So my wife and I try to revisit the ending after changing a few things. This brought up some interesting thoughts.

(SPOILER)On my original play through I had all of the characters alive in the final scene. However, a single missed QTE made Madison fail her bike rush into the building. She was cuffed and put in the back of a cop car. Jayden messed up and got smashed with a sledgehammer and sliced up.

Ethan wandered out naively and was shot by that bastard Blake's command.

I got my ending. News reports that maybe that Ethan was shot but doesn't implicate Blake's stupidity. Blake seems haunted by Jayden's ghost. Madison writes a terrible book. Lauren (thinking Shelby killed her son) shoots him in the face.


So I tried again to fix some mistakes I'd made.

(SPOILER)This time Madison saved Ethan and Jayden survived.

However, it felt wrong. The ending wasn't the right ending. It wasn't my ending. My wife and I talked about it at great length and somehow the original story that we told with all of its foibles was the the story we brought away from Heavy Rain. We're certainly going back for different takes on different scenes and all of the trophies in the meantime, but I think now the sad ending I wrought for myself the first time will always be the ending that I feel was the true ending to my Heavy Rain.



I loved this game. It had so many flaws (the worst of which being the voice acting made worse by some awkward writing), but I don't care that much. It was the most gripping experience I remember in recent memory. I felt closer to the characters than I ever could have just watching a movie. The way the QTEs played out I felt really worked for the game. I don't think any game has ever made me feel the way Heavy Rain did with such consistency and earnestness. No movies, even great ones, have managed to keep me where I was emotionally and psychologically for such a sustained amount of time.

There need to be more games like this.