Indigo Prophecy / Fahrenheit

Watching the first trailer of Fahrenheit back in 2005 gave me a lot of promises: cinematic, dramatic, deep narrative...etc. So, I get the game and with a giant smile on my face I start playing with my hopes high; I finally got the ultimate narrative gaming experience, the bridge between films and videogames have just been built and I hold it in my hands.

The game starts off with a good intro that sets the mood just right, snow falling, late night, the air smells of sweet, sweet depression. It didn’t take long till I got hit by a giant speeding train of disappointment moving 400 km per hour. Some may say you set yourself up; your expectations were too high. In my defense I say watch the first trailer...while you’re a 20 years old...and never knew people like David Cage. Anyway, soon you’ll be going from choosing to help a kid from drowning to being attacked by flying CD’s. Oh yes you read that right flying Compact discs and not just one or two you'll be dancing around dodging. you’ll go from trying to hide a dead body, to fighting a giant digital spider in your office, this is just a couple of examples of many, I just don’t want to spoil the game if you intend to play it for kicks.

The gameplay is mostly consists of QTEs (quick time events), your stress level and the choices you make as they affect your stress level. The QTEs parts are all beyond terrible, it's as if they tried deliberately to take you out of the immersion. here is an example: you help a drowning kid and pull him out of freezing water, then you have to resuscitate him with CPR. So, you would think that the game will try to immerse you as much as possible by making it all seamless and every element feels part of the games world, BUT NO! most QTE sequences in the game will start by prompting “Get ready!” and then you start the CPR and with every push it, every single goddamn push it will repeat “Press now, press now, press now, PRESS NOW” and if you do or do not get it on time it will say “Success” or “Failed” again, WITH EVERY GODDAMN PUSH transforming the whole experience into a over-dramatic arcade game.

A lot can be said about the narrative and the characters but, almost nothing good. I don’t think even a good gameplay mechanic could have saved this game from its story. The story overall feel like a novel you find in the young adult section from a writer that just saw the Matrix films. The story is filled with unanswered questions, arbitrary elements, terrible characters and incohesive mess of a plot. Some die and get revived, you fight a cyborg leaping from building to building and dodging bullets, the world may end and a prophecy of the chosen one prevail and repeats and may repeat yet again. You may think that this paragraph is filled with nonsense but I tried to stay faithful and mirror my experience with game.

The characters are mostly beyond terrible; you play as an Asian looking New Yorker named Lucas Kane (yes with a K). As a child Lucas’s parents worked as scientists in the military. When Lucas's mother was pregnant she was exposed to “Chroma” which in time gave him superpowers. The superpowers are so convenient they make the writer unstoppable in making Lucas Kane COOL. 

Another character in particular makes me think the writer have never met an African-American and only saw Hollywood stereotypes. Tyler Miles is from Bronx, he likes basketball and has a very funky apartment and the rest is all in the walk; you could almost see his head bobbing while he’s walking, bobbing to a beat that only plays in his own head.

If this game ever taught me anything it’s this: never buy a game just from watching a trailer, never trust David Cage and black people alway hear a beat in their heads. What more I can comment about is how the game director made many promises concerning them as a studio and their direction in the making of video games. A couple of years ago David Cage made a comment about how much more polygons can be used now with development moving to the Playstation 4, as if that is one of the most important aspects of how to make a good narrative-driven game. This bothers me on so many levels because they’re focusing in the wrong direction. Its like taking aspirin because your constipated. I really hope they rethink their strategy in making games and learn from other games. I’ll give one example: (To the moon); with a simple engine and two dimensional art style, the creator focused his efforts on the narrative rather than the art,  and I found it one of the most engaging narrative-driven game experiences I have ever had in a video. I believe that Quantic dreams studio has great potential, but i don’t believe the direction of their lead director will bring that potential to fruition.

The last, and maybe one of the most notable factors in the game that could tell more about the game creator, is the game’s tutorial. You will be led through the tutorial by non-other than the game director, Mr. David Cage himself. He will lead you through it fully rendered in CG, and to me that says a lot about Mr. Cage, But I will not spoil the most entertaining parts of the game.

In closing, Indigo prophecy can be enjoyed as as comedy that doesn't know it’s a comedy. Just call up a couple of friends, play it, have a laugh and don’t take it seriously.