Heavy Rain's soundtrack fits well with the game's dramatic and emotional plot. The quiet, sorrowful piano songs reflect some of the characters' moments of loss. Other, more powerful tracks with blaring brass instruments compliment the action-heavy moments. The thoughtful, slow-moving pieces set the tone for all the mystery surrounding the Origami Killer and how careful everyone has to be while investigating them. The composer Normand Corbeil hit the right tone for any given scene, making the story even more memorable.

Each choice you make, no matter how small, affects how the story plays out in some way. There are the bigger decisions, like pressing a QTE in time to keep your character from dying, or making the right dialog choices during encounters with the game's mysterious Origami Killer in order to outsmart them. But there are also smaller decisions, like taking care of a pet or choosing to spend time with one of the character's sons, and the unexpected ways these choices get taken into account down the line. The best part is that everything leads up to multiple endings depending on which path your choices take you.

All four playable characters have believable backstories and motivations. You initially play as a father trying to keep his family together after a great loss, and then a private investigator working to find clues about the game's Origami Killer, a cop struggling with a drug addiction while on the job, and finally a journalist dealing with insomnia while chasing after leads for stories.

Everyone, if kept alive by the player, ends up meeting each other in some form as their individual stories intertwine throughout the plot. It's a realistic and grounded approach that still manages to provide plenty of twists and turns as you learn more about the characters.

Even though the game is like an interactive movie, there are still some action scenes with more involved gameplay. There are moments where you're attacked by an antagonist and have to escape, or you have to navigate a dangerous road, or your senses are impaired and you have to try to keep yourself together in a pinch. You then have to press buttons in time or navigate your analog sticks in certain ways to stay in control of the scene. The game does rely a lot on button presses with QTEs to keep you involved in the gameplay, but as long as you feel engrossed in the game and the overall plot, you probably won't mind too much.