some actual puzzles (the closest being the wind in the vents (which was oddly backwards) and electrical grid), and have had some actual personality decisions (good vs. evil) make a bigger difference in the end game.

Ethan saved Shaun. Madison arrived on scene and came in to meet Ethan. They lived happily ever after in a studio apartment. Jayden killed Sheppard, became famous, then started hallucinating little tanks.
I know it was different from my father's game, because he said everyone died.

To critique Heavy Rain, one must consider it on two separate levels. As a game, it’s extremely linear, suffers from uneven voice acting and graphics and frequently relies on poor controls that are hugely detrimental to the player’s sense of immersion within the game world. As a narrative, it is often populated with stereotypical characters, contains numerous plot holes and awkwardly shoehorns in scenes blatantly crafted to manipulate the viewer’s reactions. As a total package, it rises above the sum of its parts, yet still falls far short of earning the incredible critical acclaim heaped upon it.

For the vast majority of its runtime, Heavy Rain plays as follows. A scene begins. There are several specific actions the player is meant to complete. The character is guided around a relatively small set via unintuitive walking controls and a camera that is more cinematic than functional. After looking at several things and/or talking to one or more people, the scene ends. Occasionally, scenes will contain quick time events that are actually quite well integrated, imparting the frantic and confusing nature of what the character is going through. In a very few instances, failure at a quick time event can cause a character to die within the game and they will remain dead throughout the rest of the experience. Far more frequently, the quick time events are merely there to give the player something to do and simply setting the controller on the floor and watching the television will have no negative effect on the game’s progression or conclusion. Outside of the quick time events and walking around, there is very little the player will actually do. There are no puzzles to solve, actions to take or strategies to employ. The game will handle all of that. The player just provides the reflexes and observation.

While the varied endings of the game have received much attention, much less has been said about the overall inflexibility of the experience. For almost every spot in the game, the designers have decided they want you to do a very specific action. Often, it is the only action you can complete. The most frustrating scene I encountered was when FBI Agent Norman Jayden is looking for a way to smuggle wrongly-accused Ethan Mars out of police custody. Jayden has the thought that if he could find a police raincoat, he could give it to Ethan for a disguise. At this point, I began looking for a raincoat. I found four of them, none of which the game would allow me to pick up. Thinking that it must intend for me to do something else first, I awkwardly walked around the police station for half an hour, bumping into people that acted as though I wasn’t there, even if they happened to be taking a piss when I brushed by them. Throughout the whole of this time, I found nothing that I could actually do and no one that I could actually talk to. Finally I ventured into one of the interview rooms and found a raincoat with a little arrow above it. Apparently, it was the only raincoat in the station that would serve as a suitable disguise. This was the longest frustration I encountered in the game, but it is heavily populated with shorter versions of the same issue.

Another blatant example of the game’s rigidity occurs when reporter Madison Paige is investigating the main serial killer in the game and unwittingly invites herself into the home of a second serial killer. After this creepy old doctor tries to force a drink on her and makes suspicious conversation, he leaves the room. The player can make Madison sneak around the house, looking for clues. What the player cannot do is make Madison behave like a sane person and get the fuck out while the getting’s good. The only option is to stumble around the house, bumping into walls due to the poor controls, until the secondary serial killer comes back, hits her over the head with a bat and ties her to an operating table so he can attempt to take a power drill to her vagina. The more one plays, the more one encounters scenes such as this that reinforce that the player is not really controlling the game. Other than a few select events that truly affect the end outcome, very little of what the player does has any effect at all upon the experience. It’s not so much a game as a narrative with multiple branches that the player cannot deviate from.

Before addressing any specific aspects of Heavy Rain’s narrative, I’d like to first point out my complete lack of a hypothesis as to where the game’s writers are from. I have never heard anyone, in real life or fiction, refer to an overgrown urban area as a wasteland, yet I’m fairly certain every character within the game does it multiple times. The script suffers from similar poor word choices throughout. At times, characters will speak at length as normal people would, only to once again encounter a scene that sounds like it might have been penned by the author of Axe Cop.

Dialog is only one problem with the narrative. Perhaps the most offensive plot element is the red herring of Ethan’s blackouts. We have a main character who repeatedly blacks out and awakens in strange places with origami from the game’s primary serial killer in his hand, yet this happens only to mislead the viewer as to the killer’s actual identity. No explanation is ever offered as to why the blackouts occur or where the origami come from. The game cheats again by presenting P.I. Scott Shelby as a good retired cop, out to get the person behind the murders he himself has been committing. It’s not hard to figure out he’s the Origami Killer well before the game’s climax. He claims to be investigating the case on behalf the victims’ parents, but he’s constantly interviewing victims’ parents who have never heard of him. While all of the other playable characters' narratives weave together, his stands outside of their sphere, even though he’s supposedly investigating the same killer. Despite heavily hinting at his identity as the killer, the game continues to present him as a weary, noble protagonist, right up to the ‘shocking’ reveal.

The characters of Heavy Rain are stereotypes. You have the grieving dad who blames himself for his son’s accidental death. The fearless reporter who falls in love with person she’s investigating. The FBI agent who’s battling personal demons, along with local cops’ resistance to his presence on their turf. The pig-headed lieutenant who looks down on the FBI and cares more about closing a case than solving it. The serial killer acting out because of childhood trauma. The mad doctor serial killer who just likes chopping people up. The sleazy, small-time latino crime boss who acts like a big fish in a small pond. And on and on and on.

Relying on stereotypes for characters could be excusable if they were well written, but too often they’re not. Emotions and reactions shift rapidly and without logic. A reporter finds out a man she knows just murdered someone and her first instinct is to fuck him straightaway. Later the same reporter proclaims Ethan’s innocence to the cops who think he’s guilty, but fails to mention she just escaped from the actual killer who attempted to burn her alive. Ethan has a box full of clues about his son’s location, but rather than go through them all and compare them, he opens one, goes to investigate it, comes back to open another, goes to investigate that one and so on. Scott goes on a killing rampage fueled by the murder of a woman whose son he had previously drowned. Idiotic and inconsistent character moments pile high as one progresses through the game.

Despite all of the above complaints, Heavy Rain certainly deserves some credit. It tells a story in a genre that’s atypical for video games and moves at a confident, relaxed pace that’s the antithesis of the ‘kill everything that moves’ mentality of many games. There are scenes that standout as fantastic on their own, like when Norman discovers he’s alone with someone who’s already killed one cop or several of the times Ethan makes selfless decisions to try to save his son. And like I said previously, the quick time events work quite effectively in some of the game’s tenser moments. At the same time, the game is flawed, no matter how great its ambitions or substantial its occasional successes. As a video game, it offers a very restricted amount of control over the proceedings, feeling like a step backwards in design evolution. As a narrative, it only garners acclaim because of the medium in which it’s employed and would be considered mediocre at best were it told via film or literature. While I can appreciate what the creators of Heavy Rain were going for, I really think their greatest success will be if the game inspires other efforts that actually achieve what they only attempted.

leave the Doc's house as Madison before getting hit with the bat.

first origami killer test - driving against traffic down the highway

I tried leaving multiple times and nothing ever popped up. As soon as the doc left the room, I went straight to the front door. I went to it two more times after searching each of the front rooms and it still didn't give me the option, so maybe the game just glitched on me.

Ethan, Shaun and Madison checking out a loft for their new home. Jayden resigning from the FBI and Origami Killer dying.

Madison died in the fire. Was not able to get her out. Ethan saved Shaun and did not kill the drug dealer. Jayden took down Shelby, tried to save him, and the Shelby bit it in the machine. Jayden becomes famous but also starts hallucinating. Lauren spits on Shelby's grave. Ethan and Shaun move into what looks like Madison's cleaned out apartment.

Is Shelby always the killer? They certainly have the game set up where any number of people could be the killer. Ethan with the blackouts and the origami. Blake being a cop. Gordi being a freak and already killing one boy. It seems like the game is designed that depending on how you play or what evidence you find, one of the other people could be the killer. If the game doesn't do that, it would certainly make it more awesome.

that Ethan and the Origami figures is a MacGuffin."

almost every time you play as Shelby the game is lying to the player? Also, I'd call the Ethan thing more of a red herring than a MacGuffin. The origami I'll give him though.

That shit with Ethan was total red herring and not a MacGuffin. It was totally intended to mislead and not just serve as a temporary focal point.