You fluctuate maddeningly between teeth-brushing banalities and blitzkriegs of frantic violence. Heavy Rain’s characters are of the type that you can easily build an empathy with and there are many moments of the game that are truly touching, even if the pace is a tad erratic. The more melancholic and sympathetic tones of the story aren’t quite as well managed admittedly, but are by no means something that should be dismissed out of hand. We had to pause the game at one point to wipe sweat out of our eyes, such was the level of our engagement with the game.

The camera work and game balancing come together brilliantly. One early fight scene has a character fending off some home invaders and, even though it’s a QTE, the fight is easily one of the most memorable single game events we’ve had in a long while. Glowing sunglasses - the ultimate oxymoronĪction sequences are strangely the most effective at this despite Heavy Rain’s focus on story and characterisation, mainly because Quantic Dream proves itself to be consistently brilliant at choreography and cinematography. It’s like Russian Roulette in that you can probably play it a few times and feel nothing, but every now and then it’ll completely blow you away. It may take a while to get going, and it definitely could do with less teeth-brushing and more guidance, but when Heavy Rain gets the balance right then it’s unbelievably effective. This will likely be the last time I play a game with my girlfriend in a while.Īnd yet Heavy Rain is undeniably an excellent game on the whole, and in spite of these issues. This is an adult game and obviously there’s a place for nudity within that framework, but these sequences rarely actually add anything to the game beyond over-reaction in younger players and mild discomfort in older ones. The issue of maturity also arises, especially in Madison’s opening sequence when you get to undress, shower and dry her with motion controls. More importantly, why put players in a situation where they have to kill time in Ethan’s apartment doing these things or just doing nothing? Parts of Heavy Rain are actually more boring than real life, to paraphrase my girlfriend, who I played the game with.

Split screen views are used to excellent effect Heavy Rain would lose no credibility or value if it didn’t have a teeth-brushing sequence and it gains very, very little from being there – so why put it there? There’s an argument that these things increase the immersion, but it’s also immediately obvious that these are distractions. Wandering around Ethan Mars’ apartment you can stop to brush your teeth, shave, drink and so on – each of which requires a well-timed action or QTE to be completed and none of which contribute anything at all. There’s no getting away from the fact that Heavy Rain has been almost indulgently designed too, with attention lavished on to things that really should have been culled in a first edit. The voice acting is occasionally suspect in tone, so you get Scott Shelby jovially remarking on how life is great while he bandages the slit wrists of an informant, and Agent Jayden flipping casually between a monotone that would make David Caruso proud and his more passionate speeches that are worthy of academy awards. The Origami KillerThere are other issues too.

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