Heavy Rain for PlayStation 3 Reviews by Gamers

Heavy Rain is not without its faults, and I'd rather get those out of the way first. Controlling the characters feels sloppy at times, facial expressions occasionally appear deadpan destroying the immersion, and the build up in the story is slow at first.

That being said, Heavy Rain is a game you definitely should rent. Essentially, it's like an interactive choose your own adventure novel with really good graphics. The story is interesting, and once you get rid of the annoying kids, the characters are well crafted.

+: New Style of Gameplay, Graphics, Story, Atmosphere
-: Controls, Pacing, the Kids, Limited Replay Value

Overall: Definitely Rent!

I'll hand it to Quantic Dream, they've created a fascinating and unique game. Unfortunately at times the game can be somewhat irritating and dull too.

First off the positives. Heavy Rain is beautiful. The characters and settings look realistic and highly detailed. It's very easy to find yourself staring at the surroundings and ignoring the actual gameplay. The facial animation and texturing I thought was done exceptionally well for the characters. The graphics on this game were very polished.

The story in heavy rain was also engrossing, the characters were unique and evoked emotion from the player. I enjoyed the way they handled storytelling by jumping from one character's vignette to the next but still keeping them tied in to the underlying story.

The big weakness in heavy rain was also it's greatest strength. That is it's attention to detail. We all take for granted are daily tasks and our movements in general. When those things are replicated in game via quicktime actions, it tends to get tedious. Movements like taking your walled out of your pocket, brushing your teeth, turning the car ignition and putting it into drive. Each one has a set movement during the game and it can really make the game monotonous at points.

The controls for moving the character could also be very irritating, I often found it hard to get maneuvered around the simplest of objects as moving the stick slightly to the left would often times have me walk into a completely opposite direction down a hall I did not wish to go.

Overall though, complaints aside, Heavy Rain is a game that really should be played by anyone who enjoys a well told story. Like any good book or movie, there will often times be lulls, but it the long run it really doesn't take from the experience as a whole.