Fahrenheit

Review from Yug, Yug and Yug - Friday, 03 March 2006 @ 12:00am

Adventure games are almost dead. It?s a sad, hard truth. For anyone old enough to remember the original alone in the dark games, or even anyone who ever played one of LucasArts hilarious offerings in the genre, the question is ?what the hell happened??. Some of the most immersive stories, interesting characters, and funniest game dialogue have come from brilliant games in this dying genre.

I personally think it was a combination of two things:

1. That game developers who specialised in adventure games never successfully translated the PC based point and click system to consoles very well.

2. As graphics became capable of so much more, adventure games looked boring by comparison.

Fahrenheit manages to rise above every other console based adventure game because of the way it solves those two problems.

First though, does anyone have any idea why the game was released as Indigo Prophecy in the States, but renamed to Fahrenheit (an American temperature measurement) in Australia? Does anyone else think that?s kind of weird? Cause I do ? but anyway ?

You would be better off playing the game with no idea of the story, so if you are even mildly interested in it, stop reading right now, go rent it out and give it a try.

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Still with me? Ok then, after a clever intro tutorial with some French director, you start the game as a self described regular guy by the name of Lucas Kane. In a very ?everything changed on that fateful night? kind of narrative, you find yourself in the bathroom of a diner, after having just disturbingly and graphically murdered a guy, and having no idea why or how you did it. It?s a very well scripted and strong introduction, and gives you a great idea of just what kind of game your getting yourself into. Think X-Files meets 24. Make no mistake, this is a very adult story, that spans from demonic possession to 5 minute sex scenes (don?t get too excited, you don?t see anything ? but there IS nudity elsewhere! Hooray!).

Anyway, so there you are in the bathroom, blood on your hands and a dead guy on the floor, and you find out there is a cop in the diner so you are pressured to act. It is here that you also immediately realise that this is a game which gives you a lot more freedom than you are used to in a game like this. Should you try to hide the body and mop up the mess, or just wash your hands and walk outside? Should you pay your bill at table, or try to make a run for it? Should you take the subway, or take a cab? As trivial as these options sound, not only are they all viable options, but I was amazed at how much decisions made early on actually did affect the story later on down the track.

After you escape from the diner as Lucas Kane, the next sequence see?s you in control of two police officers, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles, as they arrive to investigate the murder that you just committed at Joe?s Diner. There?s something strangely satisfying about investigating the murder which you just unwillingly committed only seconds ago. This sets up the scene for a cat-and-mouse game between the two detectives and Kane, as the game follows every aspect of their mundane lives to make them more believable during the more intense set pieces later on. It works a treat.

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The actual adventure part of the game works well, although I will admit that towards the end of the game, it de-evolved into a very ?walk around until you get close to objects that you can interact with?. And while we are briefly mentioning the last ? of the game, it does kind of get a bit fruity towards the end. I don?t know if it?s because of the European script writers or if they were having trouble wrapping it up, but there was some really strange cyber-punk-ish stuff going on, with characters acting out of character. Not enough to ruin the game, but enough for me to go ?what the hell were they smoking, and where can I get some?.

Apart from the excellent ?elastic? storyline, the other major unique part of this game is the action sequences, not something you would normally associate with an adventure game. Sure enough though, throughout the game you will find yourself doing back flips, jumping onto moving trains, hanging from helicopters, dodging bullets, and more. Sounds cool right? Well it is, except you?re not actually in control of any of this action. Think of it like a cut scene, but with an almost DDR control system, which means that while all this awesome and amazing action set pieces are being played out, your concentrating on trying to follow the 8 directional lines flashing in the middle of the screen, to make sure you don?t fail. You miss out on watching all the fun bits. I got used to it, and while it was sometimes fun and intuitive, I was never entirely happy with it. Although it does makes sure the game is accessible to people who might not be able to handle a more complex control method, it still feels a bit cheap. Hell, I?d have been happy if they just embraced the ?on rails? action sequences and just had you pushing left when it said on the screen, or up when it said, ala dirk in dragons quest, or the majority of games on the Mega CD.

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The movement control system for the rest of the game is acceptable on the whole, but can be frustrating sometimes, especially when the camera angle changes while the direction you were pushing the control stick in does not. While this is nice for transition purposes, it?s really annoying having to circle the joystick around 180 degrees just to try to keep walking in the same direction.

Graphically, I found the games set pieces to be visually impressive, although for a fundamentally 3rd person game, they are fairly small. The opening level in the Diner during a snowstorm was perfect at setting the tone. Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the character models. Don?t get me wrong, they really aren?t that bad, and the motion capture is some of the best you have ever seen in a video game. However, considering you spend a good deal of time talking up close to other characters, it sure is a shame that I?m so spoilt by the facial animations in other games such as Half Life 2.

A good deal of attention must also be given to the soundtrack for the game. I was so impressed by it, that I actually looked it up to find out more details about it, and sure enough the major musical themes were written and recorded by a guy by the name of Angelo Badalamenti, who has scored many of David Lynch?s movies. It didn?t surprise me in the slightest. There are also a bunch of other catchy licensed tracks which fit the mood and section of the game for which they were designed for. All the music is eventually unlockable as well, which made it one of the first games where I actually cared about the getting the bonus features.

Summary

A unique and involved game, the story and characters will suck you right in and the gameplay and puzzles will keep you there until the very (strange) end.

Pros

Excellent and immersive story, great character development, fredom of choice or at least the successful illusion of it, amospheric set graphics, excellent soundtrack, dosen't shy away from violence when it's appropriate, action sequences look cool.

Cons

DDR style control during the action sequences distracts you during the cool bits, camera and movement can be frustrating, last quarter of the game feels out of place, too many video-game in video-game puns.