Whilst I find it very disappointing that they could have so many errors in such an awaited and hyped up title, the pure awesomeness of the game over-rides these silly glitches, so I'll get them out of the way first.
most of them are in the first scene in which you play the dad character, after you have gone downstairs to do your work, I sat him down and unfortunately missed the prompt for what you have to do next, (as icons appear for you to press in order to make actions, such as hold up to pick up a pen, or circle to dodge etc) the prompt does not usually disappear until you've pressed it but it did and I was left with no option other than to reset the game, as regardless of what button I pressed the character would not move a muscle!
this didn't happen the second time, but after I had done the required work and walked to the back window, I noticed a very strange glitch! if you look out the window at a certain speed, you'll find you have magically appeared back in your chair in your work room when you let go of the button! I did this several times then got bored of it, I was surprised that the developers would miss such a thing, (hopefully it was a one off and won't happen throughout the rest of the game) soon after this you are playing with your virtual kids in the garden, and the camera suddenly switched to the "haunted workroom" again and showed a pen fly across the room! yes it was very bizarre, again I think maybe a one off as it only happened that one time I was playing it, and I had played out this scene a few times before and also watched friends doing it, so think it was a one off thing!
There have been a few other annoying moments in the game with camera angles, and not being able to see the on screen prompts as a result of the viewing angles but aside from this It's a fantastic game, the graphics are pretty awesome, there is alot of attention to detail, you can go to the toilet which I thought was pretty cool, (my friends laugh at me cause every-time they come in the room and glimpse me playing it as they always see my male characters taking a pee!- well why not? it's not like I can ever do it, I'll bet some of the guys playing will make the women take a pee every now and again, anyway it adds to the realism of the game, you can't let your avatars pee themselves now can you?) The voices are mostly good, with one or two exception's, you'll die at the part in the mall at the start where Jason wanders off, the Dad's parenting skills are highly laughable....I won't even say what I would have liked to have done had I been allowed that amount of control!
Some of the action scenes are very well done, and you feel as though you are watching a movie most of the time so the game is fun to watch if you are not playing, and very engrossing if you are playing, the car scene was very good for example, you actually go through the motions, panic, excitement, etc, it's like this with alot of them, very good at evoking emotion. and again the attention to detail and the innovative control system only further enhance this involvement, I would recommend the game to anyone who likes murder mystery, strategy, films, narrative etc. Those who prefer sandbox games however may feel a little restricted as you have to follow a pre-set structure, but of course you can change things according to your actions and choices, it is very much like Shenmue, and also reminded me of the forbidden siren games, (another innovative and excellent game series, although repetitive well worth a look) Aside from the earlier glitches I haven't really had any more problems with the gameplay, you can adjust the easy-hard settings at any time so if you fail miserably to beat up someone, (not that I did or anything) you can do it again on easy, just to beat that part and then continue the rest of the game on your usual setting, erm I never actually did this, I just figured it out by accident and thought I'd let people know who may struggle with some of the intricate button sequences you have to perform during action scenes, and you do need to be quick and rather nimble with the controller for these parts!
Also if you mess up a chapter and are not happy with the outcome you can go back and do it again, but this over-rides everything you have done after that so you would have to do all the following chapters again too, so if you are planning to do this do it sooner rather than later! (I made this mistake with the highway scene, resulting in 2 broken ribs, but when my friend did it he didn't get any broken ribs so I was tempted to do this scene again, but then I would have to re-do all the following scenes so I think I will just leave it, but it will always annoy me...)
Anyway that's my review for now, I will come back to it when I've finished the game, as I have a feeling I will finish this one and not get bored of it, then I will be onto Alan Wake! been waiting for that one for years!
so if you've just read this post stop wasting time and go buy heavy rain! and if you don't have a PS3, just sell your car or something and get one! I had to starve for a week to get heavy rain, sometimes we have to make these sacrifices in life.
