Ah, what a disappointment Fahrenheit was. Actually, disappointment is too strong a word since the opening scene more than lowered my standards for what was to come.
To give some backstory, I loved Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. It was a terrific neo-noir thriller with beautiful graphics, memorable characters, and satisfying controls. As such, I was keen on playing David Cage's debut into the interactive drama genre with Fahrenheit. Having been warned in advance that the first 2/3s were great, last 1/3 terrible, I kind of went in with reserved expectations- rarely are the heights as praiseworthy as they are and the lows as terrible as they are.
And so this philosophy turned out to be true. Fahrenheit starts off mediocre, grows a little better, before falling off a cliff (in some ways literally). Before delving into my critique, I fully concede that this game was not going to be for me as I've never been a big fan of supernatural mysteries. The problem is, whenever you incorporate a metaphysical or unnatural aspect into your game world, it makes it hard to establish a good grounding for the mystery. If magic exists, for example, why should there be any evidence left of the crime? Fantasy introduces rules and figures outside our realm of understanding, and because they are unpredictable they inherently force writers to do one of two things: one, have an asspull wherein a plot development occurs out of thin air or a character becomes a master of these unsaid rules, or two, have their be no resolution and the ending a grimdark eternal slumber.
Note that I am only referring to works with a heavy fantasy slant. Obviously lighter ones like Death Note pulled off the occult detective trope well enough without seeming contrived. But for any other tale told under a Gothically enchanting purview, the results are rarely good and never logical.
Such happened with Fahrenheit, and I'll start with the beginning. Everyone praises this as one of the best opener in a video game, but I don't understand why. Main character Lucas Kane is shown to be possessed, walk out of a bathroom stall, and stab a fellow occupant multiple times to death.
All the problems with the rest of the game can be extrapolated from this scene, starting with the janky animations. Animations are VERY inconsistent, and yes, I understand this was from the PS2 era, but Cage was well-aware of that when he decided the limited technology could somehow depict the specific movements he wanted. Walking/running, using objects, and body language all look fine, but many important actions like fighting, dodging, intimacy, holding, and Lucas's possession here are silly to gaze it. Whenever you run into one of the latter, they take you out of the game by way of how uncanny they look, which is a shame considering around 70% of them are solid.
Second are the graphics. Art design has never been an issue in Quantic Dream games, and here a lot of effort was put into creating each explorable hub, and this bathroom is a great sample of things to come. You have cracking on the walls, mildew stains, dampness, dryness, a black/grey/white color scheme, and clothes that don't look out of place. The many locales you will have to traverse, from a bookstore to a laundromat to even the inside of an orphanage are all splendidly done.
And yet, all that design is for naught when you see how hugely inconsistent the texturing is. It's not like with The Witcher 2 where I could pinpoint which materials were shortcutted and which weren't- here, you could have a stone road that looks great in one scene only to suddenly become blurry when you look have to cross it again hours later. Sometimes environs appear well-realized, only to falter upon closer inspection, and those that are well-realized are hampered by the hazy work around them. It made me wonder if this was more of a rendering issue than a design one as it made no sense why things varied this much.
Skin (and really human models in general) is another great example of this wavering quality. Some characters like Carla, Markus, Agatha, and Lucas in the first half have all aged decently- effort was put into making their faces fleshy, hair natural looking, and body types humanoid. But others, like Tyler, the kids, Sam, and Lucas in the second half look awful. Their skin molds weirdly around their eyes, giving them a zombie-like visage, their bodies have geometrical oddities that give them that ugly PS1-polygon look, and their hair feels very sparsely developed.
Even if we ignore the graphics, the worst offender from that opening is the incorporation of the supernatural facets. There's no easing into it- right from the beginning you're spoiled that Lucas has been possessed or brainwashed. What if Indigo Prophecy had instead opened with Lucas's awakening from the stall and seeing the dead body and its trail of blood leading to him? Not only would it have been tense, but it would've cast doubt from both the player and Lucas on Lucas's innocence.
No, instead you get a silly looking Exorcist-ripoff that instantly makes you realize that there is something otherworldy going on here.
That's not to say that it's all downhill from here. Once you accept that Fahrenheit is not going to be grounded like Heavy Rain, it becomes an enjoyable ride. Lucas's quest to uncover the dark arts that brought him to this point in his life has an old-school charm to it, one that is helped by the fact that he's a very likable character. In fact, that's something I can say about everyone- all the main characters start off being very likable, despite their differing archetypes.
But the story does falter at a specific part. I can't talk about it without going into spoilers, but what I will say is that it involves Lucas trying to save someone and ends with him descending back to the ground. It is after here that most people bring up the abysmal third act: the third of the game that felt rushed, sloppy, and ridiculous even by the previous standards.
Listen, as someone who didn't think the first half+ was that great, I didn't find the final third to be drastically different, largely because the issues in it exist beforehand: the superpowered fights, replacement of drama with fantasy mumbo-jumbo, and character interactions becoming less and less integral. Don't get me wrong, that last third has serious problems, from a laughably bad romance to a fight that's ripped straight from The Matrix sequels, but it's not this massive balldrop that others have made it out to be.
But overall, the story just isn't good. Whatever moments of genuine tension, drama, and comedy there are are outweighed by bland, silly, or poorly-thought out ones. There are many choices you can make in the game, but none of them have any significant impact on the story as the multiple endings are only dictated by things that happen in the final chapter (I will say that, unlike Mass Effect and Life is Strange, Fahrenheit doesn't go out of its way to claim that your choices will matter). And none of this is taking into account the gameplay flaws that hurt the story even more.
See, Fahrenheit came up with this idea to make action beats purely conducted through one of two methods: either doing a DDR-style button (keyboard/mouse) or joystick (controller) Simon Says response wherein you have to mimic the on-screen prompts within a set time frame. This would be boring enough on its own, but some genius at QD decided that these prompts should be in the middle of the screen, meaning you can't even enjoy the action on screen or see what you are successfully making your character do. Why waste time and money into choreographing these scenes if the player can't even view them? If I'm getting more enjoyment from watching an LP than I am from PLAYING your game, you've done something wrong.
The second minigame involves rapidly hitting the bumpers back and forth repeatedly. On the plus side, this interface is positioned at the bottom of the screen, meaning you can actually see what you're doing. On the downside, it will hurt your fingers after just a couple of times since you have to do it for up to a 20 seconds at a time. Also, it's not fun and gets tiresome quickly.
The rest of the gameplay is alright. I liked that cinematic camera angles you could cycle your camera through, showcasing that Cage does at least have an eye for filmmaking. However, this had the effect of sometimes affecting my character's movement since the directional keys change depending on the angle of the camera, and it wouldn't fully process to the next one in time to make the readjustment. But this wasn't as frequent as some critics have made it out to be. Likewise, the dreaded "stealth" sections in the game are few and not as bad as you would believe.
The soundscape exists and is unique enough to not feel repetitious, but it lacks gravitas. They could've made the SFX louder as I don't recall hearing anything particularly memorable. The OST is terrific all around, conveying the somber quality of the decaying world around you without jumping into a full-scale Fantasia-esque orchestra. That being said, I didn't like that tracks for action, the happy-go-lucky beats (boxing, ice skating, b-ball), and romance were repeated instead of unique ones being composed for each new scene.
Some minor graphical things I have to praise- characters breathing frost breath and leaving footprints in the snow.
Some minor graphical things I have to criticize- no bullets when a gun fires them.
The last major point of contention I have is the amount of self-pretentiousness present in the game. The opening tutorial has Cage voice a fictionalized version of himself as a "director" giving the player guidance. You remember the sarcastic tutorials provided by Bruce Campbell in the Spider-Man trilogy game adaptations? Yeah, remove the wit and self-aware sardonicism from those and you have Cage's version here.
Not only that, but he inserts himself into news stories present in the game as yet another filmmaker who offers insight into what's going on in the world. And then there's Quantic Dream being a basketball team (or high school basketball team) in the game, as though we needed that.
But yeah, overall Fahrenheit was not a good game. Inconsistent visuals, a lackluster story, and distracting QTEs that detract from what's happening on screen make up the bulk of why this isn't a title worth playing.
To give some backstory, I loved Quantic Dream's Heavy Rain. It was a terrific neo-noir thriller with beautiful graphics, memorable characters, and satisfying controls. As such, I was keen on playing David Cage's debut into the interactive drama genre with Fahrenheit. Having been warned in advance that the first 2/3s were great, last 1/3 terrible, I kind of went in with reserved expectations- rarely are the heights as praiseworthy as they are and the lows as terrible as they are.
And so this philosophy turned out to be true. Fahrenheit starts off mediocre, grows a little better, before falling off a cliff (in some ways literally). Before delving into my critique, I fully concede that this game was not going to be for me as I've never been a big fan of supernatural mysteries. The problem is, whenever you incorporate a metaphysical or unnatural aspect into your game world, it makes it hard to establish a good grounding for the mystery. If magic exists, for example, why should there be any evidence left of the crime? Fantasy introduces rules and figures outside our realm of understanding, and because they are unpredictable they inherently force writers to do one of two things: one, have an asspull wherein a plot development occurs out of thin air or a character becomes a master of these unsaid rules, or two, have their be no resolution and the ending a grimdark eternal slumber.
Note that I am only referring to works with a heavy fantasy slant. Obviously lighter ones like Death Note pulled off the occult detective trope well enough without seeming contrived. But for any other tale told under a Gothically enchanting purview, the results are rarely good and never logical.
Such happened with Fahrenheit, and I'll start with the beginning. Everyone praises this as one of the best opener in a video game, but I don't understand why. Main character Lucas Kane is shown to be possessed, walk out of a bathroom stall, and stab a fellow occupant multiple times to death.
All the problems with the rest of the game can be extrapolated from this scene, starting with the janky animations. Animations are VERY inconsistent, and yes, I understand this was from the PS2 era, but Cage was well-aware of that when he decided the limited technology could somehow depict the specific movements he wanted. Walking/running, using objects, and body language all look fine, but many important actions like fighting, dodging, intimacy, holding, and Lucas's possession here are silly to gaze it. Whenever you run into one of the latter, they take you out of the game by way of how uncanny they look, which is a shame considering around 70% of them are solid.
Second are the graphics. Art design has never been an issue in Quantic Dream games, and here a lot of effort was put into creating each explorable hub, and this bathroom is a great sample of things to come. You have cracking on the walls, mildew stains, dampness, dryness, a black/grey/white color scheme, and clothes that don't look out of place. The many locales you will have to traverse, from a bookstore to a laundromat to even the inside of an orphanage are all splendidly done.
And yet, all that design is for naught when you see how hugely inconsistent the texturing is. It's not like with The Witcher 2 where I could pinpoint which materials were shortcutted and which weren't- here, you could have a stone road that looks great in one scene only to suddenly become blurry when you look have to cross it again hours later. Sometimes environs appear well-realized, only to falter upon closer inspection, and those that are well-realized are hampered by the hazy work around them. It made me wonder if this was more of a rendering issue than a design one as it made no sense why things varied this much.
Skin (and really human models in general) is another great example of this wavering quality. Some characters like Carla, Markus, Agatha, and Lucas in the first half have all aged decently- effort was put into making their faces fleshy, hair natural looking, and body types humanoid. But others, like Tyler, the kids, Sam, and Lucas in the second half look awful. Their skin molds weirdly around their eyes, giving them a zombie-like visage, their bodies have geometrical oddities that give them that ugly PS1-polygon look, and their hair feels very sparsely developed.
Even if we ignore the graphics, the worst offender from that opening is the incorporation of the supernatural facets. There's no easing into it- right from the beginning you're spoiled that Lucas has been possessed or brainwashed. What if Indigo Prophecy had instead opened with Lucas's awakening from the stall and seeing the dead body and its trail of blood leading to him? Not only would it have been tense, but it would've cast doubt from both the player and Lucas on Lucas's innocence.
No, instead you get a silly looking Exorcist-ripoff that instantly makes you realize that there is something otherworldy going on here.
That's not to say that it's all downhill from here. Once you accept that Fahrenheit is not going to be grounded like Heavy Rain, it becomes an enjoyable ride. Lucas's quest to uncover the dark arts that brought him to this point in his life has an old-school charm to it, one that is helped by the fact that he's a very likable character. In fact, that's something I can say about everyone- all the main characters start off being very likable, despite their differing archetypes.
But the story does falter at a specific part. I can't talk about it without going into spoilers, but what I will say is that it involves Lucas trying to save someone and ends with him descending back to the ground. It is after here that most people bring up the abysmal third act: the third of the game that felt rushed, sloppy, and ridiculous even by the previous standards.
Listen, as someone who didn't think the first half+ was that great, I didn't find the final third to be drastically different, largely because the issues in it exist beforehand: the superpowered fights, replacement of drama with fantasy mumbo-jumbo, and character interactions becoming less and less integral. Don't get me wrong, that last third has serious problems, from a laughably bad romance to a fight that's ripped straight from The Matrix sequels, but it's not this massive balldrop that others have made it out to be.
But overall, the story just isn't good. Whatever moments of genuine tension, drama, and comedy there are are outweighed by bland, silly, or poorly-thought out ones. There are many choices you can make in the game, but none of them have any significant impact on the story as the multiple endings are only dictated by things that happen in the final chapter (I will say that, unlike Mass Effect and Life is Strange, Fahrenheit doesn't go out of its way to claim that your choices will matter). And none of this is taking into account the gameplay flaws that hurt the story even more.
See, Fahrenheit came up with this idea to make action beats purely conducted through one of two methods: either doing a DDR-style button (keyboard/mouse) or joystick (controller) Simon Says response wherein you have to mimic the on-screen prompts within a set time frame. This would be boring enough on its own, but some genius at QD decided that these prompts should be in the middle of the screen, meaning you can't even enjoy the action on screen or see what you are successfully making your character do. Why waste time and money into choreographing these scenes if the player can't even view them? If I'm getting more enjoyment from watching an LP than I am from PLAYING your game, you've done something wrong.
The second minigame involves rapidly hitting the bumpers back and forth repeatedly. On the plus side, this interface is positioned at the bottom of the screen, meaning you can actually see what you're doing. On the downside, it will hurt your fingers after just a couple of times since you have to do it for up to a 20 seconds at a time. Also, it's not fun and gets tiresome quickly.
The rest of the gameplay is alright. I liked that cinematic camera angles you could cycle your camera through, showcasing that Cage does at least have an eye for filmmaking. However, this had the effect of sometimes affecting my character's movement since the directional keys change depending on the angle of the camera, and it wouldn't fully process to the next one in time to make the readjustment. But this wasn't as frequent as some critics have made it out to be. Likewise, the dreaded "stealth" sections in the game are few and not as bad as you would believe.
The soundscape exists and is unique enough to not feel repetitious, but it lacks gravitas. They could've made the SFX louder as I don't recall hearing anything particularly memorable. The OST is terrific all around, conveying the somber quality of the decaying world around you without jumping into a full-scale Fantasia-esque orchestra. That being said, I didn't like that tracks for action, the happy-go-lucky beats (boxing, ice skating, b-ball), and romance were repeated instead of unique ones being composed for each new scene.
Some minor graphical things I have to praise- characters breathing frost breath and leaving footprints in the snow.
Some minor graphical things I have to criticize- no bullets when a gun fires them.
The last major point of contention I have is the amount of self-pretentiousness present in the game. The opening tutorial has Cage voice a fictionalized version of himself as a "director" giving the player guidance. You remember the sarcastic tutorials provided by Bruce Campbell in the Spider-Man trilogy game adaptations? Yeah, remove the wit and self-aware sardonicism from those and you have Cage's version here.
Not only that, but he inserts himself into news stories present in the game as yet another filmmaker who offers insight into what's going on in the world. And then there's Quantic Dream being a basketball team (or high school basketball team) in the game, as though we needed that.
But yeah, overall Fahrenheit was not a good game. Inconsistent visuals, a lackluster story, and distracting QTEs that detract from what's happening on screen make up the bulk of why this isn't a title worth playing.