As a 2010 PS3 exclusive, Heavy Rain was touted as a relatively early example of video games being art. With its cinematic approach and mature themes, it appeared a likely candidate to be taken seriously by skeptics, who argued that video games were 'mere' entertainment.

Looking back, it is a miracle that Heavy Rain didn't get universally panned by critics at the time.

Explaining everything that's wrong with the game would take longer than its approximately 9-hour runtime, so we shall stick to the basics.

Heavy Rain's script is bad, even by video game standards. We start from the point of view of one of the four playable main characters, Ethan, who loses one of his sons after the latter barely gets scraped by a car that must've driven no faster than 10mph at the point of impact. This implausible event sets the tone for how contrived the rest of the story is.

Throughout the game, major events keep occurring not because logic demands them, but because they are needed to drive the plot forward. Whether it's Ethan somehow losing track of his other son or FBI agent Norman (one of the other protagonists) getting into a scrap with Mike Tyson from Wish, few things in the story make actual sense when you stop to think about them.

The advantage of video game narratives is that a bad script can still be somewhat redeemed by a stellar presentation and performance. Sadly, the voice acting in this game is often lazy, and many of the side characters and objects look lackluster and clunky compared to the detailed, fleshed-out look of the protagonists. You truly can't take three steps in this game without tumbling into the uncanny valley.

Possibly the worst aspect of Heavy Rain is the gameplay. The movement controls are clunky, sluggish and unfun. They severely restrict the player's movement, because God forbid we take one step outside the beaten path. Heavy Rain is also from the era when quick-time events were everywhere, and they were employed lavishly here in a poor and lazy attempt to add some interactivity to this story-heavy game. Granted, Heavy Rain was from an age before Life is Strange and Firewatch, so there were less templates to go by for story-focused games. But that doesn't make it any less jarring that Heavy Rain is filled to the brim with arcade-gamey elements that seldom fail to suck the tension out of every set piece. Press X to Jason.

The gameplay in fact reminded me a lot of the forgotten Wii game Disaster: Day of Crisis. It was a cheesy, over-the-top interactive disaster movie whose main purpose was to show the player the many different uses of the Wiimote's motion controls. The difference was that that game did not seem to take itself seriously for one moment, whereas we are expected to consider Heavy Rain an engaging piece of narrative art.

In fact, while Heavy Rain can be a slog to play through and is inconceivably stupid in many regards, it is not boring. Disassociate yourself from the pretenses attributed to it and embrace it for the goofy, cheesy interactive disaster it is. At the very least, you will have an interesting time.

Heavy Rain is a fascinating artifact of a time when the industry's standards were much lower. Once hailed as a masterpiece for its storytelling, playing Heavy Rain in the current day and age makes it stand out as the perfect exhibit of how far most games at the time were removed from any sort of artistic merit. On a more positive note, we have thankfully come a long way since this game was considered the pinnacle of video game storytelling.

One day, it'll all just seem like a bad dream.

As a 2010 PS3 exclusive, Heavy Rain was touted as a relatively early example of video games being art. With its cinematic approach and mature themes, it appeared a likely candidate to be taken seriously by skeptics, who argued that video games were 'mere' entertainment. Looking back, it is a miracle that Heavy Rain didn't get universally panned by critics at the time. Explaining everything that's wrong with the game would take longer than its approximately 9-hour runtime, so we shall stick to the basics. Heavy Rain's script is bad, even by video game standards. We start from the point of view of one of the four playable main characters, Ethan, who loses one of his sons after the latter barely gets scraped by a car that must've driven no faster than 10mph at the point of impact. This implausible event sets the tone for how contrived the rest of the story is. Throughout the game, major events keep occurring not because logic demands them, but because they are needed to drive the plot forward. Whether it's Ethan somehow losing track of his other son or FBI agent Norman (one of the other protagonists) getting into a scrap with Mike Tyson from Wish, few things in the story make actual sense when you stop to think about them. The advantage of video game narratives is that a bad script can still be somewhat redeemed by a stellar presentation and performance. Sadly, the voice acting in this game is often lazy, and many of the side characters and objects look lackluster and clunky compared to the detailed, fleshed-out look of the protagonists. You truly can't take three steps in this game without tumbling into the uncanny valley. Possibly the worst aspect of Heavy Rain is the gameplay. The movement controls are clunky, sluggish and unfun. They severely restrict the player's movement, because God forbid we take one step outside the beaten path. Heavy Rain is also from the era when quick-time events were everywhere, and they were employed lavishly here in a poor and lazy attempt to add some interactivity to this story-heavy game. Granted, Heavy Rain was from an age before Life is Strange and Firewatch, so there were less templates to go by for story-focused games. But that doesn't make it any less jarring that Heavy Rain is filled to the brim with arcade-gamey elements that seldom fail to suck the tension out of every set piece. [i]Press X to Jason.[/i] The gameplay in fact reminded me a lot of the forgotten Wii game Disaster: Day of Crisis. It was a cheesy, over-the-top interactive disaster movie whose main purpose was to show the player the many different uses of the Wiimote's motion controls. The difference was that that game did not seem to take itself seriously for one moment, whereas we are expected to consider Heavy Rain an engaging piece of narrative art. In fact, while Heavy Rain can be a slog to play through and is inconceivably stupid in many regards, it is not boring. Disassociate yourself from the pretenses attributed to it and embrace it for the goofy, cheesy interactive disaster it is. At the very least, you will have an interesting time. Heavy Rain is a fascinating artifact of a time when the industry's standards were much lower. Once hailed as a masterpiece for its storytelling, playing Heavy Rain in the current day and age makes it stand out as the perfect exhibit of how far most games at the time were removed from any sort of artistic merit. On a more positive note, we have thankfully come a long way since this game was considered the pinnacle of video game storytelling. [i]One day, it'll all just seem like a bad dream.[/i]