Call me an elitist, call me a jerk-off I don't really care because Heavy Rain might just have surpassed Mass Effect 2 as my Game of the Year (So Far).  It is remarkable the number of amazing games we are being bombarded with so early here in 2010, and don't worry I'm not complaining.

I just completed my first and possibly only play through of Heavy Rain.  "What?". You make ask why I would only play the game one time?  The truth is, I don't want to ruin the integrity of the story, MY story by even bothering to see the other options, as far as I'm concerned the only ending to Heavy Rain is the ending that I received.  The game is incredible in that it makes every decision, every button push, every movement of an analog stick feel significant and worthwhile.  Furthermore it does something no game has ever made me feel, regret.

Even in games like Mass Effect 2, where decisions are made, the choices are almost always the end.  For example choosing who will die in a certain situation and having their names displayed and you have to pick.  Yes that is a tough moral choice but what Heavy Rain does is gives you countless options and you never know how the choices will lead you to the end.  It is a difference that is difficult to articulate but clear once you play both.

Within seconds of making certain choices in Heavy Rain I regretted what I had done, and worse yet, I made some decisions on accident.  Without spoiling anything there was a situation where a character was in a stand-off with another, I had several buttons and analog movement options pop-up and in the heat of the moment and the confusion I pushed a button that ended up pulling the trigger.  It was truly an accident for both me and interestingly the character who shot.

Also I just want to mention how good of a mystery Heavy Rain is.  I thought for sure I had the Origami Killer picked out about half-way through the game.  Literally up to the point where they flat out said this is who the Origami Killer is, I truly believed I was correct in my assumption, all evidence pointed in a certain direction.  It was the most incredibly plot twist I have ever seen done in this medium.

The characters you play as are all individuals and messed up in their own special way, and within seconds of knowing each of them, I liked them all.  Madison is a very strong female character in more than one way.  Norman, the FBI agent is surprisingly deep, Scott is different in that we don't often see characters in games who are: overweight, middle-aged, and just "normal" like he is.  Ethan wins by default because we share a name. No, in all seriousness, he is a fascinating character who you can ultimately make into a great father or a terrible excuse for one.

I won't spend long on the voice acting which has caused some debate only to say that I bought into it.  Scott is well done, and although Ethan's French accent sometimes comes through to me it didn't sound that bad.  Madison was surprisingly done well, I never once thought she was French, and although Norman's is by far the worst it still isn't that bad, it sounds strangely Brooklyn/Boston like, it is a bizarre sounding voice but in all honesty I grew to like it.  I suppose the voices are a matter of opinion, for example Jason's was terrible in my opinion but Shaun's did not bother me at all; those are the children by the way, possibly the worst voices in the whole thing.

Never has a game been so suspenseful for me personally.  What I partially blame for that is the fact that Heavy Rain is delivered in a very cinematic way.  The camera moves like it would in a movie.  What takes me out of the suspense of say a 3rd person shooter is that the camera does nothing.  You don't realize how much a camera's position matters until Heavy Rain.  In addition it is the most nervous I've ever been in a game.  Knowing that at any second a character could die and not come back, and that any button push could affect you now or a few hours later is terrifying.  I was literally shaking after one scene where Madison literally had to fight for her life.  My breathing had intensified and I was honestly quite affected by it personally.  I cringed at several moments where I felt pain the way my characters did and I cried at the end, and I am proud of that fact.

So back to my original point, people who hate this game are children.  I don't genuinely believe that, it is just a convenient title to draw in haters.  But I do believe this is a truly "Mature" game.  Doing what could be considered mundane tasks such as playing with your son are pivotal to Heavy Rain.  Early in the game Ethan is at the park trying to play with his son Shaun who has become very distant from him, I pushed him on a swing, spun him on one of those merry-go-round things, and taught him how to throw a boomerang, and as Shaun started to smile I too started to smile, it was so incredibly heartfelt and beautiful.  It is actions like these that I think will either draw people in or completely alienate them, and I'm sorry but if it takes you out, you should probably stick to games that have no story in them at all, for your sake.

I've rambled too long, but if anyone would like to have a discussion about Heavy Rain I would love to, I feel even more so than Mass 2 has recently Heavy Rain is a game that just lends itself to debate.  Maybe one day I will play it again, but for now I just want to ponder all the choices I made and reflect on what could've been and what ultimately happened for me.

Oh and F. Y. I Heavy Rain actually gives you something to do during the install.  All developers should take not and give us all pieces of paper in the game package in order to make awesome origami to kill the time.

-Ethan