Sorry, as you can probably tell I don't check here very frequently (main reason I stay out of EoEO).

Comparing ME to HR head-to-head is kind of unfair in many instances, but the strongest disqualifier is that I only played this 20 minute section of HR. The demo was enough for me to have a good idea of what the differences in their 'cinematic' focus is. ME's focus was on the scripted face-to-face conversations, while HR is about being active and the overall atmosphere. One game also has aliens and magic, which also changes the tone considerably.

In Heavy Rain, I actually really liked Shelby's performance, but I did not like the hooker's performance at all. Felt like she was clumsily stumbling through her lines. Jayden was entirely wooden. Both of them had weird intonations in their voices. Blake was fine. I understand that the setting is pretty bleak and realistic, so they may have just spoken 'normally', but it was just uninteresting to me.

It's hard to find 1:1 comparisons between the two games, largely because of the whole alien/tone thing. Like I could show you this conversation with one of the ME's aliens, but there isn't anything to really compare it to. With the exception of the two (admittedly lame) stock Human squad mates, all the human characters in the game are created from the game's character generator. There is a little difference in 'facial performance' between those and a fixed model that the designers have complete control over. So two humans talking to each other wouldn't have the same level of controlled facial animation detail as one of the aliens.

It's also difficult to compare the performance because of the tone of the thing. These are 'characters', being characters. You might notice that Shepard is kind of dry. Main characters in games tend to not have a set personality so that you can define that personality yourself, either through choices in the game or through your own imagination. So, with Heavy Rain, if all of your characters are these normal, dry people without a 'character' personality, it's hard to compare it to a major NPC who already has a defined personality. In any case, even if the acting isn't 'good', it's more interesting than the sometims monotonous, awkward performances from the characters in HR.

Still, I'll accept differing opinions on ME's acting. People naturally have different tastes and perspectives. Yes, there is far worse acting in other major games, but there are few games where dialogue is as important to the core experience as it is with HR.

Try playing the demo again, switching through the spoken languages. Particularly French, the native language of the developer, where the game director would assure that the performances were 'just right'. So I already understand that, the game being made by French people, there may be some odd things 'lost in translation' when it comes to English vocal performances and script.

Really, it's the only 'bad' thing I can validly say about the demo. I wanted to keep my impressions vague because it's really too early for any of this and my criticisms would seem too harsh. Maybe they get better later, or I'll just get used to it. My comparing it with Mass Effect was simply because I was immersed in ME's world and thought its performances were suitably effective, and I thought that most of HR's were not. It's probably something that I wouldn't have even bothered to nitpick if I had finished ME two or three weeks ago, but I had literally just turned that game off to play this.