Are you some kind of clown?  Or are you saying that you are interacting just to get the trophies (which is fine; that's the only reason I was still playing, other than for this experiment), but I can't answer your nonsense question...  This is the only time I've tried it, but so far, it hasn't had any ill effect...  Just like in the demo, if you ignore the controller during the Troy fight, Troy still leaves, and there is no effect on the story.  Outside of one or two sequences for each character, it's the same.  You can even fail all the "trials" and still get the same endings by just passing the same six QTEs.  It doesn't REQUIRE much interactivity, but you're welcome to twiddle away to get one of the other 30 second segments at the end or a different trophy, go nuts...  but otherwise, most of what you're doing doesn't really matter outside of a handful of scenes, just like most games morality systems.  It's just sad that, in this game, ALL there is to it is those "decisions" and only a handful of things have any effect.

Yeah the control suck sometime, but for the camera part, I think theres something you dont know. At all time, you can press L1 to move the camera to a different spot, its a very very good idea. I was even wandering why nobody thought about that before. Its by far the best camera ive ever seen for a fixed camera game. But control, sometime, they are very annoying.

If 4 is too harsh and 6 too generous, than I guess you would give the game around 5, which I really respect. But I hope your as critic as this when reviewing other games. You should write a complete review tho, because in this paragraph, your only talking about negative things, so its really easy to justify a low score. I dont think theres only negative things to say about this game. The lack of interactivity is actually the most interactivity we can find in our current video-game library, I think that should be taken into account. For the glitch and graphics problems you were stating, are you sure your not exagerating? I finished the game already, in this console generation, it seems to me this game is far from being glitchy. I mean, I hardly remember 1 game this gen, that didnt have any kind of small bug. Also, I thought the presentation and attention to detail in the various environment was amazing.  But well, ill give you benefit of doubt that your always critic like that when reviewing game, so its alright . Its bound to make people talk tho, I just hope someone will not come here and say people are fanboy because they dont agree with you.

I actually wrote a full, spoiler laden review for the game for another forum I post on, and gave the game a 75 out of 100% (they are the type of site that considers 6 failing) after my first complete playthrough, pointing out the engrossing nature of the game, but balancing it against some of the distractions inherent within it.  I've since gone back and noted further flaws  and issues, and the actual lack of impact your decisions have after repeat playthroughs.  Several days removed from the initial review, as the presentation is still superb, but the game is heavily flawed, and calling it "more interactive" than any other game is a major stretch, as there just isn't even that much to do...  Uncharted 2, Assassins Creed, and other action/adventure games are FAR more interactive by their very nature, and as far as decisions effecting the game and the outcome (the other major selling point for this game), your decisions have far more impact in other recent titles like BioShock and Mass Effect 2 than here (both those games are actually far more interactive as well).  Compared to its peers, Heavy Rain's graphics aren't as nice as Uncharted 2, it's less interactive than any other game out right now, and your decisions have less impact than any non-linear RPG or many of the games with a morality system.  It's rather mediocre in the current pack of games out there.

Personally, I consider a 5 to be "average" on a ten point scale.  Heavy Rain does some stuff great and some stuff terrible, resulting in an  "average" overall.

I agree, Uncharted 2 is more of a movie, as it plays out as one from the opening sequence to the very end of the game. I read Heavy Rain 'important' decisions and outcomes are only influential from about 75% of the way through the game. Still interested in the title, but will probably pick up HR when it comes out on budget.

This is mostly accurate...  There are one or two earlier scenes where a character can actually die because you failed a QTE, but it's only one or two with one specific character, and those are balanced out by the fact that later scenes are still pretty much "on rails" with you only "interacting" because if you dont' walk over to the door or press the down arrow, the game just sits there.  But, really, outside of maybe six scenes total, your interations with the game ammount to viewing the "alternate/deleted scenes" menu in the special features of any other movie you own.  Yeah, it doesn't look exactly the same as when you hit every button, but it makes no real difference in the story.  Even the much-vaunted "22 endings" are really just a handful of short segments (epilogues) that, for the most part, only depend on what you do in the very last scene.  A certain character can die in the first segment where he can, and it only has minor impact on the story 1) you dont' get to ply as that character anymore and 2) someone else takes their place in a QTE at the end with no real impact one way or another (like, it's not harder for the other person or anything like that) and you still get the same "this person died" blurb during the news report summary, and then one scene about them being dead (which is the same no matter when they died).

Heavy Rain is pretty much just a B-movie thriller with the option to view the deleted/alternate scenes during the playthrough.  It's still just as linear as most games, and since the whole point is that "your actions change everything" and they don't, it's really kind of a failure.

That said, the first play through, when you're too wrapped up in "maybe this will happen!  I bet that person is the killer!" to notice all the flaws, and you're trying to hard to win every chllenge because you're afraid of what might happen, the game is really pretty enjoyable (until the plot starts revealing that every idea you had is better than the one they went with, and 90% of the things you saw that made you think "this should be interesting!" are just dropped without another mention).  I would really recommend anyone looking at this game to rent it over a long weekend, beat it, maybe check out the variations they can cause in a scene or two, then return it and play something with a bit more meat to it.

After finishing it on friday I think that 40 was being too harsh (I do think points should be given for effort) but I do think most of the reviews are being way too kind. I would probably give it between a 60 and 70. I keep seeing people talk about how amazing the story is but honestly I have seen Sci Fi originals with better writing, there are just too many nonsensical plot holes. A friend of mine who thinks its game of the year excused some of the issues I had with QTE's that didnt turn out right, so I replayed a couple hours making completely different choices...but the story problems were still there..in fact a couple got worse.

Im starting to wonder if the difference in opinion and willingness to overlook what I see as huge flaws is realtive to our lifestyles, Im a rather voracious reader juggling a couple books at a time, I hate most television but am a film fan. The last book he had to read was probably on the required reading list in high school 15 years ago, he watches tv constantly and his favorite film last year was 2012. Not trying to insult his intelligence, hes actually quite brilliant makes me look like a complete bumbling idiot around anything mechanical, and can solve complex prolems in his head that I have to write down to figure out. He saw Heavy Rain as some cerebral experience and is talking about it like its the best game he ever played. I saw it as a rather hackneyed story with too many inconsistancies to take seriously...as a result I didnt find it nearly as emmersive as he did. I dont see either of our opinions of the game as wrong...we just have different standards...I was looking for something to put the "games as art" argument to rest he was looking for entertainment. He got an Oscar winner...I got a Roger Corman film.

Opinions, Opinions.....

(clears throat, proceedes with a calm, gentle voice):

Opinions are like asses. Everybody has one, most of them stink.

One question to answer here, Would you pay $60 or £39.99 to go watch a movie?

Especially one that went straight to video?

I've got a coupel friends that are still shocked I don't think it's the BEST GAME EVAH!!!, so I keep pushing them to give it another playthrough...  Both that have have lowered their opinion of the game, and the other just isn't listening, but I can barely talk to him since i don't want to ruin his first playthrough by spoiling things.

A 60 is fair enough, given the range most sites scores cover...  It's a very average game with a LOT of flaws but some real promise.