Fahrenheit Review

There's this little movie called Fahrenheit 9/11. You've probably heard of it. It has absolutely nothing to do with the game Fahrenheit, but publisher ATARI was worried that you, the American public, would not realize that. In an attempt to avoid confusion, ATARI discussed the matter with developer Quantic Dream, and the two came to the conclusion it'd be best to change the name of the game altogether. And thus, Indigo Prophecy was born – the American version of Fahrenheit. So if you think this Fahrenheit game's interesting, make sure you look for Indigo Prophecy instead.

Fahrenheit contains nudity. Yes, Europe 's original version of the game has bare nipples and even a sneak peek at what passes for a vagina. There are sex scenes, too. They look a bit ugly, but in Fahrenheit they're there. Indigo Prophecy however has been censored; the nudity has been covered up, making this game easier to sell in the United States (it would have had an undesirable AO rating without the censoring). I will be reviewing Fahrenheit, not its slightly censored brother Indigo Prophecy, so please keep this in mind when reading on. )

Fahrenheit

It takes a dead genre to show the next generation of videogames. That's one of the first things that came to my mind when I'd gotten approximately halfway through Fahrenheit. The adventure genre has been proclaimed dead, or at least dying, many times throughout recent years--it was somewhat of a surprise even to see Fahrenheit actually make it to completion--but to learn that it's one of the most amazing games I've played in a long time, that's just…weird.

Developer Quantic Dream has managed to put so much heart and soul into this game that by the time I'd spent a couple of hours on it, I was completely convinced Fahrenheit had turned out to be a rare gem of a game, something you only see every few years. It may be an adventure game--belonging to one of the stalest genres around--but Fahrenheit still has a wide range of features that are so innovative, so daring and so successful, all at the same time, both Quantic Dream and ATARI deserve a big thumbs-up just for creating the game.

It must be quite obvious I am personally rather enthusiastic about the game; more enthusiastic than would suit an objective review, anyway. Hence, with the personal laudations already expressed, here is a more down to earth dissecting of Fahrenheit as a game:

Most games we play feature a violent protagonist and most games we play start out their stories with something happening to explain why the player has to be violent during the game. Whether it's the G-Man waking you up in Half-Life 2 so you can kill some Combine soldiers, or a couple of junkies butchering your family so you can kill every scumbag in Max Payne's New York without feeling guilty, it's just a sequence we've grown accustomed to. Much like with porn movies, many developers agree that in case of videogames the story's just there to give a reason for the gameplay. Cue Fahrenheit.

Lucas Kane--the main character in the game-- begins in a small restaurant restroom in modern day New York City. He gets up from his toilet seat, shuffles towards an unsuspecting businessman, and slays him with a knife; all the while being in some weird trance. Several stabs to the chest later, the businessman is three different kinds of dead and Lucas Kane wakes up from his trance with blood on his hands. He committed a murder, but he was not in control of his own body when he did it. Instead, during his crime he saw visions of a hooded man surrounded by candles and darkness; visions of a young girl reaching out to Lucas. Whether he was in control of his own actions or not, Lucas Kane still committed a murder, and now he must seek a way out of this restaurant…

Fahrenheit doesn't show the story, and then send you on a killing spree. First it sends you on a killing spree, and then it shows the story. This makes Fahrenheit--a purely single player game--a story-driven experience in the true sense of the word. Only as you find out more about the sinister plot that surrounds the murder does the game progress. In the game you control not only the killer Lucas Kane, but also the police detectives Carla and Tyler. This means that throughout the game the player gets to choose which scenes to play first, which characters to continue with first, and the ability to tackle the game from both sides (killer and police) is a very interesting way of driving forth the storyline.

Back to Lucas: as he freaks out in the restroom, one of Fahrenheit's innovative features springs into view almost unnoticeably to the player. The game splits itself into two screens, one large panel with the restroom and the now-player-controlled Lucas Kane, and one panel with the restaurant itself and a cop sitting at the table. This multiple-window approach works extremely well in visualizing the big picture--the whole scene--while at the same time keeping the player immersed and active in the game world. The multiple panels rule out the need for cut-scenes to show what is going on outside the player's direct vicinity. That's not to say Fahrenheit has no cut-scenes in it, but it just adds tension and immersion by not always resorting to that solution.

With Fahrenheit, Quantic Dream has tried to make a game that feels like an interactive movie. The panels described above help achieve this, but more importantly, so does the overall camera work. While the player is given the ability to switch camera positions at all times, the default camera stances are excellent. Especially during the action scenes, Fahrenheit really gives a sense parallel to that of a movie experience.

Also adding to the ‘interactive movie' idea are two features in the game, features that are inherently important to the adventure game genre and story-driven games as a whole as well: character animations and voice acting. The voice acting is excellent, all characters have their own voices as well as accents that suit them very well. On occasion you'll encounter somewhat of a cliché character with cliché voice acting, but other than that, the acting suits the game's thriller style perfectly. Another innovative idea that stimulates the voice acting and cinemagraphic feel of the game is the way you work through conversations. While the player is given a certain amount of choices for the dialogue branches just like in other adventure games (single words describe the sentences you'll be picking), the player only has a limited amount of time to choose between the options given. While at first this may seem annoying as you rush to your answers, given time, you will adapt to this feature. In turn, it leads to conversations being led at a realistic pace, avoiding the long pauses and silly stares you often see in other games.

The character animations, meanwhile, are also of great quality. Quantic Dream made extensive use of motion-captured animations, and it shows – the characters move with great detail and much like you'd expect them to. No wooden puppets in this game. Unfortunately however the character animations are not entirely perfect, as here and there the acting is over the top. For instance, early in the game I noticed a character waving her hands and her head too frantically for what was supposed to be a more intimate conversation. The overall quality of the animations cannot be denied, but Quantic Dream would've done well re-evaluating some scenes, making the acting more appropriate for the conversation at hand.

Fahrenheit's atmosphere is moody most of the times, though during tense situations or when characters start getting rather upset the thriller aspects of the game surface. The music of the game fits the specific scenes very well, especially the radio in Lucas' apartment. Quantic Dream licensed several songs from Theory of a Dead Man , and it works out remarkably well as you realize you're not listening to some random background noise but real, actual music--it adds to the realistic setting that Fahrenheit attempts to portray. At other times, the background ambiance is perfectly built upon with music composed by Angelo Badalamenti.

While music, voice acting, character animations and controls are all of high quality, Fahrenheit's graphics technically fall behind a bit. The game is also released on Xbox and Playstation 2, and it shows in the form of outdated technology. However, at the same time the graphics feel complete – the environments as well as the characters come across very convincingly, there is plenty of detail and the lack of graphical bells and whistles in no way detracts from the experience.

As has been previously mentioned, characters get upset during the game. One of the innovative features is that the state of mind actually has to be taken care of in Fahrenheit – a bar in the bottom left corner of the screen displays your mental health, and when it drops to zero you will in fact go crazy, lose your mind, and then it's Game Over. Small things--like having a glass of water--will ease your character's mind a bit, though bigger issues often have much more impact, positive or negative, on your mental health. This ties in directly with Fahrenheit's non-linearity. While the game is not Morrowind or Grand Theft Auto by any means, it's not entirely linear either, often giving the player several choices so as to ‘stretch' the storyline towards different branches. For instance, in the murder scene you could choose to handle Lucas' problems rationally: hide the body, hide the murder weapon, wash your hands, mop the floor, pay your bill and leave the restaurant. Lucas will be tense, but much less so than if he'd have just stormed out the door and run – a choice he could have made just as well. In both cases the policeman in the diner will eventually find out a murder was committed, but obviously the rest of the game (and in particular the police investigation) plays out entirely different depending on which choices you do and do not make. There are several scenes throughout the game where you will find yourself making choices that affect the storyline. It's all done very nicely and certainly gives Fahrenheit much more replay value than traditional adventure games.

But it's not all choices and investigating. Much like another modern adventure game, Broken Sword: The Sleeping Dragon , Fahrenheit incorporates action elements as well. Throughout the game, there are several occasions where characters face some peculiar obstacles, such as having to deal with their anxiety, having to flee police or fight opponents. During these moments, the controls change to a ‘Simon Says' type of system where eight buttons appear on screen. While the action scenes continue in the background, the button colours light up and if the player doesn't hit the corresponding keys on the keyboard in time the action event will fail.

Although this sounds a little vague on paper and even takes a bit of getting used to in-game, it works out quite well and allows for the action scenes to be spectacular and movie-esque without limiting the character animations. Unfortunately, some gamers may find the on-screen buttons intrusive, they may not be able to see all there is to see in the action scenes. Especially on higher difficulty levels, it does take quite a bit of concentration to beat some of the tougher challenges. Nonetheless, the action scenes are so convincing and just plain cool to watch and play, I can't really hold that against them.

The quirky controls of Fahrenheit are not limited to the action scenes alone. Interaction with the environment as well as conversations show the possible choices a player can make by displaying icons on the top bar of the screen. These icons are animated by a movement and to perform a specific action the player has to copy this movement with the mouse. These mouse gestures, similar to Black & White 's spell casting system, are supposed to give a sense of actual interaction, as if you're actually performing the moves yourself. While I personally did not experience anything like that, it did work nicely and in a way it's more realistic and more involving than just hitting a Use key.

The storyline in Fahrenheit unveils itself slowly, adding suspense and tension all over the place. Lucas worries if anyone--in particular, his brother, priest Markus--will believe he wasn't in control at the time of the murder. Detectives Carla and Tyler have their own personal issues, and of course everyone is trying to solve the murder at Doc's Diner. It must be said though that the storyline is absolutely brilliant; there were several moments where the game really gripped me and evoked a decent emotional response, something only the best of games seem to do. Everything fits perfectly, and with the excellent voice acting, animation, realism, interactivity and choice-making, Fahrenheit presents itself as one sublime adventure game. But. . . (There's always a “but,” and in Fahrenheit's case there are three of them.)

First of all, the second half of the game, during which the big picture becomes clear--as hinted upon by the visions of Lucas during the murder--contains several elements of mythology and magic. I won't spoil details in this review, but in my opinion the later parts of the game were of much lesser quality than the earlier parts. Those of you who've played Broken Sword 2: The Smoking Mirror will probably know exactly what I mean: at some point in the game credibility goes out the window and with it a lot of the suspense that made the game so great. Not necessarily related to the unrealistic aspects that are introduced here, but of similar questionable nature is the fact that some of the plot twists towards the end don't fit either. It doesn't make sense and draws away the feeling of immersion. Don't get me wrong, Fahrenheit is highly enjoyable all the way through, but it feels as if its first few hours were so good the overarching storyline--once unveiled--has trouble keeping up and stumbles occasionally.

Another thing about Fahrenheit that lowers its overall quality is the flashbacks Lucas has of his youth. These flashbacks show him and his brother Markus living on a military base with their parents who had died in a car accident ten years ago. While the scenes have relevance to the storyline they're significantly different in the gameplay approach. For much of it, the player has to use stealth to get around, a gameplay feature that simply does not suit the rest of the game at all. These frustrating scenes, which even look graphically different (less realistic, more comical), can of course not be skipped even though they do their best to prove that stealth is best left to games like Splinter Cell and Metal Gear Solid --games that actually concentrate on making the stealth approach a convincing, gripping experience, not the annoying interludes action/adventure games make it.

The third downside to Fahrenheit is its length. The ability to stretch the storyline into slightly different directions by making different choices adds replay value--that's a given--but playing the game from start to finish will not take longer than eight to ten hours. This means that just about any gamer can get through Fahrenheit in a matter of days. I personally enjoyed Fahrenheit so much that I don't really mind it wasn't very long, and it obviously deserves the full price tag just for its quality alone, but it must be said you're not getting a long bang for the buck.

Summarizing, the game has some awesome production values and qualities, with a few minor downsides. As an adventure game at heart it's amazing to find it's also a cinematographic experience, an emotionally gripping drama - I've said it again and again, but the characters behave so realistically and come across so humanly it just puts Fahrenheit leaps and bounds over just about any other game. The action scenes are fun, the game is suspenseful and powerful. Its downsides in the rather crazy roller-coaster ride toward the end, the stealth flashback scenes and its short playtime are annoying, but cannot undo the fact that Fahrenheit is most of all a brilliant game.

Whether you're looking for something different to play, or whether if you're content playing shooters, strategy and role playing games all the time, give Fahrenheit a chance. It's an adventure, and yet unlike anything you've played before. It has taken a dead genre to show what the next generation looks like.

Key high points

• Animations, acting and camera results in cinematic experience

• The storyline is influenced by choices and thus not entirely linear

• Innovative gameplay elements work out very well

Key low points

• Storyline goes ‘weird' towards the end

• Flashback stealth scenes are awkward and annoying

• Only eight to ten hours of playtime until the credits roll by