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<\/a>the\u00a0plot is well-paced and does a good job of keeping the player involved. There\u2019s quite a lot of action, demanding quick reflexes, which may not be to everyone\u2019s taste, but it\u2019s a requirement of the scenario. The music is appropriately dramatic or melancholy, as the scene requires. The main protagonists pull their weight very honourably, enhanced by the realistic modelling that went into them (they\u2019re all based on actual actors, who, with one exception, also voiced them), and, all in all, it\u2019s great fun. Until you start scrutinising the details. And that\u2019s when things start to fall apart.<\/p>\nFirst things first: if quicktime events drive you up the wall…you might reconsider playing altogether, since the entire game is based on them.\u00a0It unfolds like a semi-interactive film with several possible outcomes depending on the player\u2019s choices. There are no menus, no stats, no save points (the game saves automatically at key points and between chapters) and very little in the way of fixed controls: R2 makes your character walk, and you then direct them with the left joystick, while L2 lets you listen in on their thoughts. Everything else is controlled by variable on-screen prompts: you could be asked to spin the right joystick to put on a As the vehicles for the plot, the\u00a0characters are\u00a0the game’s best asset. They do have some stereotypical features, Scott feels a bit left out, and the romance between Ethan and Madison is both rushed and awkwardly timed, but on the whole, they are well-written, and you ultimately feel involved in their fates. It\u2019s the storyline structure\u00a0that doesn\u2019t hold water (pun <\/a>bandage, sloooowly move it from side to side to rock a baby to sleep, shake the entire controller to escape strangulation, or hold down an improbable combination of buttons to\u00a0wiggle through some live electric wires. Since some of these prompts mimic real movements, it certainly feels immersive. It also keeps the player on their toes. On your first time through, there\u2019s no telling what exactly the game can ask you to do, especially in a time-sensitive context, and some of the combinations can be difficult to pull off. From this perspective, replaying the game can either be a good thing, since you know what to expect and are therefore less likely to mess up, or a bad thing, because it kills the suspense. But then, the nature of the plot inevitably kills the suspense anyway.<\/p>\n<\/a>There is a serial killer on the loose, who likes to kidnap young boys and drown them in rainwater by locking them in an open-air tank. Once they\u2019re dead, he dumps their bodies on a wasteland, leaving an orchid on their chests and an origami figure in their hands (and the game itself comes with a square of paper and instructions on how to reproduce the origami figure depicted on the case). Four characters find themselves involved, and the scenario is split more or less evenly between them, alternately putting you in control of each one. Each of them can die, by mistake or by choice, and two of them can end up in a relationship, for a total of 16 different epilogues across all characters. Before you ask, yes, there\u2019s a trophy for seeing them all.<\/p>\n<\/a>The first protagonist is a divorced father of two, Ethan Mars. He’s lost one son to a car accident, and now, his second son gets kidnapped by the killer. To all intents and purposes, he\u2019s the hero of the story: he gets the most screen time and the most emotional investment. He\u2019s a caring dad, if a tad passive at first, and you have to at least give him credit for perseverance. The killer decides to test his resolve with some Saw<\/em>-like trials, rewarding him with clues as to his son\u2019s whereabouts if he manages to complete them. Success or failure is up to you, but poor Ethan gets to go through hell (and maybe<\/em> back), physically and psychologically, whatever you do: the game just goes balls to the wall on the melodrama\u00a0with him, tugging at every possible heartstring it can get its grubby little mitts on. On a less serious note, he\u2019s also infamous for his overly emphatic delivery when calling out for his sons (\u201cJAAAASOOON!\u201d and \u201cSHAAUUUUNNN!!\u201d). Also, a fair warning for sensitive eyes: he has a scripted shower scene at the beginning of the game. There is man bum.<\/p>\n<\/a>Second is Scott Shelby, a middle-aged, portly private eye who has been hired by the families of the previous victims to investigate the murders. This guy remains fairly low-key at the outset and somewhat tangential to the others, since he has his own plot arc, involving an unlikely sidekick in the form of the mother of one of the victims, a\u00a0rich\u00a0CEO and his depraved son.\u00a0All this leaves\u00a0him very little opportunity to interact with the rest of the cast, to the point where it sometimes feels like he\u2019s in a different story altogether. Couple that with the fact that his chapters don\u2019t really gather steam until the end of the game, and the fact that he doesn\u2019t exactly have the flashiest personality, and you get a character that\u2019s easy to overlook. So easy that I\u00a0was actually surprised to realise that he gets the most fight scenes of the entire cast.\u00a0Bit of a shame. Thankfully, though, no shower scene for him.<\/p>\n<\/a>Third is Norman Jayden\u2013or Nahman, as fans have affectionately dubbed him, due to his voice actor\u2019s decidedly odd choice of accent\u2013a young, shrewd (and cute) smartass of an FBI agent with a drug problem, who has been sent to help the local police investigate the murders. He is, hands down, my favourite of the four and the overall fan favourite as well. Not only could he be Fox Mulder\u2019s cousin (loner agent with unorthodox methods), but his chapters deal hands-on with the murder investigation. He\u2019s the proud owner of an ARI (Augmented Reality Interface): a pair of sunglasses and a glove, which create an interactive interface for scanning crime scenes and analysing clues. Think of a mix between Minority Report<\/em> and CSI<\/em>. And not only do you get to play super-<\/a>sleuth with that snazzy toy, but you’re also confronted with Jayden\u2019s addiction issues (to take or not to take), his antagonistic relationship with his cop colleagues and the decidedly spectacular fights he gets himself into. \u201cI seem to spend most of my time getting the shit kicked out of me\u201d, as he says himself. Poor Norm. And no shower scene for him either (alas!). But his chapters include a very clear reference to The Shining<\/em>, for any Kubrick fans.<\/p>\n<\/a>Fourth is Madison Paige, a young journalist with an insomnia problem. She encounters a battered Ethan in a motel, where she has checked in because the impersonal environment helps her sleep. She then decides to ferret out his secrets. Depending on your decisions, she can also ferret her way into his pants. I raised an eyebrow when the semi-interactive hanky-panky popped up. Three years earlier, Mass Effect<\/em> got all but burned at the stake for including a glimpse of a bare bum during a minute-long cutscene, and this got through without making any waves? It\u2019s not that I\u2019m shocked at the content, which is pretty tame, but I didn\u2019t expect this much tolerance after only three years. Anyways. Madison is plucky and gutsy. Problem is, not only does she have a killer hip-swing when she walks, but she features in a fight scene <\/a>in underwear, a shower scene, a booty-shaking dancing scene followed by a striptease, a sex scene and an escape from a drill-wielding maniac which looks like something straight out of Hostel<\/em>.\u00a0All of this is optional (except the fight scene in underwear), and there\u2019s even a trophy for avoiding the striptease, but I still felt that her status as the only female protagonist was just<\/em> a tad overexploited. Sure, she\u2019s a looker, but was that really her only contribution to the story? Especially since her role is otherwise somewhat redundant.<\/p>\n<\/a>fully intended). First of all, an additional supernatural plotline was originally intended but dropped along the way. Significant traces of it still remain (Ethan\u2019s blackouts), and not only do they feel distinctly out of place, but they never lead to anything. Secondly, there\u2019s the identity of the killer. It\u2019s always the same, so obviously, once you finish the game, the element of surprise is lost, although you can go for the \u201cPerfect Crime\u201d trophy (which, as you can guess, involves letting the killer get away) to mix things up. However, once you do know whodunit, it feels forced. In one episode, at least, there’s an evident struggle to make the killer’s identity fit with the events as depicted. As if the writers were trying too hard to be clever. Thirdly, some of the epilogues were clearly written with a precise continuity of events in mind, but you can still obtain them by doing things differently. The resulting ending sequences feel a bit sloppy (eg. awkwardly fitting dialogue lines, or Ethan appearing cleanly shaved in one scene and bearded in the next one). Fourthly, there are plenty of minute inconsistencies riddling the game (eg. Madison acting surprised upon hearing the killer’s name, when she has no reason to be),\u00a0but going into more\u00a0detail would mean spoilers, so I shall refrain. Finally, the ball was dropped in the DLC<\/abbr> department. There was a whole string of additional episodes planned under the title of Heavy Rain Chronicles<\/em> to explore each character\u2019s past. However, only one episode was made, featuring Madison in yet another escape-from-maniac situation, which is both underwhelming and disappointing (can you tell I wanted more Jayden?).<\/p>\n