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An adult-themed, mystery thriller that's definitely worth the price of admission.

Heavy Rain is the probably the most mature "M for Mature" rated console title I've ever had the pleasure of playing. It's one of the few games that has not simply earned its rating just because it may feature copious amounts of gore, guns, blood and/or boobs. Heavy Rain for the PlayStation 3 is "Mature" because it was designed for adults, and as a gamer fitting squarely into that category, I very much appreciate what it has to offer.

Frankly, as a father of 3 young kids, Heavy Rain freaked me the hell out. Since I'd rather not spoil any of the non-disclosed plot in this review, you'll just have to trust me on that. The most I'll say is that there's a murderer known only as the Origami Killer on the loose, and he's abducting and killing children for some unknown reason. A couple of years after a family tragedy, the son of Heavy Rain's main (and I'll use that term loosely) protagonist, Ethan Mars, disappears, and Ethan takes it upon himself to try to track him down before it's too late. Along the way, three other individuals also get pulled into the search for the killer for their own personal reasons. These additional playable characters include Madison Paige, a journalist/reporter; Scott Shelby, a private eye; and Norman Jayden, an FBI profiler. Their respective storylines run in parallel, and as expected, they can and will cross paths a few times. The story is full of plot twists, red herrings and side stories, and it all unfolds in a very interesting way.

Heavy Rain is dubbed an "Interactive Drama" by Quantic Dream and SCE, and it's a rather fitting description. The game is highly cinematic, and as compared to other modern HD releases, it is very different than most anything else that's out there. In a good way. Quantic Dream's earlier title, Indigo Prophecy/ Farenheit, was a taste of their grand movie-style game aspirations, and Heavy Rain is clearly the very polished end product. In terms of gameplay, it's also a more unique type of experience.

You control your character and can move about an environment, not all that dissimilar to an older style graphic adventure game. Your character can interact with other characters as well as their surroundings in a context sensitive way by utilizing a really unique method of button presses, analog stick movements and motion controller gestures. The slick, dynamic user interface works extremely well in providing not only gameplay commands, but also feedback on what may be happening within the game itself. If a stressful situation arises that requires a difficult decision to be made, the UI behavior changes in such a way to relay that stress onto you, as the player. If a scene requires a little bit more action, there are branched, timed events using similar techniques. If you are familiar with QTE events made popular by games like Shenmue for the Sega Dreamcast, than you will have a vague idea on how these faster paced action scenes work. It's not quite the same in Heavy Rain however, as the action scenes feature many layers and branching results which can greatly affect the game and the storyline.

Quantic Dream definitely figured out how to convey a sense of stress and tension within Heavy Rain. There were a fair number of instances when I was sitting at the edge of my seat unknowingly gritting my teeth while certain gameplay and story events unfolded before me. Whatever the result, there was almost always a certain sense of relief afterwards. These tense moments, sometimes requiring quick decisions, is really one of the hooks in Heavy Rain that kept me playing the game late into the night.

Heavy Rain is an incredible showcase visually. In some respects, it may be one of the best looking games ever created. Borrowing heavily from film noir, the overall style is dark, gritty, imperfect and realistic. The performance captured characters are a sight to behold, looking shockingly photoreal on occasion, faces in particular. The uncanny valley obviously still exists, but Heavy Rain sometimes escapes it to an extent. The effects, texturing and image quality can border on CG quality during a majority of the game, and the framerate surprisingly holds its own most of the time. There are some sparse instances of lower quality textures, angular models, or fake lighting/shadows in certain areas, and it's usually the exception. And the water, oh, the water. With rain being a prevalent theme throughout the game, the liquid effects, from rain to tears, look spectacular.

Being very much like a movie, Heavy Rain is fully voiced, and the acting, for the most part, is very good. A portion of the voice actors, I believe, are natively French speaking, and there's something occasionally off with their English performances. Some acting is definitely better than others, and Ethan in particular sometimes sounds odd and forced most often. Considering the sheer amount of dialog in the game, it's not entirely unexpected. There are plenty of emotional situations in the game and they are usually handled really well by the voice actors, so that's really all that matters.

Honestly, the only issue I can see anyone really having with Heavy Rain is the controls. Walking, while animated fantastically, is a little robotic. The slow walking speed and the need to hold R2 while pushing in a direction can get tiresome. I personally do not have a problem with the action sequences, but I do know that there are a certain segment of gamers who have a thing against any scheme even resembling a QTE. So I do have to take that into account. There are some silly, gimmicky scenes here and there as well, not to mention a few plot holes.

With a surprisingly long adventure, depending on how the game was played and the choices which were made, Heavy Rain should keep most players entertained for around 8 - 10+ hours. The beauty of the game is that there are so many diverse and equally interesting paths through the game with wildly different outcomes, that it's hard not to replay the whole game (or at least certain pivotal chapters) a couple of times. Heavy Rain is also quite a good spectator game, and it seems difficult for others to not get sucked into watching and/or involved in making decisions in how to proceed.

Heavy Rain is a unique and ambitious, once in a generation type of game with exceptional production values and an enthralling story. Its minor gameplay issues can be overlooked with the end product being so well put together. For adult PlayStation 3 gamers wanting an actual mature "Mature" rated title, here's your chance to make the right choice.