I was psychologically thrilled
Sound
The sound for Heavy Rain was amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed the soundtrack for the game because it always fit the mood and the situation at hand whether it was something really sad or a big intense moment. I felt really engaged when the music was playing that I often forgot I was playing the game through simple quick time events. The voice acting was kind of spotty at points, but it was really good. It kind of sounded out of context at points. They sounded genuine though for every character you met, twisted and good. One silly problem with the voice acting was that none of them could pronounce origami right. Which I thought was stupid because it's about looking for the infamous Origami Killer. They pronounced it like "Origeahmi".
Graphics
The graphics for this game were outstanding. With minor flaws in texture rendering if you did something really fast or the apparent problem for me through out the game for me because I don't play on an HDTV was the main character Ethan Mars' jacket. Throughout the game there was a blotch of darkness on his jacket when the atmosphere got a little dark. One aspect the game did very well was how rain water "interacted" with the characters. When they got hit with the water it looked like they were soaking wet. The character design is amazing. I actually watched the casting for this game and saw that they used real actors and it couldn't have been more spot on. The facial animation and how they look overall was very realistic. Their attention to detail couldn't have been more on point than if they used real actors and made like an interactive film.
Gameplay
Gameplay is all done through quick time events through button presses and moving the control stick in a certain direction or even using the sixaxis feature. The sixaxis controlled kinda weird in my opinion. I think you had to have the control straight when doing those sixaxis enabled events. Throughout the game they make you do everything. From opening and closing the refrigerator door to getting into fist fights in a hookers home beating up sleaze balls. There is a lot of interactivity in the game. With all that interactivity come mistakes. One aspect of the game I absolutely loved was that your mistakes in the game, are also theirs. They can be minor and they can be big enough to result in death. Mistakes and getting the quick time events can even result in different scenes and how they interact with each other later on in the game, which drive the story. I had the game crash on me twice, and found major bug issues but those problems were fixed when they put out the patch.
Story
The story is the best thing I have ever witnessed, read, heard or was told ever. It felt like I was watching Dexter, Law & Order, and CSI. By the way Dexter is the best show on television and if you haven't seen it I recommend you go watch it now. If you haven't, were no longer talking unless you got a good reason, like blood makes you squeamish. Anyways, you control four major characters, the father Ethan Mars, the private detective Scott Shelby, the FBI agent Norman Jayden, and journalist Madison Paige. You go through the game and learn of their motives in trying to find out who this Origami killer is. I don't want to get into details because the story was spoiled for my brother and he lost all interest in playing the game, and he absolutely loved it which shocked me because he wouldn't be into a game like this. But I played through it and was psychologically thrilled.
Final Word
It's a hard sell for this game to be at 60 bucks when if you play it once it might be a gamble to play it over again. I played it over again just to get the better ending because one of my dudes died. If you're interested in film this was an amazing game because it felt like you were watching a movie. There is DLC out for this game which I got, that was also rather short but I imagine them putting out more chapters as time goes on. I really enjoyed it though and honestly the best interactive experience I've had ever. I definitely recommend it if your sick of this age of over the top played out action games and shooters.