Indigo Prophecy
Webpages concerning "Indigo Prophecy"
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| Fahrenheit | |
|---|---|
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| Developer(s) | Quantic Dream |
| Publisher(s) | Atari |
| Designer(s) | David Cage |
| Engine | |
| Latest version | {{{version}}} |
| Release date(s) | September 16, 2005 (EU) September 20, 2005 (US) |
| Genre | Adventure |
| Mode(s) | Single player |
| Rating(s) | BBFC: 15 ESRB: Mature (17+) OFLC: MA 15+ PEGI: 16+ |
| Platform(s) | Xbox, PS2, Windows |
| Media | DVD (1) |
| System requirements | |
| Input | Mouse, Keyboard, or Gamepad |
Fahrenheit (known as Indigo Prophecy in the United States, though the magazine Sega Visions and the box at the stores all had the title Fahrenheit on the packaging) is a video game, released in September 2005. It is developed by French studio Quantic Dream, and is published by Atari. It was written and directed by Quantic Dream founder David Cage.
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About the game
This game is of note because of its revolutionary defiance of accepted genre; Quantic Dream prefer to brand it as the first truly "interactive film" rather than an adventure or third-person action title. Fahrenheit features a massive amount of motion capture as well as branching storylines, split screen cameras (used in a manner very similar to the television series 24) and an intuitive, realistic interface. A majority of critical reviews were enthusiastic, with many players regarding the work as a first step toward reinventing the genre.
Quantic Dream's only other game to date has been the similarly ambitious, but less successful Omikron for Windows and the Sega Dreamcast, which makes the game's accomplishments even more noteworthy, given the team's relatively inexperienced take with the gaming market.
Characters
Lucas Kane: The primary male protagonist of the game, and the one who 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 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. When he finds himself killing another man in a diner restroom, against his own will, the race is on to figure out who is the puppeteer moving his strings.
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 the tarot. 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.
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.
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.
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, further making his true self a mystery.
The Indigo Child: Rumoured to be nothing more than an ancient myth long lost to the sands of time. However, dark forces seem to have recently developed an interest in the story... What is his or her secret?
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 (or don't discover) Kane's identity.
Control
The game eschews most of the traditional methods of control, making minimal use of the face buttons on the controller, and instead uses 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 (mostly) easy-to-understand 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.
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 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 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 alloted time limit, the game will make a default choice for you, 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 you continually stray too far from the topic's intended resolution, the game will automatically make the choice for you. Examples include the cop in Joe's Diner telling you (as Carla Valenti) about the waitress and the table Lucas was sitting at.
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; a well-known documentary by Michael Moore regarding the September 11, 2001 attacks on New York City's World Trade Center [1]. Besides the name change, it is significant to note that the US version of the game has also been censored. Scenes depicting sex 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 censorship were made at the request of the publisher.
A likely cause for the requested censorship 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 censored scenes are completely ancillary to the plot.
The game faced no censorship problems in other parts of the world; any copy of the game titled Fahrenheit has not been censored or modified in any way.
Criticism
Though Fahrenheit received a majority of positive reviews, some were quick to elaborate on perceived flaws.
- The game has been somewhat criticised for having too many arcade sequences, and that some of these were too tough, especially when considering that the main audience of the game were the adventure gamers, who mostly are not used to being at the mercy of their reflexes (though many adventure games are known to contain timed sequences). The few stealth sequences in the game were criticised for similar reasons.
- 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 rail shooters. However, all adventure games, as well as most other computer games, can be said to, at best, offer only the illusion of freedom; some are simply better at maintaining that illusion than others.
- 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," but unfortunately, by that definition, numerous other adventure games might also be considered as having a quasi-"elastic" plot.
- 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 the narrative jumps forward in time by roughly two weeks, leaving the player to wonder what happened in the intervening period.
While some claim the plot was too linear, many have considered the overall game to be revolutionary in its own right. It is often praised in the media and by fans alike for straying from the traditional platformer/action game to a more intellectual level of gameplay.
External links
- Official Fahrenheit website
- Official Indigo Prophecy website
- Screenshots of Fahrenheit
- Interview with David Cage and Guillaume de Fondaumiere of Quantic Dream
Reviews
- Eurogamer review (Xbox; 9/10)
- TotalGames.net review (Xbox; 90%)
- Computer And Video Games review (Xbox; 9/10)