Remember the days of those choose-your-own-adventure books?  Well, technology has caught up to the genre with Heavy Rain and given it a steroid shot in the bum.  A psychological, brain twisting, emotional rollercoaster – this ground breaking game is an inspired original.  The Heavy Rain Game is a hauntingly edgy mash-up of CSI, Columbo & Max Payne that pulls no punches and lets the user decide the fates of 4 well written characters.  The story follows each character – an old detective, an FBI agent, a female journalist and the father of a kidnapped son as they try to solve the mystery of the origami killer who has a penchant for drowning young boys with rainwater.  If one of the 4 characters dies you must finish the story without them which gives the user a personal, emotional experience rare in today’s button mashing, mindless first person shooters.  Your decision making is just as important as precision and skill are to keeping the characters alive.  Mix in a sexy shower scene (if you’re into naked pixels, that is) and some disturbing moral decision making and you have a completely entertaining and satisfying game.  Past, meet future.  Where you go from here is up to you.

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