Fahrenheit
(Or Indigo Prophecy on the other side of the pond)
I just killed a man. I don't know why. I didn't want to. I just couldn't help it. I saw myself viciously stabbing him to death in the bathroom of a small diner, but I had no control over my actions.
Thus begins the opening scene of Fahrenheit. What's unusual is that these are the thoughts of my character, Lucas Kane. Having awakened from a trance, he finds himself standing over the corpse of a stranger, his own arms dripping blood from freshly-cut wounds. The scene shrinks to make way for a 24-style split screen revelation showing a cop sitting at the bar in the next room. It's only a matter of time. I quickly drag the body into a nearby stall, wash up, hide the knife and mop up the worst of the stains. I stroll casually out into the diner, passing the cop on the way before bolting out of the door and making for the nearest taxi.
The cinematic stylings are apparent in more than just the split screen setup. Camera angles are carefully chosen to emphasise the motion-captured characters. Every line of dialogue is voice acted - and done rather well too - with excellent lip synching. Orchestral music wells during tense and emotional scenes.
So it's an interactive movie, then? It is, but not in the traditional way. There's no FMV, no pointless machines, and no sliding tile puzzles. There's not even the inventory usually associated with adventure style games or RPGs. Play is spread over three primary characters: unexpected murderer Kane, and cops Carla and Tyler trying to unravel the mystery. It's an unusual tug of war in which your actions as one party can help or hinder the other. The more effort Carla puts into tracking the killer, the harder your job will be on the other side of the badge.
Nonlinearity is a big part of Fahrenheit's appeal. Flee the diner in a bloody flurry and dive into the safety of the subway in the opening, and subsequent scenes change to reflect your choice. Dialogue is handled via an innovative gesture system in which you have just a brief moment to select your response based on trigger words. It's fast and dynamic, maintaining the pace of the conversation and making your lines your own. There just isn't the time to consider what each trigger word means, so you must rely on instinct.
Other interaction makes use of a bizarre Dance Dance Revolution sequence using two directional inputs. In the many lengthy action sequences, this curious input system may be used to evade killer hallucinatory bugs, battle superhuman beings on snowcapped rooftops, or just help Tyler win a basketball match. Brief sequences even come up during dialogue, completion of which may provide a snippet of a character's inner monologue or extend a revelationary scene further, or just help Carla keep her lunch down during an autopsy. There is as much to see here as you want to see, giving the whole package the atmosphere of a feature DVD with hundreds of alternative cuts where every viewer sees a slightly different story.
And that is where the the snag comes in. Fahrenheit is a movie more so than a game. It offers no real challenge, and the lack of puzzles mean you simply walk around using items in a natural way and see how the story unfolds. The mental health meter, which reacts to events and your own moral choices, feels superficial. As a game, it's too short and too easy, but then no movie I've seen has kept me watching for eight hours, and then made me watch it again to see if it ended differently. It took a decade, and resulted in countless grainy FMV-laden casualties, but the interactive movie has finally arrived.
In Conclusion
A brave and imaginative step forwards in cinematic gaming. If your idea of a game is blowing up zombies or pulling 200mph around moonlit city streets, then move along. If, on the other hand, you want to see what the medium is capable of and are willing to put up with the gripes associated with a concept game, then it would be a tragic injustice not to sample this experience.
| Hot |
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| Cold |
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| Final Score |
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| 200° |
| A shooting star leaping through the sky, like a tiger defying the laws of gravity. |
