Late to the Party
Okay well I'm not actually late, just late writing the review. I actually played this game a couple years ago, before deciding to buy the director's cut to experience it again. Yes, I bought this game to experience it a second time. Then a third.
Heavy Rain is kind of like an interactive movie. Created by the same studio who gave us Indigo Prophecy and the upcoming Beyond: Two Souls, Quantic Dream, this game gives you a one of a kind experience that you really can't find anywhere else.
You play as four characters in a story that evolves around the choices you make. Okay, maybe it doesn't totally change based upon if I drank OJ or coffee in the opening chapter, but choices DO matter. They may not always change the story radically, but some can take you to different chapters that you wouldn't have otherwise. You also get radically different endings based upon choices you make.
The gameplay is basically Quick Time Events, and good ol' fashioned explorin'! As Norman Jayden you may have to search for clues at crime scenes, and as Scott Shelby you may have to do some Private Eye work looking for the game's killer.
Lets get to the story. Ethan Mars is living the 'american dream' of being an american with an american family with french accents, until his french american hybrid son Jason gets hit by a car, and his life changes. Two years later, he is seperated from his wife, and his other son, Shaun, gets kidnapped by the Origami Killer, who drowns his victim's in rainwater.
Thus the race is on to find Shaun, in a city where it never stops raining, and people can't decide if they are french or american.
The story is great, aside from a few plot twists that are illogical at best, and downright infuriating at worst. The main place this game stumbles is voice acting. That is not saying much, seeing as the voice acting is fantastic, but some people seriously can't hide their accents, and all children in the game sound French.
The game also has some technical hiccups, with awful lipsynching, and some texture pop-in.
Also, if your one of those kinds of people, the platinum in this game is easy, but time consuming. You will have to playthrough the game once or twice, then have to get all the endings, then have to get some extra shit done, but you can platinum it in a weekend.
I seriously love this game, and you owe it to yourself to try something different.