Fahrenheit (video game)

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Fahrenheit
Fahrenheit box cover
Developer(s) Quantic Dream
Publisher(s) Atari
Designer(s) David Cage
Latest version 1.1 (October 2005)
Release date(s) September 16, 2005 (EU)
September 20, 2005 (US)
Genre(s) Adventure
Mode(s) Single player
Rating(s) ESRB: Mature (17+) censored
ESRB: Adults Only (18+)
BBFC: 15
OFLC: MA 15+
OFLC (New Zealand): R16
PEGI: 16+
USK: 16
Platform(s) Xbox, PS2, Windows
Media DVD (1)
Input Mouse and Keyboard, or Gamepad

Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in the United States and Canada) is a video game that was released in September 2005. It was developed by French studio Quantic Dream, and published by Atari. The game was written and directed by Quantic Dream founder David Cage.

Contents

[edit] Overview

Fahrenheit is an adventure game where every decision has a direct effect on the story path of an unfolding mystery. In this paranormal thriller, New York City is stunned by a series of mysterious murders that follow the same pattern: ordinary people become possessed and kill absolute strangers in public. Lucas Kane becomes another one of these murderers when he suddenly kills a stranger in a men’s bathroom. Hunted by police, Lucas must uncover the supernatural forces behind his crime before being incarcerated for life.

A good deal of publicity was generated from the developer's rejection of conventional game genre labeling for the title; Quantic Dream prefers to brand it as the first truly "interactive film" rather than an adventure or third-person action title. Fahrenheit features a large amount of motion captured animation as well as branching storylines, split screen cameras (used in a manner very similar to the television series 24) and an interface designed to be intuitive and realistic. Event triggers in Fahrenheit are also mainly time-based, as opposed to the more common player-initiated progression found in most games. A majority of critical reviews were enthusiastic, and considerable praise has been given to the developers for their attempt to reinvent and reimagine the "adventure game" genre.

Quantic Dream's only other game to date has been the similarly ambitious, but less successful Omikron: The Nomad Soul for Windows and the Sega Dreamcast.

[edit] Characters

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Lucas Kane: The primary male protagonist of the game, and the one whom the player will be controlling for most of the game. Lucas, try as he might to fit in, is hardly an everyday Joe milling through life in Manhattan. He grew up with his parents and brother in Wishita on a military base where scientific experiments were conducted, and now works as a technical expert for a bank before going home to his apartment. He's currently single, having recently broken up with his previous girlfriend Tiffany Harper, for whom he still has feelings. His hobbies include playing the guitar and boxing. There are times where he will see startling visions about those he knows or the situations around him, which have an uncanny method of coming true, although most people he knows pass this off as coincidence. The game opens with Lucas murdering another man, apparently against his own will. He is voiced by David Gasman.

Carla Valenti: The primary female protagonist of the game. Carla is an inspector with the NYPD, with a serious outlook about work and effort. She lives in a high-rise across from a friendly neighbour, a gay stock market follower named Tommy who likes to dabble in fortune telling using tarot cards. Naturally inquisitive and completionist, Carla tends to brood over cases which are going nowhere, working long hours trying to find that one clue that might be eluding her. She is highly claustrophobic; prone to panic attacks if she can't keep her mind on the task at hand when inside dark, enclosed spaces. She is voiced by Sharon Mann.

Tyler Miles: Carla's partner, he has a much more lackadaisical attitude towards life, although he is very devoted both to his job and his fianceé, Samantha Malone ('Sam' as he calls her). The long hours and increasing cold have begun to sink his spirits greatly, and this latest murder case hasn't helped, leaving him to reconsider life as a police officer and perhaps leaving for Florida with Sam to run her parents' store. His hobbies include playing basketball, video games (which he often talks about or makes references to) and collecting 1970s memorabilia and vinyl Motown albums. He is voiced by David Gasman.

Markus Kane: Lucas' brother and a devout Catholic, working as a priest at Saint Paul's Church. He worries about the current state of affairs involving his brother, but his faith prevents him from seeing very much past the fact that Lucas has murdered a man, despite his best efforts. When they were kids, Markus tried to get Lucas, who was something of a loner, more involved with the other children on their military base home. He is voiced by Doug Rand.

The Oracle: A man of unknown identity who has begun appearing in Lucas' visions. He has only been seen wearing a gray hooded coat which hides his face, leaving his true nature a mystery. He is later revealed to be a Mayan oracle over 2000 years old, working for the Orange Clan to find the location of the Indigo Child. He is voiced by Paul Bandey.

The Indigo Child/Jade: The indigo child is a child born with a pure soul, having not been incarnated before. The child holds the Secret to the meaning of life itself, and whoever hears the secret, will gain infinite power.

Agatha: An elderly, paraplegic, blind woman who, using her mystical abilities, helps Lucas understand what happened to him at the diner. Despite dying early in the game, Lucas sees her afterwards; this is then revealed to be a member of the Purple Clan masquerading as her so that Lucas will do their bidding. She is voiced by Jodi Forrest.

The Purple Clan: A group of Artificial Intelligences wishing to use the secret of the Indigo Child to become the dominant species on the Earth.

The Orange Clan: An Illuminati-like Secret society ruling the planet from behind the scenes. They wish to utilize the secret of the Indigo child to become Immortal and rule the Earth for eternity.

The Invisibles: A secret underground organization that monitors the other clans, and wishes to make sure that the secret of the Indigo Child does not fall into the wrong hands.

[edit] Story

The game is set in the year 2009. The story begins on a cold New York night, when Lucas, in a possessed trance, stabs a man to death in the restroom of an East Side diner and then flees the scene in confusion. His crime is set against a backdrop of similar ritualistic murders and falling temperatures (hence the name). Valenti and Miles are charged with solving the case and tracking down Kane. The player is placed in control of all three, and occasionally of Markus, over the course of the game, and thus is forced to sometimes aid one character in opposing another.

The game's plot is also unusual for its manifold branchings and options. The creators describe the plot as "elastic," capable of much stretching to accommodate the player's choices and decisions across all three characters, although it still follows a set plot thread. For instance, in the opening scene, the player is placed in control of Lucas and left to deal with the aftermath of the murder. The player's choices, such as what to hide, what to leave alone and how to escape the diner, determines what clues Valenti and Miles find and how the patrons recall him, and thus the ease with which they later discover Kane's identity. (There is a specific mission where the sole purpose is to figure out all the clues.)

[edit] Control

Console versions of the game eschew most of the traditional methods of control, making minimal use of the face buttons on the controller, and instead using twin analog sticks almost exclusively. The left stick controls movement of the character, and the right is used for context-sensitive actions. For instance, when Lucas approaches his table at the diner in the opening scene, one direction may cause him to take a seat, while another makes him examine his bill, and a third lets him pick up his drink and take a sip. The available options are displayed with simple diagrams at the top of the screen. Some more complex motions, such as climbing a fence or spinning a yo-yo in "around the world" fashion, require controller motions akin to those used for special moves from conventional fighting games.

On the PC the game can be controlled by keyboard and mouse, with key movements and mouse gestures used in conjunction in lieu of analog control sticks, but PC gamepads with analog sticks are also supported, and recommended.

There are also large action set pieces, which are completely scripted, but do require reflexes to complete. During these scenes, two circular diagrams are superimposed over the full-motion animation, each one corresponding to one of the analog sticks. The diagrams depict sequences of control inputs, which the player must mimic in order to maneuver the character out of danger. It is similar to the gameplay of Dragon's Lair or the "Quick Time Event" sequences in Shenmue. The game also requires feats of endurance, involving the alternate pressing of the left and right shoulder buttons as rapidly as possible. These L-trigger/R-trigger sequences are generally used to evoke (and cause) physical strain, such as running or swimming.

The game provides each character with a "Sanity" meter, which goes from full ("Neutral") to empty ("Wrecked") and represents the character's mental health. Many of the game's events (such as the opening, where Lucas Kane comes to over the prone body of his victim) subtract points from the meter, but everyday or habitual activities (such as eating, urinating or fiddling with a favorite toy) will add to them, as well as scenarios in which the character makes a revealing discovery or action that helps him or her in some substantial way. An empty Sanity meter leads to an end depending on the character (Carla and Tyler will give up their badges, and Lucas will either turn himself in, or commit suicide.) and a Game Over.

Finally, conversation is also implemented by the game, with the right analog stick being used to choose dialogue options. This is sometimes accompanied by a "Suspicion" meter which is affected by the player's choices, indicating how suspicious the character who Lucas Kane is conversing with is. For example, failing to give convincing answers when being interrogated would raise the Suspicion meter. In these situations, if the player does not make a choice within the allotted time limit, the game will make a default choice for him, or else the conversation is abruptly ended. It should be noted that it is impossible to leave a conversation without the minimum amount of information necessary for the characters to progress in the game, and if one continually strays too far from the topic's intended resolution, the game will automatically make the choice for him. Examples include the cop in Joe's Diner telling the player, as Carla Valenti, about the waitress and the table at which Lucas was sitting.

[edit] Soundtrack

The soundtrack was a well received aspect of the game, receiving praise from various sources.[1][2] Impressed by his previous work on soundtracks for David Lynch films, David Cage after several failed experiments with other composers decided to enlist Angelo Badalamenti onto the project. Cage did not want the soundtrack to be composed of generic orchestral pieces in the vain of John Williams or Carmina Burana, but instead more emotional and atmospheric, something that he felt Badalamenti achieved.[3] Further licensed pieces of music were used in the game, these could also be unlocked for later listening:

[edit] US version changes

The original title of Fahrenheit was changed to Indigo Prophecy in the United States. The change was made to avoid confusion with the film Fahrenheit 9/11.[1] Besides the name change, it is significant to note that the US version of the game has also been edited. Scenes depicting sex (one of which is interactive) and other "adult content" were removed, so that the game would receive a "Mature" (17+) rating instead of an "Adults Only" (18+) rating from the Entertainment Software Rating Board. Both the name change and editing were made at the request of the publisher.

A likely cause for the requested changes was due to the infamous Hot Coffee mod for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, which garnered unfavourable media attention and controversy in mid-2005. Although Fahrenheit's sex scenes are not explicit (less so than a typical "R"-rated film), Quantic Dream claims that the cuts don't "dramatically affect" the plot of the game. The deleted scenes are completely ancillary to the plot. Even so, the game has been re-released in Canada and the USA under the title Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Director's Cut. This version of the game, available only for Windows as a download, is uncut and rated Adults Only (18+).

The game faced no such problems in other parts of the world; any copy of the game entitled Fahrenheit has not been edited in any way.

[edit] Criticism

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Though Fahrenheit received a majority of positive reviews, nominated by several sites for Best Voice Acting and Best Adventure Game, there were some criticisms.

  • The game has been somewhat criticised for having too many arcade sequences which are reflexive in nature, and that some of these were too difficult. Many thought the few stealth sequences in the game were simply poorly implemented.
  • In the same vein, some people felt that the overall storyline tended to be even more linear than most other adventure games. For example; the player was confined to the immediate environment, and some of the decision-making was taken away from the player, in a fashion similar to that of on-rail shooters.
  • Many gamers felt that the much-hyped "elastic" plot was too static, and that the instances that could change the game were too few. One might partially counter this argument by saying that this was exactly why the storyline was labelled "elastic" instead of "dynamic": while the game's storyline is unchangable, character moods and responses may be varied.
  • In addition, many felt that the game's plot lost direction in the last third of the game, with deus ex machina plot twists, seemingly out-of-character actions on the part of otherwordly beings, etc. This is due largely to the fact that game was originally planned to be episodic, but this changed relatively late in development and the game had to be quickly completed. As a result only the beginning and end were fully developed, and the narrative jumps forward in time by roughly two weeks, leaving the player to wonder what happened in the intervening period.
  • Some reviewers, including the leading German magazine GameStar, critized that other than normal adventure games, Fahrenheit contained no real puzzles, but mostly arcade sequences.

[edit] Trivia

  • The mental caretaker meeting Carla in Bellevue Asylum is black, named Barney and - when Carla is about to enter the walkway leading to the cells - he says "Don't worry, I'll be watching. You'll be fine." The whole situation, a female police officer visiting an asulym to get information on another murder, with a protective black caretaker named Barney shows here in, is an homage to the film The Silence of the Lambs by Jonathan Demme, quoting the words from the movie.

[edit] References

  1. ^ Charles Onyett (2005-10-01). Indigo Prophecy Review. IGN. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  2. ^ Ted Dedon (2005-09-26). Indigo Prophecy Review. Amped IGO. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.
  3. ^ David Cage (2006-06-20). Postmortem: Indigo Prophecy. Gamasutra. Retrieved on 2006-11-19.

[edit] External links

[edit] Reviews

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