I finally started Heavy Rain last weekend. It definitely considers itself interactive drama first and a game second (which I mostly expected after playing Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy and it tells you as much when it starts up). It has been entertaining so far. I do find that the quick time events and timed decisions can be a bit annoying at times. Specifically, I find it difficult to stay in-character while playing. I'm probably not supposed to be in-character, but I made some choices I wouldn't have made if I had more information and/or time to think about it. I found that this tends to pull me out of the experience and alienates me a bit from the character.
It also doesn't help that I am primarily an Xbox 360 gamer these days. I see X and instinctively press Square. I ended up building a mental map of the buttons (X = A, O = B, Square = X, Triangle = Y) which unfortunately makes me very slow or inaccurate at reflexive button presses (even on easy). That's definitely my fault though. I should play more PS3 games. I never really got hooked on the Trophy system as I did with Achievements, so whenever I have the choice between a game on both platforms, even if the PS3 version is superior - I'll go with the 360 version every time. It's telling that I have well over 100 Xbox 360 games, versus only 12 PS3 games - not including downloadable games on either platform, but the ratio would still be somewhat similar.
While I am enjoying it, it does seem to be incompatible with how I want to experience interactive drama. I'd prefer to be able to take my time and consider decisions I'm going to make. I'm being asked to dedicate a considerable amount of time to this story, and I have no option of retrying a section and changing my mind if I'm unhappy with the results. I didn't have any problems enjoying Fahrenheit. If Heavy Rain was movie-length or even mini-series length, I'd have less issues with accepting my choices with the intention to just replay it again later. I'm about 6 or so hours into it, and it doesn't feel like I'm near the end yet.
I understand they are trying to get you to make choices and live with the consequences. I just feel they could have allowed you to control your own saves (or restart a chapter/episode or being able to rewind it) without taking too much away from that. Increasing the difficulty of making some of the choices - perhaps with multiple successes over time required to achieve it - might have done the same thing. Does it really matter if you have this intricate branching story if you frustrate your players to the point they can't be bothered replaying it?
It's not like the decisions I made that I took issue with were even major life or death decisions. Minor things that I accidentally chose were the ones that annoyed me the most - but there was no way I was going to replay the entire game it just to change that decision. I might have replayed the last 5-10 minutes though. Some of this stems from my controller issues, but it wasn't limited to accidental button presses. It's just as bad when it seems the game has lied to you (through lack of information or a misinterpretation).
I don't want my virtual drama to mirror real life in exacting detail. I can make poor choices in real life just fine. I've always felt the point of being part of a virtual experience is that I can say "Stop. That wasn't how I meant to handle that". When I played the Choose Your Own Adventure books many years ago, I would sometimes just alter my decisions or stats if I felt I would enjoy the outcome more ("If you help the dwarf break into the bank, turn to page 76 otherwise turn to page 184" - turns to page 184 - "As you sneak inside the Sheriff and his deputies spring their trap. The dwarf attempts to escape and you are stabbed in the resulting struggle. You are dead." "Ugghhh" - turns to page 76). I feel I'd be having more fun if I could do that with Heavy Rain.
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