot of replay value in just replaying the game, because of the big impacts your choices can have. It helps that the levels in the game are all divided into bite side chunks and there's even the ability to decide whenever or not you want to save, which is a god sent to those who wants to explore every event in the game.
10
Graphics
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Heavy Rain is a beautiful game, the environments looks great and the characters looks really great, so good that the graphics borders on photo realism at times, which is a incredible achievement. That's not to say the graphics are perfect though. Some cut-scenes runs badly, like chopping all the time, though that may depend on your TV, and the frame can tend to drop in a few moments, and the animations can be a bit jerky at few points, though largely the characters move realistically.
9.0
Sound
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The voice acting however, is a bit weird. At times, it's really good, but at times, it's also awkwardly delivered and lacks emotion, though all the important scenes generally have good voice acting. It also sometimes feels like they can't even speak proper English, though this is more or less due to the actor's nationality. The music however, is outstanding, perfectly setting the mood and the right atmosphere.
8.0
Overall
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Heavy Rain really is one of a kind. The gameplay is quick time based sure, but it succeeds in making you immerse with the gameplay better and it actually feels like your really doing it. Add that and one of the best stories to ever grace a video game, Heavy Rain might not be a game for everybody, but it's a unique game that revolutionizes the way a story can be told in a video game. It's a game that's shouldn't be missed.