[9/28/05] Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit)

[Mag]

Game: Indigo Prophecy (aka Fahrenheit)

System: Xbox, PS2, PC

 

Unlike any other games before.. Indigo Prophecy (in Europe, it was known as "Fahrenheit") plays out as a movie, a sci-fic thriller where gameplay meets shenmue while capturing the theme of CSI and X-Files

 

:::Note Screenshots are taken from GameSpot:::

Just got the game today..and well my expectations are met.. I've been looking forward to it all week, I did however got upset earlier that the game delayed many times. But the wait is over, today I had the game, finished it and I'm happy enough to give it this a review.

 

Unlike other games.. this is more of a movie than a game. You play this on letterbox, pretty much throughout the whole game (RE4 uses the similar concept). Now, as I mentioned this is like a movie, but you will be controlling it, by that means.. you will be making decisions as you play through the game plots, and the movie progresses differently in multi resolutions depending on the actions you made, so this game does have multiple endings. I'll explain about the decision feature that manipuates the progress of the game later, which plays a major role in the game.

 

The game is sort of a movie epic, a sci-fic epic to be presise, It does have it's drama..but at the same time, actions (Lots of) and horror thrills. In the story, Lucas Kane, protaganist of Indigo Prophecy was in a restarunt one day as he was having a meal during the cold winter night. The scene focus on the restroom where he is sitting in the toilets, as someone was in the there as well washing his hand.. Lucas stood up as he has became controlled like a puppet as his mind felt through a state of trance. Out of control, he walk slowly toward the man, and stab him 3 times. After this moment, Lucas snap out realize what he have done, and this is where you will take control of Lucas.. as we begin the Saga of Indigo Prophecy. This is where the gameplay kicks in, you are free to make your own choices, would you rather hide the body, clean yourself up and walk out like it has never happen? or just be a little crazy and just run out of the resturant? choices that it will be leading the story one way or another, but that doesn't mean one decision from the game makes all the differences, you can actually made different decisions each time you play, and you will coincidently end up with the same resolution. This game holds a rather abstract series of plot..but they can be related off one to another, so connecting plots to tie different or same events are all possible. In the game, you will not only play as Lucas Kane but also play as two more characters, Carla and Tyler, these two are police detectives that are part of yet a second story that you will take control of back and forth corresponding to Lucas's story. Basically, you are playing Lucas story, the murderer but at the same time, you are taking control of the police's side (the ones that are after Lucas).

 

As mentioned the gameplay somewhat similar to how you would play Shenmue, the game allows you to move anywhere in the environment with custom adjust camera control, so you can view your character or change camera angles in many perspective. You will be able to pick up items and make decisions rather you like to exam, to keep, to take with you, etc etc. So it feels like shenmue so far? well I don't consider this is rather a rip off..but it has it's own style, you'll see this is just a big difference, but what's the commotion over shenmue is that, it captures the essence of the gameplay. Now as I mentioned about the decision feature, when you have control over your character, you will be getting into sorts of conversation and events when you must chose what to do in order to advance, there are more than one choices usually happens during conversation, but you are given a small amount of time to chose which before it auto chooses a negative choice. The choices in the game want you to decide what action you would like to take, both negative and positive choices are obvious no right or wrong. You are controlling the story and the plots here, so you chose by your liking and it should carry on through the rest of the game. Another feature of the game is also similar to what I have just said, is the QTE (Quick Time Event, which is also found in shenmue), where you have to input several commands at a limited of time to progress through a event, say for example.. in the story, you about to get ran over by a car, you have to input a series of command in order to avoid them. The commands are done by using both analog triggers and L1+R1 buttons (odd but it works). And rather you fail to do the command or not, you will continue the story on a new event or require you to restart all over, but most of the time. Other than these two import aspects of the gameplay.. you won't have health bars and such, but you will have what i would call a " feelings monitor " a screen measures your current mood which can be change at anytime during the game, the monitor locates on the lower right side of the screen.. and often it can go up and down depending on the progress you are making, and what I mean by progress is how well and what choices you have made during the events, because they are responsible for increasing/decreasing the feelings monitor. So when your monitor is at it's high point (positive), your mood will be nuetral, and when it's low (negative), you are in a state of deep depression.

 

The graphics in the is game is simply amazing, but out of the 3 versions (xbox, ps2, and PC), the PC takes the lead. Now what fascinate this game qualify as a movie, is because it it looks just looks and feels like it. Other than the letterbox to carry on that concept, the characters in the game are just simpily remarkable, character's faces shows real expressions as you would see normally if you would of look at a real person. Everything just looks what you would expect from a game that portraits realism. Both during cinemtic scenes and during gameplay, the graphic texture, models of the characters(faces), and backgrounds (buildings) are use the same. Which is it a good idea.. than having a very nice CG cinematic scene.

 

Now the game controls feels a little akward at first, but you will get used to it. Fahrenheit is rather a simple game with simple controls. Where you control your character movement using the left analog, and the right analog serves as your camera. During events.. such as when making a decision/choices in an event, you will be using the right analog to choose. Now in QTE (Quick time events), you will be using both analog sticks as I said before, it feels rather odd.. but either way, this is all part of the game, and it's a prerequisitite to have good reflex in order to finish this game.

 

The game soundtrack and dialogues are what made Indigo Prophecy qualify as a movie, the music is well composed. Yes, this is the type of soundtrack expected from a movie if this was actually made into a movie but not a game. Dialogues are another thing, they are well acted by professionals.. but to make this short..and again repetitive, this just feels like a movie, with real actors/actresses playing their part in the game.

 

_________

 

conclusion:

 

Hope you enjoy my review because this game has brought me the intentions that to tell you, that for those that enjoy watching movie and like to experience it on your own, this is the ride you been waiting for all your life. Why am I fascinated by this game all of a sudden after I got this game hours ago? because it has a very deep story... it pulls me in and didn't let me go til I finish it. Now, how is the intentions different than the other games I was hooked to? well.. one thing is, the experience of playing this game is different from the other games.. it makes me feel like I was actually in the game, Because I've played through out the events, and they stress me out, sounds a little too much? I'm gonna make an example, say for example.. the game starts out as I mentioned.. your character just committed a murder.. let say if I were to take my time cleaning things up, and a cop was just in the bar taking a sip of coffee.. and suddenly got up and about to use the restroom. I know that I'm done for if I were to think in the character's shoes.. so to make this less stressful, I would restart and make different decisions or a different plan in the game in order to bypass these stressful situations that my character has got into. So yeah, this game does leave me off with some nervous breakdowns and such, because of the realism and how you can have many outcomes in this movie/game. But anyway.. trying not to spoil anything.. this is indeed one game no one should miss out on.

 

Graphics - 8

Sound - 10

Controls - 7

Gameplay - 10

 

Overall score: 9

[Darken]

Nice work there.......very nice reviews

[Gryph]

I reall must get my hands on this game.

[Max]

Great review.

 

I got the game a couple of days back and was blown away, I'll be giving it some serious time soon (have to finish a game I started before this).

[retro78]

I picked up this game 2 or 3 weeks ago, and I was totally taken by it's uniqueness. The concept of playing a movie has been tried only a few times before but it seems to have been best realised here.

 

However....I think the reviewer is being a bit generous. The graphics aren't amazing, they're good but not great and some of the character animation is rather awkward. Also the controls aren't as intuitive as a normal 3rd person game, with so many changing camera points you can end up going round in circles for minutes trying to do something as simple as open a cupboard door or pick up a remote control.

 

Overall though a fine fine game.

[SWAMP_THING]

i didn't like it. the plot feels very rushed towards the end, tacked in sex scenes. also the endless QTE were a bit boring!

[oshisama]

i didn't like it. the plot feels very rushed towards the end, tacked in sex scenes. also the endless QTE were a bit boring!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

the sex scenes were removed from the U.S. version.

 

I enjoyed the game for a while but I lost interest in it after a few days playing it.