I enjoyed the game very much, having finished it (for the first of probably at least 3) yesterday morning. At first I thought "man, that was kind of short", but then I realized it was more of the fact that I was completely sucked into the game. I can't give a precise hour count, but I'd put it somewhere between 15-20 hours total. If somebody told me it was 25 hours, I wouldn't be shocked.

I'd been wanting a good murder-myster for some time now, and luckily Heavy Rain delivers (likely only to be trumped by LA Noire later this year for sure..../drools). The game starts in a very typical manner, providing a picture of tranquility, only to have this image shattered completely shortly thereafter. There is some flashback incorporated...to set future plot of course, and then a flashforward of about 2 years. The mystery begins.

Ultimately, this game is the story of the Origami Killer. Somebody is kidnapping/killing children at an alarming rate, in a sadistic manner, leaving behind origami figures. The game is played via the POV's of 4 characters. At first, they start out independent of one another, but as the game progresses their plot-lines begin to meld together to one degree or another. To a certain extent, this merging is entirely dependent upon the choices you make when playing each character. I never went back for a "re-do", I just took what happened and went with it so it's not clear to me how much variation truly exists. However, I have replayed at least 1-chapter (after beating the game, you have the option do to this. The game is broken down into chapters which cover the various POV's) and based on my choices I came away with about 10 extra minutes of action that I had previously never seen. This give me the idea that there is a good deal of variation into how the game chapters play out.

The game-play itself is near-exclusive QTE's (quick-time-events). For those who don't know what that is, think of the old Dragon's Lair arcade game. You're forced into executing a certain button sequence in real-time, as the action is unfolding. Your ability (or lack thereof) to follow the button sequencing determines how the action plays out, your "successs or failure" if you will. However, this is not a game to think in terms of success vs failure...what happens is what is. Your ability to follow the sequences sets the story. I would strongly discourage a player from going back, trying to "fix" choices. Ultimately, you can't "lose" the game, you merely change how the story plays out, for good or bad. And there are numerous situations where you have the option of two or more choices (such as killing a person or not), and your decision, made without pressure for the most part (I say this because at times, if you wait too long, the game will just move forward on it's own, and it's not clear how the "winning" decision is chosen), determines how the story will advance.

I was disappointed in the overall lack of exploration in this game. Going in, I imagined traveling around this world doing investigative work trying to solve the mystery of the Origami Killer. Early on, you learn that one of the character POV's is that of an FBI agent who has a really cool glasses/glove combo super-tech. This gave me the wrong impression that I would be utilizing this technology heavily in my search for clues regarding the mystery, but ultimately this feature failed to deliver as it merely came across as gimmicky. There was limited use, and even then it was more of the "hold-my-hand" variety, with little overall development during the story. Each of the POV's are basically scripted in terms of the locations you're at and the environment you're interacting with. There's really no choices to be made at all on this front.

I thought the overall story was good, and I feel like I should have had a much better idea about the ending than I did. Whether I can chalk that up to good story-telling, or poor observation on my part, I don't know. It may be that I was so wrapped-up in advancing the story that I failed to take in the overall scope, but either way the ending was nice. There were what seemed to be clear red herring's introduced early, but with just enough plausibility as to give you pause. This helped create some tension during the game, and added to the sense of surprise at the end.

While the story unfolded, there were some definite head-scratcher moments where you thought "why in the hell would the character do that?!?" Once or twice I was taken aback by the incredulity of the choices being made. Luckily, as the story plays out and you finish the game, most of these choices become a little more clear and understandable. Some remain scratchers however, and you just have to chalk it up to it being a game. Can't get too caught up in it and all.

There were more than a few "WTF!" moments for sure. And not in a bad, game-mechanic-story way, but in a "holy shit, did that really just happen" way. Seriously, there's some f-ed up shizzle in this game. One scene, which I won't give away, happens very early and gave me a bit of the creeps....sometimes violence, even in a game, is shocking.

Overall, this is a great game that I would encourage anybody to try. If for some reason you have a strong aversion to story, to drama, and to the idea of an entire game being composed of QTE's than I would discourage you from playing this game. It's more like you're watching an interactive movie than you're playing a video game. Great graphics, some of the best facial-animations to date, and well-made settings serve to set the mood and feeling of this game right from the start. Replay value would appear to be very good, as you can likely replay the story 3-4 different ways, with rather substantial changes. I don't believe you could change the ending all that much, but the path you take to get there can be quite different.