the way I put it in another thread:
I generally remember games for how they feel to control. Like, I don't know, the quick response of a Mario jump or the satisfying 'dings' while navigating a menu in a Final Fantasy game. Hell, rolling through an open field in a Zelda game instead of walking or boosting in the Vanquish demo instead of running to the next piece of cover actually strengthen my bond with a game, even though these actions are, for the most part, unnecessary. The feedback I get from a button press, be it a sound effect or on-screen motion is so important.
In Heavy Rain, there was none of that, it was all context sensitive, mostly random button presses for different actions that are loosely based on the position on the body versus the controller, although not always. Sure, I was manipulating the events on screen, but I might as well have been navigating a DVD menu. Yes, I have to hold down more buttons to do a complicated thing, I'll give it that over a DVD remote, but there was little to no consistency in my interactions with the world and therefore no connection.
I can accept this stream of design as an 'interactive movie' or 'cinematic experience' or hell, even a point and click adventure game. I mean, whatever, it's not something I love but games allow for so many different types of expression, why not? But in accepting this, I require an at least competent story and by extension believable characters (through means of believable VA, script and animation) and interesting scenarios.
Heavy Rain didn't deliver on any of that. If it's going to present itself as a cinematic experience then its competition, in my opinion, isn't another video game, it's any other form of audio-visual narrative, and on that scale, Heavy Rain was embarrassing.
But you know, I say that now. If we were talking in person I'd probably say "yeah it was alright, I had some problems. Kind of cool that it exists, I guess." :lol