fahrenheit (indigo prophecy) | iriver h340

what you need to do as soon as you’ve finished reading this is switch off your PC or log off your public system, go down to your local games retailer, and purchase fahrenheit, also known as indigo prophecy in some regions.

not since eternal darkness has a game compelled me to play for five hours straight – and if i didn’t have to wake up early to pick up my iriver h340, i would have given it two or three more hours.

if i had the opportunity, i would have finished this in one sitting.

as it is, i’ll have to wait until i get home from whatever firday night/saturday AM shenanigans i get up to tonight.
yes – it really is that good.

forget what you know of established genres – just be open and play the game. it’s fairly easy on normal, so if you really want a challenge, perhaps hard should be your path, but i think it would do better for your second or third play-through, as you don’t really want the gameplay to get in the way of the story – because this is what fahrenheit is – a truly interactive story.
even if the story isn’t your thing, the excecution of the game mechanics and one’s involvement in the presentation is truly brilliant. one moves one’s character through stylized split screens, touted to be similar to those of the television series 24, and it’s just so cool to see. you think the game will break back into normal full-screen as you move, but it doesn’t.
further to that, the ‘action’ minigames that engage play during action sequences feel totally natural and make sense to what you’re doing. i can’t spoil anything at all, because it’s truly amazing when you discover new things – some of them made me laugh out loud and cheer with delight – suffice to say that so far my favourite scene has to be Carla’s trip to the archives. absolutely brilliant.

oh yeah – and make sure you do the tutorial first – never has there been a cooler tutorial in a game. you can probably do without it, but it’s just way too cool, as was the demo, which i’m glad to have as it’s like an extra snipit of effort from Quantic Dream.

effort and detail is what this game is all about – don’t baulk at the graphics – they are there to facilitate the tactile experience and presentation – you just need to let yourself go and be drawn up into the experience David Cage and his creative team have crafted with such devotion for you.

furthermore the score has been composed by none other than lost highway and mulholland drives’ Angelo Badalamenti, and it is absolutely brilliant. it really does assist in the immersion of the game, and greatly helps in the cinematic feel of the game. you’ll have to pardon my enthusiasm – it’s causing my thoughts to be all over the place, so this semi-review might be a bit disjointed –
the cinematic presentation is absolutely at the core of fahrenheit’s philosophy. one does not start a ‘new game’ – one starts a ‘new film’ – even the menu animations are cinematic – right from the begining Quantic Dream are asserting the kind of presentation they’ll be exposing you to, but unlike japanese RPGs or indeed, Kojima’s Metal Gear franchise (all of which are good by the way – just different), i feel fahrenheit has really nailed the player’s involvement in the ‘virtual movie’ if we should call it that. sure there are a lot of cut-scenes, but the gameplay itself lends itself to feeling like you’re actually in control of some of those cutscenes – which of-course aren’t cutscenes at all – it’s truly ‘cinematic gameplay’.

of-course the story is great, but briefly i’d just like to add that there are quite a few mature story elements in it – not just the big bad that’s happening at the core of the narrative, but just side-stories here and there that all the more make the characters convincing as discerning and intelligent adults.

the effort, content, presentation and atmosphere in thie game show a huge amount of respect for intelligent adult gamers who want more than just meaningless actions. rarely have i ever felt so connected with the actions i carry out in the game, and how they tie into the narrative. my earlier example of japanese RPGs are a pet hate of mine as far as narrative goes. sure i love them and they’re fun, but i always feel that the combat is totally disconnected from the narrative, with pretty cutscenes being the carrot at the end of the stick compelling me to slog through thousands of random battles. fahrent height’s actions really are connected to the narrative – directly, and i haven’t seen it so beautifully done.

this may very will cap off my gaming enjoyment forever. considering the gaming public’s lack of enthusiasm for games like this, let alone this title, i doubt anything like it will ever be created again…

but i sincerely hope not. i hope with all of my emotions and intellect that Quantic Dream and David Cage will continue to pursue their artform and interatcive philosophies – if not in the established gamer’s culture, perhaps in the new territory that is forming and has the potential to form through products like, oh gee, i don’t know – Nintendo DS and Revolution.

for me – this is as good as it gets. sure, there are tiny niggles in fahrenheit which occasionally are slightly frustrating, but the overall brilliance of the game absolutely erases it completely.

so far for me this has come the closest to being a perfect game – in everything it sets out to achieve, in my involvement in its narrative, and its gameplay, and the perfect balance and relationship of game mechanics and narrative coming together to form an absolute masterpiece.