An engrossing atmosphere and a tragic story make a formula for indescribable game, or rather, interactive drama.
You play as numerous characters, but most prominently Ethan Mars - the father of two sons names Shaun and Jason. After Shaun's birthday party, Ethan and the rest of the family go to a mall. Ethan is left with Jason as Shaun and their mother go into a store for a pair of shoes for Shaun. With the other half, Ethan accidentally loses Jason in the crowds and as a result, he looks for Jason. He then finds out that, not only does he find out that Jason leave the mall, but he was on the opposite side of the road to the mall entrance. Jason runs to Ethan, who now is at the entrance, but a car comes, which leads Ethan to jump into the road to protect Jason, who is hit grotesquely and killed by the car, but Ethan survives, with psychological problems of distress and guilt over the death of Jason.
Because of this, Ethan shares Shaun each second week, with Shaun's mother having him each first week. One day, Ethan takes Shaun to the park after school. He has a black-out which causes the disappearance of Shaun, most likely at the hands of the prominent Origami Killer, so called because of his signature which he leaves on the bodies of his victims; the victim is a boy, before adolescence, with an origami figure placed in the clenched fist of the victim, an orchid placed on the victim's chest, and no signs of physical attack, as he kills his victims by drowning them in rainwater.
Ethan is now challenged with rescuing his son by going through five life-endangering trials, in order to find out the address of where his son is being held. This involves the actions of a private detective named Scott Shelby, a young journalist named Madison Paige, and an FBI agent named Norman Jayden. Together they will solve the mystery that is the Origami Killer.
The graphics are the first to tackle here for no reason other than to please the graphics snobs. Most PlayStation exclusive games have a history of looking visually impressive. With Heavy Rain, it's no exception. The environments are well designed and thought out, the characters and models are exceptionally well detailed, and is one of those games where the water physics look actually realistic.
Now for more pressing issues. The gameplay style. Rather than a conventional use-the-analog-stick-to-move-your-character affair, in order to walk, you have to press R2. This is sort of off-putting to those who are used to either games like The Legend of Zelda, or Resident Evil (before 4), as they don't require the use of a button to walk. It's a little finicky to control.
As of late 2010, the PlayStation Move controller has been made compatible with the game to give an extra edge of control.
Along the line of controls, the game utilises quick-time events. If you don't know what they are, they're events in a game where you have to quickly press a sequence of buttons in order to carry out an action before you fail, or possibly die. This game uses this practice TO ABSOLUTE DEATH. There are many action scenes in this game where you have to press buttons in sequence to do something. It's a kind of nightmare, to think about it, but the game does focus on a third-person perspective with movie-like scenes, so that's excusable.
One thing this game has is atmosphere. Sometimes, it's fairly emotional or mellow, at other points it's very tense, one moment in particular is ridiculously tense to the point where your stomach spins around as though it was a washing machine, where Ethan is tested to cut off part of one of his fingers, which made me wince in fear at the thought of the consequence.
The music fits in with each situations: there's mellow music for any emotional moment, and there's brash, strong and rushing music to create an active, tense segments. It's really effective in creating the atmosphere for the game, and sometimes makes it a frighteningly amazing experience.
There is one notable characteristic in this game. There are NO game over screens whatsoever. This is simply because this is one of those games where there are multiple plots to follow, and it follows a non-linear pattern in a way. In fact, there are multiple variations to the plot, and there can be as many dead characters as you want there to be. That's...a morbid thought...
One problem with this game, which I believe I have addressed, was the controls. You had to press a button to walk, with varying speed depending on how far down the button is. Most other games never used a button to walk, so why did it have to start (P.S. I'm not counting the D-pad for other games)? That's annoying for me, and no doubt many other players.
To sum up, this game gets 91% for being a technical masterpiece, an emotional rollercoaster with an atmospheric plot (or many plots), and for being pleasing in the aesthetics department.