[Coop]

. So unless the vast majority of those variations are superficial, there should be plenty of replay value to Heavy Rain

I would say most are small.... only the last 25% of the game has anything substantial that can change.

[Lucien21]

Finished it on the first playthrough and fecking loved it.

My ending..Spoilers

Spoiler:

I got most of the ending I think. All the characters are alive, until the police shot Ethan. The killer got his comeuppance after the fact and Norman quit the FBI. I think I must have missed some clues on the FBI guy scenes

[SamandMax]

There are a lot of scenes that have different outcomes, but there aren't a lot of scenes where the outcomes will affect the overall arc of the story or your ending. When you play through the game once, it kind of gives you a peek behind the curtain, so every time you play through it afterwards you kinda know how big or little each decision you have to make is, and there's never that same sense of spontaneous decision-making you have the first time around. It's still fun to play through again though, it's interesting to be able to manipulate the story in unique ways.

[Burns11]

I immediately started a new game wanting to play through again now that I know everyone's true motives, making decisions that best fit and not necessarily what I would do. I want to find all the possible endings as well, though I may use a guide to do that as efficiently as I can.

[HieroHero]

I just finished. Heavy Rain is one of my favorite games of all time. It was incredible. I am not going to rush into replaying it. The decisions I made in those split seconds, ultimately determined the story I was told, and the inevitable outcomes. I'm really quite pleased with that experience. I regret some of my actions, but that's what happens, that's life. I hope this game sells millions, if only all video games strived for something like this..instead of how many people you can kill..

[Jannik]

Originally Posted by SamandMax

There are a lot of scenes that have different outcomes, but there aren't a lot of scenes where the outcomes will affect the overall arc of the story...

That's by design - David Cage call that 'bendable stories', 'rubberband stories', or something similar.

Personally I think that's a good solution. It's better to write one core story, that reflects the vision of the storyteller. Having multiple "plot paths" would be like taking a theme and some characters and try to write e.g. 5-10-15 stories. I think it's impossible, without watering down the quality of each story. And the vision would be watered down as well.

Of course, sometimes it makes sense to allow the player to "manipulate" the game in a way that changes some of the plot points. But IMO it has to be done in a way that doesn't change too much of the plot.

[D.C.]

I've just completed Heavy Rain, truly one of the best games I have ever played. Not just in the adventure genre either. There's a loose end I most definitely want answered, but as a whole this is something very special.

I'll write up more thoughts later, but the experience is still fresh and I'm going to contemplate it some.

[D.C.]

Does anyone know when we can expect the first instalment of the Heavy Rain Chronicles DLC?

[Burns11]

If you have a preorder or special edition code they are supposed to work now, as for buying it I have no idea. I think the special edition was supposed to have the first episode exclusive for a month though.

Edit: Anyone else run into the game stopping bugs? My second playthrough it can't load the second part of a chapter I had already played through the first time and nothing about that chapter should have changed.

[D.C.]

Originally Posted by Burns11

Anyone else run into the game stopping bugs? My second playthrough it can't load the second part of a chapter I had already played through the first time and nothing about that chapter should have changed.

I had some pretty serious problems. (Long loading times, lag, etc.) I installed the patch and restarted from the chapter before the one I had troubles with and it seemed to work fine after that. Just start the game while connected to PSN and it should patch automatically if you haven't already. Hopefully you can work it out.

Originally Posted by Burns11

If you have a preorder or special edition code they are supposed to work now, as for buying it I have no idea. I think the special edition was supposed to have the first episode exclusive for a month though.

Thanks for the information! I got the standard edition and I didn't pre-order, I really should've though. Luckily I got one of the few remainings copies left at the store only an hour after opening on the release day. Man, I've got Heavy Rain withdrawal I think. I can't wait to play the DLC.

[Burns11]

Nah, I've done just about everything possible, including going back several chapters. I'm not too worked up about it, I'm sure it'll get worked out eventually, I can play other things in the interim. I was also able to see just about all the endings anyway, by playing the later chapters.

[Sughly]

Speaking of bugs I ran into a hell of a lot of issues during the game. One major one came in the ending actually, when

Spoiler:

Jayden was doing his thing and all those little tanks popped up, his character model went skitzo. His head periodically turned into a triangle before it disappeared and left behind these floating, freaky-ass eyes and his top row of teeth. Scary, to say the least. And I didn't even take any drugs with him.

[Wolfrider]

Yeah the DLC codes work now. I played through the first episode last night.

Spoiler:

It was a little underwhelming, it's actually just one of the press demos they showed before the game was released. Really short too. I shouldn't complain though - I did get it for free. Hopefully the next episodes will be longer (an hour or two at least).

I keep hearing these reports of bugs and honestly I must be one of the lucky ones. The first time I played through the game (on a 80 GB PS3) I didn't experience a single issue. No weird graphics or audio hiccups and certainly no crashes. My second playthrough is currently on a different PS3 (a 20 GB one) and I'm noticing a couple of odd things. Longer than normal load times. An audio hiccup here and there. I wonder if some of these bugs are caused by differences in hardware?

[HieroHero]

Wrote a Heavy Rain review for anyone who is interested

[Burns11]

It's quite possible hardware differences are part of it. I didn't have a single problem, through 1 full playthrough and a couple of runs through the final few chapters, until it failed to load the second half of the chapter it's stuck on.

[D.C.]

My sister played through Heavy Rain on the same PS3 I used and had no troubles at all. That makes me think there's something very specific going on that triggers some of these problems to occur.

[Burns11]

Did she play on a new save? I get the distinct feeling that this is an issue with corrupt save files, or at least that's my untested theory (I moved on to playing Assassin's Creed II until a fix).

[D.C.]

Yeah, different save. Gives some weight to your corrupt data theory.

[Luther10]

Wow, I've never seen a game review making this much splash. Its just sad that the reviewer wasn't even allowed to have his/her own opinion. A few of the posters who talked the loudest in the comments section, seem to me they have not played the game. And I did replied to a poster who were making false claims of the game without even playing, but I guess my comment did not make it passed approval because its missing.

Anyway, I don't understand why some people here are getting so worked up when it comes to Heavy Rain. And not only here that its happening, I had even a worse time over at Justadventure. I started a HR thread over there right around release time because of its non-existance in that forum, and I immediately got yelled at. People were saying something like they do not care about the game, its not an adventure game so it does not belong there in the forum, and its not on pc so they have no interest, and it went on and on... And I always thought gamers who play adventure games are the nicest and the warmest people around.....

[Intrepid Homoludens]

Originally Posted by Luther10

And I always thought gamers who play adventure games are the nicest and the warmest people around.....

Welcome to reality. Those adventure gamers you had to deal with are still gamers, ultimately no different from any other kind of gaming fanatic. They can be just as snobby, arrogant, rude, and dismissive. They are people after all.

Thankfully there are others who are nothing like that and are understanding of the diversity in gamedom and can even appreciate it all.