Heavy Rain is a game that i've been wanting to try for so many years now as i'm a huge fan of this style of games, and now that i finally finished it (and even went as far as 100%ing it), i can safely say it's still one of the best games in this genre, and is still very much worth it (to me anyways) even 15 years after the original release date!

But i also acknowledge that this genre as a whole is simply not for everyone, so let me state this now; If you hate games where all you do is alternate between making meaningful choices AND completing QTEs then you should stop reading here and completely skip his one, as you'll most likely hate it even more. (It has more QTEs than i've ever experienced in my last 5 whole years of gaming lol, and i played stuff like The Quarry!)


Lets start with The Good:

+ The graphics still hold up surprisingly well considering how old the game is. (i'm aware that this is a remaster and not the original btw, but my point still stands.)

+ Very cinematic & atmospheric, which greatly helps to immerse you in the game & cover some of the many shortcomings it suffers from when it comes to the writing. (more on that later)

+ Minimal bugs if any.

+ Decently long, choices do matter and the game has many different endings to explore, very replayable!

+ Comes with some cool BTS extras about the making of the game, of which i only experienced "one" video & was totally looking forward to see the rest, but ended up forgetting about em & already deleted the game, and i'm only now remembering them as i'm typing this review, shoot! :(

+ A decent soundtrack that very much fits the setting & story of the game.

+ While a lot of people (understandably) hate QTEs in modern games, i actually don't mind them & even enjoy them when done right, and this game is full of them; like really full of them! something that i didn't really expect when i first got into this, as i'm simply not used to them being featured that heavily even in similar games, but i consider this to be a good thing, if you're gonna go the QTEs route may as well get your money's worth lol! (they might be a tad too quick at times for casuals though)


The So-So:

- While i consider the story to be decent & enjoyable enough, one simply can not deny the sheer number of major plot-holes the game has, i don't think i've ever experienced any story in any type of media with this much plot-holes & inconsistencies, insane stuff!

I did a quick google search earlier, and apparently there was "a whole supernatural plot that was simply removed from the game late in development" that would've explained most of the inconsistencies, but they decided to axe it to try to keep the plot "grounded & believable", but forgot to make the rest of the story make sense, shame.

- Not sure how good the KB+M controls are on this port (as i used an Xbox controller), but for me controls were fine for the most part, except for one major issue right at the start where the game refused to recognize certain interactions using my right stick, to which i had to change some settings on steam to fix it.

(If you're facing similar issues here is the fix:
Go to the game's page in your library -> Click the controller icon just below the banner (Alternatively, right click your game on Steam & access your controller configuration menu through "Properties") -> Edit Layout -> Joysticks -> Right Joystick behavior settings -> Dead Zones -> Dead Zone Shape -> Pick the "Cross" option and voila!)

- The camera is a bit janky & makes certain interactions needlessly hidden or needlessly frustrating to perform, still not the worst thing out there though.

- Voice acting is a mixed bag, good on some characters but extremely bad on others, and even varies significantly in quality in a single character's performance from line to line.

- Can get a bit tedious & repetitive to 100%, it took me 1 full playthrough + 6! partial ones to do that using a guide showing the most optimal route, it would've been even more tedious had i gone through it blind.. this gets even worse after knowing how long the credits are and the fact that there is no way to skip them, except for the ol' reliable ALT+F4..

- It's often not obvious which route or interaction will advance the plot, making exploration very annoying & discouraged.

- Achievements only pop up when loading the next scene (sometimes many scenes later), so you're often left not knowing if you did the thing correctly or not.

- I wasn't sure if i should mention this, but i honestly expected more from the endings and was left a little disappointed for most of them, they feel a bit too short & undercooked, but i understand why they did them this way i guess.

- Ethan isn't the most interesting & fun protagonist to play as.


Now to The Bad:

- Some plot-hole are borderline unacceptable for a game of this scope & size, and can & will 100% ruin the game for certain people. (my advice is to shut your brain off & never think too much about the details, for the sake of your own enjoyment.)

- The main plot-twist makes no sense at all if you really think about it. (again, try not to lol)

- The writing in itself isn't always the best, and sometimes certain characters will make the most idiotic choices ever for no real reason.

Minor spoiler ahead: (a certain non-important character barely just survived getting chocked to death after begging non stop for mercy, 0.2 seconds later he proceeds to spout the most vile/insane ♥♥♥♥ ever for no real reason as his assailant is leaving, stuff that will 100% lead him to die, why?)

- Even though i mentioned having minimal bugs, the game itself crashed for me at least 3 times, always at the end of a scene/chapter, i only lost my progress once (~10-15min of gameplay), not that big of a deal but still worth pointing out.


All in all, and despite all the shortcomings i just mentioned i still very much enjoyed Heavy Rain, and i'm looking forward to play the other 2 games as soon as i can get them, i believe the world needs a lot more games of this style so i'll support them whenever i can (as long as they're good), but i also acknowledge how biased i'm, so as much as i want to rate this an 8/10, i think it's realistically more of a 7/10.
So happy to have finally experienced the infamous SHAUN!! meme! :D

Heavy Rain is a game that i've been wanting to try for so many years now as i'm a huge fan of this style of games, and now that i finally finished it (and even went as far as 100%ing it), i can safely say it's still one of the best games in this genre, and is still very much worth it (to me anyways) even 15 years after the original release date! But i also acknowledge that this genre as a whole is simply not for everyone, so let me state this now; [b]If you hate games where all you do is alternate between making meaningful choices AND completing QTEs then you should stop reading here and completely skip his one[/b], as you'll most likely hate it even more. (It has more QTEs than i've ever experienced in my last 5 whole years of gaming lol, and i played stuff like The Quarry!) Lets start with [b]The Good[/b]: + The graphics still hold up surprisingly well considering how old the game is. (i'm aware that this is a remaster and not the original btw, but my point still stands.) + Very cinematic & atmospheric, which greatly helps to immerse you in the game & cover some of the many shortcomings it suffers from when it comes to the writing. (more on that later) + Minimal bugs if any. + Decently long, choices do matter and the game has many different endings to explore, very replayable! + Comes with some cool BTS extras about the making of the game, of which i only experienced "one" video & was totally looking forward to see the rest, but ended up forgetting about em & already deleted the game, and i'm only now remembering them as i'm typing this review, shoot! :( + A decent soundtrack that very much fits the setting & story of the game. + While a lot of people (understandably) hate QTEs in modern games, i actually don't mind them & even enjoy them when done right, and this game is full of them; like really full of them! something that i didn't really expect when i first got into this, as i'm simply not used to them being featured that heavily even in similar games, but i consider this to be a good thing, if you're gonna go the QTEs route may as well get your money's worth lol! (they might be a tad too quick at times for casuals though) [b]The So-So[/b]: - While i consider the story to be decent & enjoyable enough, one simply can not deny the sheer number of major plot-holes the game has, i don't think i've ever experienced any story in any type of media with this much plot-holes & inconsistencies, insane stuff! I did a quick google search earlier, and apparently there was "a whole supernatural plot that was simply removed from the game late in development" that would've explained most of the inconsistencies, but they decided to axe it to try to keep the plot "grounded & believable", but forgot to make the rest of the story make sense, shame. - Not sure how good the KB+M controls are on this port (as i used an Xbox controller), but for me controls were fine for the most part, except for one major issue right at the start where the game refused to recognize certain interactions using my right stick, to which i had to change some settings on steam to fix it. (If you're facing similar issues here is the fix: Go to the game's page in your library -> Click the controller icon just below the banner (Alternatively, right click your game on Steam & access your controller configuration menu through "Properties") -> Edit Layout -> Joysticks -> Right Joystick behavior settings -> Dead Zones -> Dead Zone Shape -> Pick the "Cross" option and voila!) - The camera is a bit janky & makes certain interactions needlessly hidden or needlessly frustrating to perform, still not the worst thing out there though. - Voice acting is a mixed bag, good on some characters but extremely bad on others, and even varies significantly in quality in a single character's performance from line to line. - Can get a bit tedious & repetitive to 100%, it took me 1 full playthrough + 6! partial ones to do that using a guide showing the most optimal route, it would've been even more tedious had i gone through it blind.. this gets even worse after knowing how long the credits are and the fact that there is no way to skip them, except for the ol' reliable ALT+F4.. - It's often not obvious which route or interaction will advance the plot, making exploration very annoying & discouraged. - Achievements only pop up when loading the next scene (sometimes many scenes later), so you're often left not knowing if you did the thing correctly or not. - I wasn't sure if i should mention this, but i honestly expected more from the endings and was left a little disappointed for most of them, they feel a bit too short & undercooked, but i understand why they did them this way i guess. - Ethan isn't the most interesting & fun protagonist to play as. Now to [b]The Bad[/b]: - Some plot-hole are borderline unacceptable for a game of this scope & size, and can & will 100% ruin the game for certain people. (my advice is to shut your brain off & never think too much about the details, for the sake of your own enjoyment.) - The main plot-twist makes no sense at all if you really think about it. (again, try not to lol) - The writing in itself isn't always the best, and sometimes certain characters will make the most idiotic choices ever for no real reason. Minor spoiler ahead: [spoiler](a certain non-important character barely just survived getting chocked to death after begging non stop for mercy, 0.2 seconds later he proceeds to spout the most vile/insane shit ever for no real reason as his assailant is leaving, stuff that will 100% lead him to die, why?)[/spoiler] - Even though i mentioned having minimal bugs, the game itself crashed for me at least 3 times, always at the end of a scene/chapter, i only lost my progress once (~10-15min of gameplay), not that big of a deal but still worth pointing out. All in all, and despite all the shortcomings i just mentioned i still very much enjoyed Heavy Rain, and i'm looking forward to play the other 2 games as soon as i can get them, i believe the world needs a lot more games of this style so i'll support them whenever i can (as long as they're good), but i also acknowledge how biased i'm, so as much as i want to rate this an 8/10, i think it's realistically more of a 7/10. [spoiler]So happy to have finally experienced the infamous SHAUN!! meme! :D[/spoiler]