Heavy Rain (PS3)

Gameplay 3/5

Over the course of Heavy Rain, you get to play as four characters and they each have the same simple controls. R2 makes you walk. Left stick tuns your character. It only gets a bit complicated during the quick time event sequences, where every button and Sixaxis motion is used. The character, Jayden gets an action unique to him. R1 while using the ARI glasses creates a kind of evidence radar allowing him to take a closer look at anything suspicious.

Story 2.5/5

The first time playing through the game I was actually very impressed with the story. But it left me with a lot of unanswered questions that arose throughout the course of the game. I played through the game a few different ways, but the answers never came. In fact, the more times I played through the game, the more inconsistencies I found and the story impressed me less and less. Also not very impressive is the depth of the characters you play as. You learn their quirks, but other than that they are all pretty shallow, with the exception of Ethan Mars who has the most to lose throughout the game.

Graphics  4.5/5

Graphics were done very well, though only two of the main characters actually seem to express more than three emotions (Norman Jayden and Scott Shelby). The rest only seem to switch between worry, fear or happiness. Lack of emotions aside, the character rendering is extremely well done. The best example being Scott Shelby, who very closely resembles his actor, Sam Douglas.

Sound 4/5

Voice acting was also done fairly well, with only a few slip-ups resulting from foreign actors putting on American accents. Music also gets a plus from me as it helped to set the mood for the game. Action scenes get more fast paced music while the dialogue heavy scenes have a slower, more depressing sound to them.

Difficulty 2/5

While the quick time events can be a bit much at times, the game is in no way difficult. It is impossible to get an actual Game Over screen, because even if a character dies, they still get an ending.

Overall 3/5

Heavy Rain is a pretty intense game. So much so that even getting the best ending left me feeling a bit depressed. Honestly, after playing this game a few times I can only recommend renting this one. The story, while well executed, really needed to answer all the questions that arose from the game and not attempt to plug up the plot holes with DLC.