Fahrenheit

Spoilers abound.

The first third of the game is a paranormal detective story with a very strong and suspenseful opening. The mystery really drew me into the story. The voice acting is okay, but the characters are still likable and interesting.

The game switches the player's perspective from the unwilling murderer and the detectives investigating him. I had a hard time putting the game away. The best part is when the detectives' and murderer's paths intertwine.

The second third gets wacky. I'm not a big fan of the Matrix movies, but it can be pretty much summed up as what Reloaded was to the original: more of the same, but dumber, sillier, and running low on fresh ideas.

There are some good parts where the detectives start making connections to the murderer, and the game features some neat horror elements, but other than that, there's not much plot development. The mystery goes away as some nonsense Illuminati plot is revealed and the hero gets Matrix-like superhero powers. There's also some BS about the character having been involved in some supernatural incident in his childhood. A cliche that didn't develop into anything interesting.

The last third is the worst. This part is completely divorced from the suspenseful detective thriller that the game introduced itself as. Characters' personalities take a total 180.

The superpowers get crazier. The murderer is undead now. The female detective, originally a strong female lead, suddenly falls in love with the murderer, completely breaking her character, and they have awkward sex in a train car. Because who wouldn't want a piece of that frozen zombie action. The most likable protagonist, the male detective, chickens out of the plot and leaves for the rest of the game.

The plot is revealed to actually be a bunch of cliche mystical Mesoamerican ancient secret society nonsense that is straight out of the History Channel, but with a conspiracist digital age Illuminati Skynet twist. The Aztec clan is fighting with the AI-Robot clan to obtain the indigo child who knows the truth of the world. Tie that in with the Mayan apocalypse. Then everything is resolved magically.

To top it all of, the "remaster" is about as barebones as you can get. The remastered runs somewhat better and has hi-res support, some updated textures, and some improved effects. Really ballsy move, trying to sell this as a "remaster" in 2015. Looks more like a special edition or next-gen rerelease that would've come out a year after the game's release.

The controls suck. The PC controls are horrible, so you pretty much have to use a controller. I used an Xbox 360 wired controller, and while it worked much better than the standard PC controls, there were still some issues, especially with the movement and the quick-time events.

33% suspenseful detective thriller, 33% silly explanations for what actually happened, 33% Matrix Illuminati rubbish.

Might be worth grabbing very cheap just for the first few hours (or until you're no longer eligible for a refund), but the rest of the game retroactively makes the good parts worse.

While i do applaud the game for being innovative and doing a good job regarding illusion of choice, at least early on, its a game thats plagued by so many flaws that its really hard to recomment. David Cage was really trying to make an interactive movie out of this, but unfortunatly the voice acting and animation are very subpar, and the script is very very amateurish.

The story revolves around a conspiracy plot and supernatural, and you play both in the perspective of a man who has commited a crime unwillingly as well as the policemen investigating him. Good concept, but unfortunatly the gameplay basically boild down to tiresome qte's and some of the most laughable investigation. Not to mention that the game is shamelessly dragged on with basketball games and romantic sections, which have no business in the story of the game. There are also some stealth sections, and the less said about these the better.

Its a memorable game for sure, but i think i will remember it more for all of its weird design decisions, bad writing and even worst animation.

Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy does actually start with a very interesting premise, with a possessed killer waking to his deeds and scrambling to cover it up as both he and the cops try to investigate proceedings, and you playing as both parties! The multi-viewed narrative does actually have some credence as different characters cross paths, trade information or come to blows as you experience the perspectives of everyone. Unfortunately, the conclusion infamously leaves a lot to be desired, with the story somehow both becoming repetitive and spiralling out of control as it races towards the climax.

This is also where Quantic Dream most failed to meaningfully integrate quick-time events into both the action scenes and general gameplay, and the interface just feels grafted on in an attempt to hide production values that, music aside, are not quite where they need to be. It stood out in 2005, and at least it's better than Beyond: Two Souls, but neither says much.

Since the 90s, genres in video games made the transition from distinct experiences into modern game terminology. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion could be described as a RPG with an FPS fighting system and viewpoint. Metroid Prime became a FPS with many exploration and platforming elements. Sure there are still cut-and-dried games that stay true to their genre, but we often throw insults at them, claiming they are "retro" or "too safe for their own good". Splicing a genre into another is an essential of inventive game design. With all this said, it still baffles me how they attach the adventure genre to games like Tomb Raider or Mass Effect (games I love) -- implying that the adventure genre can be distilled into finding the red key or choosing different lines of dialogue. The adventure genre is the one genre that can't really capture the same essence when spliced with others. So, I have to congratulate Quantic Dream for finding a way to reintroduce the genre to the adventure-deprived with Indigo Prophecy.

At the start of the game, you take the role of Lucas Kane, a man gone stab happy after some supernatural force takes over him. One of the game's best mechanics is introduced in this tense intro, as you have to find out what to hide what where before a cop enters the cafe's restroom. It's a segment that will pop-up in similar forms later in the game, along with a Simon Says and trigger endurance segments (more on those later). Not more than 10 minutes later, you'll take the role of Carla and Tyler: two detectives at the scene of the murder Lucas just committed. The rest of the game is told through the perspective of these three characters, each with their own unique story and viewpoint.

From Final Fantasy VI [ファイナルファンタジーVI] to Halo 2, we've played games that play with the idea of changing characters and seeing things from a different perspective but Indigo Prophecy might be the best example of this yet. From the first moment as the cops at the cafe to being Lucas at the game's end, these novel transitions keep the storytelling varied and compelling. Indigo Prophecy is at its best in the opening 3 hours, as it introduces its elementary gameplay segments and gripping story that feels like The Matrix meets Se7en (with the writing of CSI--did I kill your anticipation?)

You would hardly call them minigames or features, but most of the action sections of Indigo are played through a Quick Time Event (think Shenmue [シェンムー 一章 横須賀]) or endurance tests where you press the L and R triggers as fast as you can while you watch the character bench press or throw an enemy across the room. These parts are obviously 2nd to a true combat system, but, for a game with a mission to keep the player always connected to the action on screen, it's better then just watching a cutscene with no player input. In addition to these parts, there is also conversation which requires the player to move the thumb-stick to the right choice in time. Like so many other elements of Indigo Prophecy, it's a little detail that evokes what the character on screen is feeling within the player. In life, you can't sit on your ass and think over what clever thing to say next--you need to reply quick and subsequent to your friend. Even better are the moments of Indigo Prophecy that evoke the same fear or tension your character is feeling. Call it false interaction to make the player stressed over a QTE segment while the character is running through a parking lot, but it edges the player one step closer to the character than any other medium could.

The main faults of Indigo Prophecy are the gripes one could have with any game: the story is more Hollywood cliche than best selling mystery novel, the gameplay grows a bit stale, and there are some misguided stages (the obligatory stealth segment of 04' says hi!) Indigo Prophecy might piss off LucasArts Entertainment Company adventure game fans for its disregard to genre staples, but Quantic Dream offer the true evolution of the genre. It captures the intimacy, exploration, and reward that only adventure games of the 90s offered. The game becomes a clusterfuck of gaps in storytelling and faulty logic, but you feel so invested in the characters because you were just as scared as they were when going in the creepy bird lady's house and just as flustered when Carla has to deal with her claustrophobia in the police department's basement. The story might end up being forgettable, but there are so many parts of the game that will stick with you. All of which are begging Quantic Dream to refine and weave a masterful story around, in the future. Maybe one day they will.