Indigo Prophecy

The Good
Indigo Prophecy is a trendsetter. This game is just so damn awesome that I don't know if I'll be able to word things correctly, but here goes nothing.

You start out at a diner, in the bathroom, on the throne. You're unconscious, fully clothed thank goodness. A man comes in and uses the urinal... you twitch.

He walks over to the sink slowly, while your body begins to shake and convulse rather violently. He's washing his hands, and you step out of the stall, staggering like a wooden puppet. A small steak knife is in your hand, and you lift it. Your head lifts up, revealing your face. A grimace of death and agony is upon you, and your eyes are rolled back. The man sees you in the mirror, and turns around just in time to catch the blade in the heart. He falls to the ground, you on top of him, struck silent in horror and pain as you raise the blade high into the air again, and strike again. You lift the blade one more time, and plunge it into the last artery, completely severing the man's heart. You raise your hands in the air, covered in blood, head looking upwards as you almost seem to levitate, still twitching violently. All of a sudden, SLAM.

You fall the the ground, waking up as if from a deep sleep. You don't remember what the hell just happened, but you know that if you don't cover this up quickly, someone is going to find out. You drag the body into a stall and mop up the blood, and then wash your hands of the stain of your sin. A cop tells the cook to hold onto his food, he needs to use the restroom. You don't have long. You leave in a rush, with the option to pay for your food calmly or just rush out like a bat out of hell... You think you got away, but they're on your heels like bloodhounds... Who did this to you? What the hell even happened? It all unravels in my favorite game for Xbox: Indigo Prophecy.

I love that game so damn much. The game's graphics are eye-candy, and the storyline just gets deeper and deeper and drags you in with it. User controls allow easy movement and control of objects around your house, such as a stereo with real working music, a sink, a fridge, the works.

The voice-acting and sounds are sublime! Everything... to tell you the truth, it's just like a freaking movie! It's just so damn good!

The Bad
Well, it had to end for one. Also, I wished that some things that you do/see/hear have a little more... explanation. This game has basically no flaws...

The Bottom Line
The best game for Xbox, in my opinion. Rent first, but a definite buy. Rent first so you can make sure you're okay with the controls and method of talking.

The Good
It played like a movie; I know David Cage and company tried to do this. And I think they pretty much succeeded. I like that there is an actual plot, and that it is not all mindless button-mashing (although there is a fair amount of that). They tried to do something creative and new in terms of the controls, and this alone makes this game worth taking a look at. The visuals and on-screen presentation are also very good. This is a really well-conceived game.

The Bad
As others have commented, the controls can be very hard to get the hang of. I started with a Saitek gamepad, which gave good Force feedback effects but lacked the precision necessary to succeed at any of the button-mashing levels. I eventually tried an XBox 360 gamepad (more expensive, but worth it) which was the only gamepad precise enough to allow me to advance through the levels. With the standard driver, Force feedback was not an option. After some tweaking, I finally managed to get the open-source XBCD driver installed and configured to my wishes, which gave me good Force feedback. As installed, I doubt the gamepad configuration suits anyone.

The Bottom Line
It's like playing an interactive novel. The story is fairly open-ended and is directed by the player. Some of the levels are quite fun by themselves, but ultimately it is the story that drives everything. Being European, there's more emphasis on sex and less on violence - which is quite refreshing. Some more branches in the story might have been nice, but it's quite rewarding as it is. I played it through to get to (and see) the various game endings, also to see the various branches and hear the different dialogue threads. I would really like to see more games like this.

The Good
Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US) was made by Quantic Dream, the same company that created Nomad Soul, a very original game with plenty of creative content. I was interested to discover that the next product of the talented developers turned out to be an intriguing attempt to reinvent the adventure genre - sadly, a rather unsuccessful one.

The passion of the developers and their belief in the design ideology they express through the game mechanics is instantly noticeable and commendable. Essentially, Fahrenheit tries to solve the "adventure problem". Since the prolonged agony of adventure games has begun, various developers started looking for the cure. One of the most common recipes was inclusion of action elements and reduction of puzzle-solving. The example of Dreamfall, however, showed that was a clear dead end. Fahrenheit opts for a more fundamental change: it revives the old concept of an "interactive movie" and imbues it with consistent action. Most true interactive movies (like Tender Loving Care) failed because they were reduced to watching long cutscenes while occasionally making a choice. This was also more or less how Japanese adventures worked, although they were more "interactive novels" than movies.

Fahrenheit is also an "interactive movie", and that is its conscious, deliberate self-definition: even on the main screen, there is a "New Movie" option instead of "New Game". But from the very beginning you are thrown into a suspenseful segment where gameplay is integrated into the movie. Essentially, you are invited to actively participate in cutscenes. Fahrenheit does draw from concepts introduced by earlier games, such as the (ill-)famed quick-time events from Shenmue. I have to say that this game takes them more seriously and their implementation is somewhat more exciting thanks to the superior quality of dramatic direction. There are also bits of more traditional interaction here and there, spiced with an interesting physical element that requires fiddling around with your mouse.

The game's cinematic merits are unquestionable. There is the dramatic split screen, where one of the sections shows your character, while the other displays what is happening around him. This seemingly simple feature works great (especially in the beginning) creating a tense atmosphere. Imagine you are trying to run away before the police arrives and actually see the policemen approaching while you are moving. Motion capture is beyond reproach, and the direction of some of the cutscenes is quite impressive.

Fahrenheit starts strong. Right away, you are invited to what is probably the best sequence in the entire game - a suspenseful introduction to most of its gimmicks done in a concise, poignant fashion. In particular, the enigmatic story keeps you on the edge of your seat - until it collapses under its own pretentious, nonsensical conclusion.

The Bad
I guess you've already heard about the disappointing ending of Fahrenheit and how its story goes downhill halfway through. To be fair, I think it would be extremely hard to come up with a reasonable explanation for the whole mystery; perhaps in one way or another, the solution was bound to be a disappointment. But I feel that there was still no need to resort to such obvious, painful cliches. I can't reveal much for fear of spoiling the story, but let's just say that if you've seen the ending of this game the infamous amnesia twist from Final Fantasy VIII doesn't seem that bad anymore.

Much bigger problems, however, lie with the gameplay. QTEs must have some drug-like qualities, because it seems that developers become addicted to them the more they use them. I'd be okay with a few well-placed quick-time events (though by no means thrilled by them), but this game ends up being full of them, and they don't really make sense. They get trite and tiresome even in all those action-loaded scenes, during chases and fights; but it's particularly weird to press buttons while watching a totally peaceful scene without any action at all. I recall a scene which showed the Oracle talking to the members of the Orange Clan; during this conversation, I had to press buttons. For what? The Oracle is not one of the playable characters, nor are the clan members. Was I pressing buttons to help the Oracle? Or to bother him?

I felt that the developers loved their own concept too much. That is probably the game's most unsettling message. Fahrenheit is all about relentlessly pursuing its creator's gimmicky ideas, imposing and enforcing them on any solid gameplay concept until there is none left. After all, what have we seen here? A lot of cutscenes, excessive QTEs, and a nice, but shy and shallow adventure game in fancy clothes that reveals itself as disappointingly simplistic and easy once the novelty of suspenseful game-and-film synchronization wears off. There are no interesting puzzles and hardly any exploration, which is a recipe for a dull on-rails adventure game masquerading itself as a "meaningful" action title. Designing a game by creating a movie and then applying a few smart tricks to make it more playable and exciting is neither revolutionary nor promising for the future.

The Bottom Line
One may certainly admire the dedication with which this game was made, and it does have some neat ideas helping to emphasize its uncompromisingly cinematic nature. However, even if it had a better story to match its filmmaking aspirations, Fahrenheit would remain a timid, restricted adventure game clearly unable to revitalize the genre.