Ok, so Heavy Rain annoyed the hell out of me. *spoilers*

[AFdrft]

No, not for the controls. I liked the game overall, there were points where I really felt how contorted a character was to do a certain manouvre by how contorted I was with the controller, but there were points in the game which just didn't make sense to me and had me yelling 'WTF' at my screen a good few times. I'll make a list of the ones I can remember right now:

>Why didn't Ethan show the first video of shaun in the storm drain to the police? Surely this could give them an idea of what is happening to the kids.
>Why didn't Ethan go to the police when he had the locker key? They could have dusted the lot for prints (although possibly wiped down?), and they'd be sure to have all of Scotts details on file.
>Consistency in the QTE segments. Frequently I'd miss a couple of them in a row, maybe even 3 or 4 in some cases, but then in the last fight with Jayden vs Shelby, I got the whole sequence right, up until the very last one in the sequence, which I fumbled, which ended up getting me killed. I was a bit annoyed at that.
>How did Madison know who Scott was, when his mother told her in the old folks home? She'd never met him, or heard his name before (as I remember?) so what sense would it make to her? And then how the hell did she know where he lived/his office was?
>Norman and Blake scenes. They constantly would turn up to places based on 'leads'. What were these leads, and why weren't they explained? It just seemed like a couple of guys randomly turning up at places. There didn't seem to be any links.
>When Ethan jumps off the roof, to hijack a taxi. Surely there would have been police patrolling the ground, he was right next to the parked cop cars when this happened even. He wouldn't have had a chance to get into the taxi.
>Lack of any explaination behind Ethan's blackouts.
>Continuity. Cut disappeared from Ethan's head after a couple of days, no marks left. Gun shot wounds to Scott obtained in the QTE sequence as he is fighting his way through the mansion dissapear in scenes after, and he seems none the worse for having been shot in the stomach.

Overall, it just felt really disjointed to me. I've forgotten loads of these things, will add more if I remember. The story just didn't seem to flow at times - mostly with the police parts of the story as I mentioned above. Now, I understand that some of these things must bend reality to enable the story to drive forwards, but for what is intended to be a realistic and immersive game, some of them didn't feel right.

Don't get me wrong, it was a very good game and I intend to play through it a few more times to play around with some of the different choices. I just wish at times that... it just made a bit more sense.

Did anyone else feel this too? I haven't really seen anyone elses opinion on this kind of stuff yet.

 

[shadow skill]

I know what you mean. Madison had to have looked up Scott's name and found all that stuff. She is a reporter remember. What pisses me off the most is that the fact that Shelby is the Origami killer is so contrived. The things he was doing in the end of the game would have been hard for a younger man without asthma let alone an almost sixty year old man who is over weight. The entire Manfred scene was stupid because Shelby would know who he took his own typewriter to. A guy like Shelby would have killed Manfred before the game even started, and certainly not with a potential witness right fucking there! Cage just wanted to be able to say he surprised the player so he pulls a trick that works in films but completely fails when the player actually controls the subject.

Hell Shelby became Vash the stampede in his gunfight scene. This old overweight guy with asthma became a god of firearms and didn't have an asthma attack at least right after the shooting stopped. But he magically has one while just walking down a hallway? Dear Mr. Cage you largely did a good job with this game. I will be purchasing it, but when it comes to the choice of killer, you fail miserably.

 

[Shaoken]

>Why didn't Ethan show the first video of shaun in the storm drain to the police? Surely this could give them an idea of what is happening to the kids.

See, the problem with these kinds of questions is that you're thinking logically about things, whereas in the game Ethan is panicing a lot. Not to mention that he's still not 100% sure about what's going on, and by that point I think he's at the very least considering the possibility that he's the Oragami Killer.

>Why didn't Ethan go to the police when he had the locker key? They could have dusted the lot for prints (although possibly wiped down?), and they'd be sure to have all of Scotts details on file.

Again, he wasn't thinking logically. Cut him some slack; his son was kidnapped less than a day before that, he's not in the right state of mind. Also I would guess that the killer could just wear gloves while making them.

>Consistency in the QTE segments. Frequently I'd miss a couple of them in a row, maybe even 3 or 4 in some cases, but then in the last fight with Jayden vs Shelby, I got the whole sequence right, up until the very last one in the sequence, which I fumbled, which ended up getting me killed. I was a bit annoyed at that.

I think the game was designed so the QTE would be linient to begin with, but towards the end (of both the game and the sequences) they would get less and less forgiving.

>How did Madison know who Scott was, when his mother told her in the old folks home? She'd never met him, or heard his name before (as I remember?) so what sense would it make to her? And then how the hell did she know where he lived/his office was?

Well he was a registered PI, so maybe she regonised his name from oen of his ads.

>Norman and Blake scenes. They constantly would turn up to places based on 'leads'. What were these leads, and why weren't they explained? It just seemed like a couple of guys randomly turning up at places. There didn't seem to be any links.

I think it was to establish their characters, especially Blake being an "ends justify the means" cop and make you more likely to want him to be the Oragami killer.

>When Ethan jumps off the roof, to hijack a taxi. Surely there would have been police patrolling the ground, he was right next to the parked cop cars when this happened even. He wouldn't have had a chance to get into the taxi.

All the cop cars were out the front, blocking off the actual exits. All things considered jumping off a building (or to be more accurate falling backwards off one) is fatal the majority of times, so why waste manpower securing the back side if there's no ground entrances? Plus again Blake is very upfront and direct, so he may have ordered all his police to charge the front way, confident that Ethan wouldn't try something so suicidal.

>Lack of any explaination behind Ethan's blackouts.

I think, unfortnauntly, that this will be explained in his chronicles DLC.

>Continuity. Cut disappeared from Ethan's head after a couple of days, no marks left. Gun shot wounds to Scott obtained in the QTE sequence as he is fighting his way through the mansion dissapear in scenes after, and he seems none the worse for having been shot in the stomach.

Didn't notice this, considering that my Scott got some bruises and cuts in the first fight and kept them for most of the game.

Although getting shot twice not being a problem is a bit odd, but the one to his gut was more to his side, so all that was really hit was fat. The one to the shoulder should have done more though.

 

[MR T3D]

how bout the lame twist?
[HEADING=1]that scott shelby is the killer[/HEADING]
yeah, i think its a lame one, especially for this format, maybe a movie could work it, but this thing where you assume roles of characters, not knowing their previous actions or properly understanding possible motivations.

maybe if the game had a different story, then it'd be marginally better

 

[RebelByDesign]

>Norman and Blake scenes. They constantly would turn up to places based on 'leads'. What were these leads, and why weren't they explained? It just seemed like a couple of guys randomly turning up at places. There didn't seem to be any links.

I take it you're referring to Nathaniel and Korda. They were investigating known criminals within the killer's "comfort zone" who fit the profile based off of previous crimes, IIRC.

As for your issue with "consistency" with the sequences, I can't say I experienced anything like that, but hey, I don't see an problem with the difficulty increasing as the game progresses. The last fight is essentially the boss fight, I suppose. Perhaps there are certain movements within the sequence that are more critical than others too.

You can ask the shrink about Ethan's blackouts. Although, all he'll tell you that you suffered a massive concussion and were in a coma for six months, and we don't know what sort of trauma that has on the brain.

The only one of your gripes that even really registered with me was Madison's reaction to Ann Shepard's disclosure when, as far as we know, she hadn't heard Scott's name before. On my second playthrough I was very wary of this, but I don't think it ever occurs. Still, I let it go as dramatic license and tried to explain it. She's an investigative reporter, and he's been openly conducting an investigation, albeit a sham, for some time now. Perhaps her investigation caught wind of his? Or perhaps DLC will reveal she knew of him before Ann's reveal? There was DLC that was supposed to be available on release day. It's a shame, because I would've been satisfied with Scott's card being in her apartment (believe me, I looked). I'm also still debating whether her reaction could just be read as "OMFG, I discovered the killer/broke the case" face instead of recognition of the name. I had no issue with her finding his home/office though. He's a registered PI, it's his place of business as well as his home, and digging is what she does. The guy's been going around handing out cards with his address on, it's how Lauren shows up there, so I doubt he's too hard to find.

I really didn't have the same issues you did. No offence, they are quite minor and seem somewhat nitpicky mostly. Ethan taking the box to get dusted for prints? Does questioning his logic take you out of the game that much? Like someone said, he's not thinking clearly, he's panicking and it's not as though he's got a case of the idiot ball either. It's certainly not enough to break the immersion factor for me. I hope you don't let them ruin what was otherwise an enjoyable experience for you.

I didn't experience the continuity issues either from what I can recall. My character stayed cut up for days.

 

[TBR]

I think the last one left unexplained by people is how Maddison knew Shelby.

I'd just like to remind you guys that she's a journalist that's been on the case for a while. She's probably talked to Blake, Shelby, etc, as well as probably most (if not all) of the families of the victims.

 

[AFdrft]

Interesting replies. Thanks. I do agree that maybe I was picking faults, which isn't fair on an otherwise great game. These were just things that niggled at me as I was playing, or things that had be calling BS at the time they happened. I will actually retract the point I made about Norman and Blake turning up looking for random suspects - in the scene in the small room with the projector you can control, Norman does actually say 'there are a couple of suspects that do fit the profile', but its such an off the cuff remark it's very easy to miss it.

I've been playing through for a second time, and something else I discovered was that Lauren will find Scott even if you walk out of her room without leaving a card - claiming 'you said i could contact you if I remembered anything' - which Scott doesn't actually say unless you leave the card. I was wondering by not leaving the card if Lauren wouldn't turn up at all. But hey, I understand that there are some things that must happen for the story to work.

Edit: Just read that gamesradar article, and it pretty much highlights everything major that bugged me. An interesting read, thanks for the link.