I never like to get stuck in my ways, playing the same type of games time after time, and always embrace games that try to be unique and break the mold. But this isn't to say that I'm some snotty artsy type who instinctively adores every original game to come out regardless of its flaws, and neither will I accept a game that tries to be so different in all its features that it neglects the gameplay to show them off. Fahrenheit is the perfect example of a creation from the latter category. Introducing some new, but mostly obtuse and pointless gameplay mechanics to the table, Fahrenheit ends up feeling quite pretentious; the few good scenes in the game overshadowed by pointless halts in the experience, along with some really poor controls, annoying-as-hell sneaking levels, and a story which sadly goes completely off the rails during the second half.
The story begins on a cold winter's night in New York City, where you, Lucas Kane, stab a man to death in the restroom of a diner while under a trance. You return to your senses standing over the body of your victim, with blood on your hands, and no clue what happened. From this point onward, you follow this man through his journey to find out what really happened and clear his name, slowly losing his sanity and discovering mystical things about himself and the world around him. You don't just play as Lucas, though. Throughout the story the perspective will shift between him and the two supporting characters, detectives Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles. As Lucas is wanted for murder, these two obviously want to bring him down. Playing them gives you a chance to piece clues together and actually see things from the other side of the fence, and also allows for a much broader portrayal of the story. The other character's having some show time lets the player get to know them and characterizes them in the best way possible.
The game is played out largely through context-sensitive actions and "interactive cutscenes," meaning that the gameplay feels much different to any other game in the Adventure genre, or for that matter, any other game at all. The personalities in the game are relatable, and mostly well characterised; Lucas in particular showing an increasing desperation as the story unfolds further, and the supporting characters also playing their parts in a believable way, great voice acting and all. It's all punctuated in quite an effective way with the use of some split-screen camera techniques to create tension, and an atmospheric (but slightly repetitive) soundtrack.
It's such a shame that the actual game doesn't nearly live up to the quality of the world it's built upon. The game is basically designed around quick time events, and every other cutscene requires you to play a game of Simon for the character to continue whatever they're doing and not fail. This has to be the most peculiar act I've ever done in a game, as I am basically being asked to play a mini-game to watch a cutscene. In general, quick time events don't bother me much, because usually they are presented in the form of buttons on the screen that correspond to whatever stunt the character is pulling off, and seem to fit well with the control scheme. For example, if jump is the space bar, and the character does a jump in a cutscene while a quick time event is going on, then the game will likely ask you to press the space bar at this point (or at least the "up" button); creating the illusion that you're actually contributing to what is happening on screen, even though you're really not. In Fahrenheit by contrast, you're basically asked to play a game on the screen completely separated from what is actually happening, apart from the minor indications of up, down, left and right. Exposing these sections for what they really are: simplistic distractions from the actual game that prevent you from continuing until you do them correctly. But in Fahrenheit this isn't even true, because they're not distractions; they are a major selling point of the game.
When the game actually gave me the controls and let me play it, I found the experience distinctive, but unpolished. There are a number of other unique additions to the gameplay, including the context-sensitive actions mentioned earlier. When you approach something your character can interact with, there can be a number of different ways to do so, and all decided by which direction you flick the mouse. There is a hefty dosage of interactivity with the environment, and it's actually done in quite a good way, barring a few hiccups, it feels quite smooth and intuitive; though the necessity of it all is questionable. There is also quite an abundance of sequences that require you to hammer the left and right keys as hard and fast as possible to assist the character with some strenuous activity such as swimming or pulling something. But again, I enquire the whole point of it all, attacking your keyboard with your fingers is quite a divergence from doing any kind of physical activity, and even though you feel some kind of strain it doesn't do anything to immerse you. There are also a handful of sections which require you to press buttons to do negligible things, like pressing the left and right keys to keep your breathing steady in a dark corridor. Yes, you are required to press buttons to breathe. It just often feels like a pointless hindrance trying to disguise the game as something deeper than it really is.
My comment about the game being unpolished, however, stems partly from some very poor movement controls, but honestly encompasses the entirety of the game's parts. No individual section of Fahrenheit feels polished enough, because it tries to do too many things at once, which is an admirable feat, but Fahrenheit comes out short because in game design you have to focus on key areas to refine them to be the best they can be, and it neglects that in favor of throwing as many different manners of gameplay at us as it can. As a result, some stiff, robotic animations, bland levels, bad camera, and spiralling story are all completely overlooked; which is a crying shame because Fahrenheit often oozes potential with its atmospheric tone and character portrayal.
There are a handful of really decent scenes in Fahrenheit that are really atmospheric, and help to grip you and help set the mood. Sadly, you just have to wade through all the irritating and gimmicky crap that they are surrounded by. There are some wholly uninspired 'spooky' sections that require you to do that breathing exercise, some completely out-of-place levels involving the supporting characters working out or playing basketball, and some infuriating sneaking levels made up of repetitive trial-and-error gameplay with the kind of stealth mechanics you would expect from a PlayStation One game.
You may initially be gripped by the overarching plot, which starts off at a high note, and indeed stays there until about half-way through the game, where it begins to slip, and then rapidly slides downward. The story quickly loses much of its appeal and becomes difficult to understand mostly due to poor storytelling techniques and lack of explanation, and there is a major tonal shift from detective story to superhero journey, which, while implied early in the game, just feels a bit bizarre. The game also tries to give the impression that your actions have an impact on how events unfold, but after the first few levels it settles down into mostly linear paths, and nothing but very minor things are actually affected by your choices.
I'm left wondering if this would simply have been better as a movie, because as it stands it's less of a game and more of a movie that you have to play little mini-games in order to continue watching. When the gameplay is a hindrance preventing me from enjoying the product, something has gone wrong. As much I praise this game for its ambiance and the way it portrays its story, the actual game part of the game is almost missing here. There isn't any challenge in Fahrenheit, and there aren't many adventure elements or exploring to do. It sometimes just feels like a story that the game was added onto, instead of the other way around like it should be.
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