Review: Heavy Rain

Graphics were a big issue with this game – with someone saying that the graphics would blow Uncharted 2 out of the water. I was skeptical of that, and my thoughts were correct. In no way does this game blow UC2′s graphics out of the water, but most of the times the graphics were pretty realistic.
The game’s camera angles and presentations were done nicely and helped give the game a movie-style feel to it. Infact, this game did a very good job at making me think that this was more of a movie than a game. Even looking back now, I recall the dialog instead of my controller input or frustrations.
The interesting concept about this game is that you never technically lose. If a character dies, then that’s how it’s played out in the story. No resets or anything like that … which is why this is one of the few games where your actions will really have a consequence on the rest of the game.
This game is one giant QTE – minus moving the character – and the game does it pretty well. The indicators go along with the action, so you don’t have an indicator in the center of the screen each and every time. If you’re fighting, the indicator will follow the fists as you prepare to punch someone, etc.

The game has multiple endings. So why is this a negative? As much as I did enjoy this game, I do not want to have to play it five times to see all the endings. When the game plays out more like a movie … that means you have to be willing to sit and watch, rather than play.
For a game that boasted great graphics, I did notice that some graphics seemed rather bleh – some facial expressions didn’t meet the voice acting and whatnot. It seems more attention is on the characters than the objects. Normally this is fine – and understood – but some of the graphics looked especially bland.
The QTE indicators can be confusing. You have three main types that has it’s own graphical style, but I had a hard time distinguishing between them. They sometimes show up way too fast and end in time for you to react, so you are penalized in some way.

Postive Points: 4 | Negative Points: 3 | Total Score: +1