First Impressions of Heavy Rain

I got the game Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, it took exactly a week to ship from England. It came out not much cheaper, since it's a new game, but on the plus side I picked it up with the pre-order without any trouble. A bit of a shame that it's region two and only has English, though I wouldn't have played with Russian voice-over anyway, but Russian subtitles wouldn't have hurt, and even so about 90 percent is clear with the English ones. I hadn't looked into the game's technical specs beforehand, and was surprised that it's in 720p, given that the demo was 1080p, but the graphics are dated as it is and nicely smoothed over, so the difference isn't noticeable, and once you're into it you're past caring about flat tree branches and the like anyway.

I played it for an evening; at times the routine chores can get tiresome, but they're well interspersed with drama, thriller and action, and in the end, when the plot starts gaining momentum, it's hard to tear yourself away from the game, except maybe at the moment of switching from one main character to another, and even then only if it isn't done smoothly.

Yes, this is interactive cinema with graphics that are average by today's standards, but in the end it works better than ordinary films of the genre, since just watching isn't very interesting, whereas here you find yourself at the center of events, you influence them, you make decisions and you distinctly feel the characters' emotions, which are only heightened by the music and the controller vibrations. But it's also a video game with an excellent plot, with puzzles you want to know the answer to, though you may fail to reach it because of your own actions. I hope the plot isn't as simple as it might seem on second glance, and that the ending won't fall short of the beginning, unlike the creators' previous game, Fahrenheit. My impressions of that one have somehow already faded, I can't even compare them now.