something i posted on the xbox forums today

(in the Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit forum)

i’ve read all of your posts, and certianly i think all of your points are valid, even those in the negative. being a huge fan of this game i feel i should contribute.

Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in NTSC regions) is certainly not a game for everyone. it will be too slowly paced for some, and the unique control system also won’t sit well with others. this doesn’t make it a terrible game, but i acknowledge that not everyone will get into the gameplay.

all in all my first play-through took roughly 8 and a half hours, and while this may be relatively short, i was fairly satisfied. fairly, because perhaps the last hour or so felt slightly rushed. i was satisfied with the ending, but i would have liked two hours – even one more hour of gameplay and narrative as toward the end one or two story elements make the player feel like they are being asked to take a few leaps of faith to fill in the gaps, if that makes sense.

the last hour excepted, i must say that for my gaming tastes, the experience of the game easily justifies purchase and long-term ownership. while i enjoy my frantic shooters, racers, fighters and other genres, Fahrenheit stands out as an exceptional ‘interactive film’ if you will, with astoundingly high production values.

now when we start talking about production values i hear you all chiming in with ‘yeah but what about the graphics?’ – this i suppose is a point of perspective. my personal perspective is that the narrative (story – not narration (voice-over) – one of these days i won’t have to keep adding that disclaimer) drive the game, and is the most central and important element or production value. all other elements are centred around this. in this sense, from my point of view, the graphics facilitated the narrative – and while yes – time could have been spent to improve them, i feel that if too much time was dedicated to graphical technicalities like anti-aliasing and texturing, then effort would have been taken away from other equally important elements in the game such as gameplay dynamic and visual presentation. there are parts of this game that are just purely stunning – again i suppose a matter of perception, so stunning that for me, anti-aliasing no longer becomes an issue.

for me, for the most part in Fahrenheit, i stopped seeing polygons, textures and anti-aliasing – and saw the *story* – saw the ideas being presented. rarely does this happen for me in my gaming experience, and to be fair, it’s not always something i expect to find or require in order to enjoy a game. not only is the visual style breath-taking at times, but the overall immersiveness created by the narrative (of-course), gameplay dynamics and also importantly sound and soundtrack is of such a high quality.

for those of you who are unaware, the main themes for Fahrenheit were composed by Angelo Badalamenti who wrote the orchestral scores to David Lynch’s Lost Highway and Mulholland Drive. again – i’m sure that those films aren’t to everyone’s taste, nor the music, which again just means that Fahrenheit isn’t the game for you. for me though, the soundtrack and main themes definitely struck a chord and helped create an extremely immersive experience.

it isn’t a perfect game, even the most hardcore of fans like myself will admit to you that it has control and camera niggles. also at times the hot-zones for carrying out actions can be rather small and don’t immediately re-trigger, so one has to walk the character away from the zone and re-enter it. also, typical of some of the lesser experienced developers, the motion capturing and voice acting may seem a little over-enthusiastic at times. you may have a chuckle or two at some of the characters’ arm and head movements as the speak. rarely though was i frustrated with these things, and my immersion in the overall game far out-weighed these imperfections. all in all, the main character’s voices are brilliantly done.

Fahrenheit for me had so many memorable moments. even if there weren’t apparently three endings, and even if there weren’t as many multiple dialogue and action posibilities, i think i would still rate this as a high quality game because of its fantastic ability to immerse me in an experience. i was compelled to play this and if i didn’t have a normal life to lead during the day, i would have played through this in one night – alas, it was released here in Australia on a weekday and i had work the next morning. (wasn’t life good when i was a student…)

there are things that might stand out as being cliche, or not as good as they could have been, but i challenge you to look past them if you’re willing. not asking you to like the game if you find it’s not to your liking or gaming tastes, just saying it’s worth a go – even if only because it’s different. i’m definitely encouraged by the care and dedication clearly evident in this title, and it gives me hope for future releases such as Dreamfall, the sequel to a little game one or two of you may know ‘The Longest Journey’ – while not a Quantic Dream title, i’m still enthusiastic about it as ‘The Longest Journey’ had such a brilliant, mature and detailed narrative.

anyway that’s my essay for the day. can’t say i didn’t try.