"I mentioned that I'd gone through the game expecting the plot twist of the killer's identity to change depending on what decisions you made. Because, damn it, that's what I would've done."
That's funny - when my roommate was playing heavy rain, I suggested that as a possible way the game might play out. That the killer's identity might be entirely dependent on your own actions. In fact, I think there's a text adventure mystery game that follows that same principle. Too bad Heavy Rain didn't do it.
Overall, I liked the game once you slog past that first hour, but like you said: it's NOT truly interactive storytelling. It's a choose your own adventure that happens to have very organic adventure choices. The problem is all these games that try it - be it with "moral choices" or "good/bad endings" or full on branching story lines - all try to solve it by adding content. That's the failure. A truly interactive story can't happen unless it's procedural. And until we figure out how to break down the storytelling formula into actual, definable algorithms, it's just not going to happen.
---edit---
On the subject of Space Game - I notice a lot of people are offering some very clever technical solutions to the "you can just run away" problem (and some incredibly shitty ones, but that's a given).
I submit, instead, to ignore physical restraints and go with a psychological solution. Instead of thinking of ways to reign the player in, think of ways to make the player not want to leave in the first place. I recommend looking up studies on what makes a person, say, want to risk their life (or put some large reward at risk, at least) in a given situation, rather than run to safety. You might find some interesting things science has to say about this...
