When the Fahrenheit demo came out them PC gaming crowds were really impressed. Oddly, so were pure adventurers (of the point-and-click variety, that is). This, you see, was a very unique game and its demo managed to brilliantly showcase all its best elements and leave you wanting. It was immediately evident Fahrenheit was a game heavy on story, a game that was very proficient in using cinematographic techniques, a game that was obviously an adventure at heart, a game with beautiful graphics, top production values, excellent music and convincing atmosphere. The fact that it opened with the protagonist brutally murdering a random guy in a diner’s toilets did help establish mood too.

What’s more, the full game, and that was a refreshing change of habit, delivered what was promised in the demo. Not that it didn’t have its mediocre bits or a shockingly silly ending, mind you, but it really was unique. And if you haven’t played it yet, it will still feel unique in 2008, as no other game dared pull its tricks again. First of all, the context sensitive interface had both an early Wii-like mentality and let you interact with almost anything in the game. Then, the brilliant cinematics were turned into quasi-interactive ryth mini-games, you got to play a variety of different characters, solve some pretty interesting puzzles, intelligently interact with incredibly detailed environments and even get (almost) scared.

Still, the strength of the game lay elsewhere. Fahrenheit, though admittedly only at times, managed to offer players the sense of complete freedom and the branching storyline to go with it. Take the game’s opening scene for example. You have just murdered a man you never knew and are standing bloody-handed in a toilet. You can simply try to escape unnoticed, you can try washing up and hiding the body, you can hide or simply ignore the murder weapon, you can panic and run out of the diner, you can go back and seat at your table pretending nothing happened, you can try to figure things out by examining the crime scene or just leave via the back door. Assuming you actually left via the back door, you now had the option of either wasting time and talking to a weird bum, leaving the place on foot, going for a taxi or riding the tube. And then, when you assumed the role of the not totally unattractive detective chasing the former you, you’d have to deal with your former actions.

Intriguing, isn’t it? And it does get better, trust me. So, uhm, if you haven’t played Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy in the US), and I strongly believe you should, well, here’s your chance to grab it for cheap.

Posted on March 25th, 2008 by konstantinos