We’ve Been Bugged!
Heavy Rain crashed my PS3 – I was midway through a section and had to pause the game, which had worked fine on previous attempts. This time, however, the game froze before it had chance to overlay the admittedly impressive menu system, and required a hard reset. This happened more than once, but never during the course of the action itself, and is probably something Quantic Dreams could patch out.
What was less impressive, though, was the fact that should you ‘push’ a scene too far in the opposite direction (deliberately ignoring prompts) it’s possible to confused the game. Going back to the FBI Agent, I chose to head straight to his office rather than meeting the Police team, and there followed a cut scene with two people talking but only one person visible. Even a handshake was met with thin air.
And then there’s the game getting a bit confused where you are on occasion. Ethan’s interactions with son Shaun aren’t the most believable at the best of times, but when Ethan suggests we “go inside” and get “out of the rain” because he shouldn’t be leaving Shaun alone when he’s stood right behind him in the kitchen any fourth wall that the game has tried to hard to build is shattered instantly.
But, don’t let this put you off, for the remainder of the game, Heavy Rain performed extremely well. Due partly to a massive install (during which time you’ll have made at least 3 Origami birds) the load times are minimal and there’s little interruption during the game itself. It’s not as slick as some other first party titles, but it’s certainly a technical marvel, sporting some of the best visuals ever seen on the PS3.