If playing a shooter is all about guns and explosions and playing an RPG was about items and level progression, then Heavy Rain, which strongly pushes storyline as its main feature, would probably fall into a category reserved for where point-and-clicks and action adventure games merged together to create a new genre – the Interactive Film. Of course while I say “new” Quantic Dream / David Cage has certainly played around with this idea before, the last of which being the well received Fahrenheit, back in 2005.

I'm going to keep this review spoiler free, just in case you're wondering why certain elements are going to seem a little vague.

5 years later you'd wonder what sort of game Heavy Rain could shape up to be considering the time frame – given the calibre of other titles given the same amount of time to complete a project (blatantly ignoring 3D Realms). The answer is a game that has a script 20 times longer than your average Hollywood movie and the option for the player to shape how that storyline unfolds.

In order to tell this story in such a way that you'll relate to that much more, the interactive elements of the game start with introducing you to characters everyday lives. The control scheme is done in such a way that rather than simply pushing forward to walk you have to hold down R2 or you'll end up just looking around the room or similarly it isn't just a single button press to open a door, it might be a half-rotation on the analogue stick instead. Certainly it's safe to say that this works better in some situations over others, but understanding that this is their best chance of getting you to really feel like you're in the characters shoes, it's understandable.

It's noticeable quite early on that the focus has been on the characters faces. From facial motion capture, real-time shaders, tears, wrinkles, pupil dilation and dynamic hair to name a few – the end result is that the slightest emotion conveyed by the real-life actor behind the virtually created one can be portrayed right down to a slight twitching of the eyebrow or corner of the mouth. In short, it's probably some of the best motion capture work you'll have seen in any game to date. The downside of this is that certain other parts of the body and environment take a hit as far as detail goes. I'd argue this was a trivial point when in reality they get the mood just right in a lot of scenes.

Mood is certainly an integral part of Heavy Rain, in that your mood should reflect that of the character you're playing. Mr Cage certainly found the right way to put heavy in the Heavy Rain experience. When dealing with a theme revolving around how far are you willing to go for the one you love? in a Film-Noir Thriller style setting, you might find yourself feeling a little low from time-to-time. It's also why you'll end up making snap decisions that can change the outcome of the game.

That said, one could argue the downside to Heavy Rain being the control scheme, when put under pressure. For the most part, the game has a fairly even difficulty level, if you can understand that by the fair degrees of difficulty expected when comparing shaking a carton of orange juice to climbing through a building site. It is through the application of pressure; having to make a snap decision due to some circumstance the game presents, that you're likely to completely cock it up. There are definitely bad points in the game where the penalty for doing so can be quite a lot more severe than at other times. Hell, you can always reload right? Well, not if Quantic had anything to do with it as by the sounds of it they'd rather you just play the game once and talk about your experiences with each other.

Now I've been fortunate recently to upgrade my bedroom with a 1080 setup, nothing over-the-top, just something to help do justice to today's next-gen gaming. Heavy Rain was the first game I had the chance to try out – and damn, I really wasn't disappointed. Surround sound, or headphones, certainly seems to be a real benefit to take advantage of the great sound design... and the music. Wow. It really does make a difference when you get a composer (Normand Corbeil in this instance) with a passion for writing music that... well... fits. Not only that, but spending time recording live sessions with talented musicians. It really is like being a part of a film.

Surprisingly, there are quite a few bugs that you might encounter – anything from full on crashes to stuttering to characters getting stuck. It wasn't until I had a quick go at restarting a story that I ran into a few, as much first playthrough went as smooth as to be expected. Even then, where immersion is so important, I still felt extremely forgiving – some of you might argue otherwise and that should be expected.

Talking about Heavy Rain in a non-spoiler fashion is certainly frustrating, as just the way Quantic Dream wanted it; all I want to do is talk about how good my story was!