Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy is an adventure game that is most notable for its wildly inconsistent quality. Without getting into any major spoilers, the first two thirds of the game feel completely different from the last third. The story begins with a relatively grounded and realistic plot, before going off the rails in the final act. Most of the plot is genuinely great, but the way the writers chose to end the story is truly terrible and borderline incomprehensible. The gameplay is generally there just to hold your attention, as it is usually in the form of quick-time events. These quick-time events typically take place during action sequences, but they usually drag on too long. The dialogue system involves you choosing what you want to talk about, but you have only a short time to decide before missing your chance. This is easily the best use of quick-time events, as it adds to the realism by preventing you from overthinking your words. It adds a sense of immersion, one of the game’s strong suits. The ability to interact with a variety of mundane objects also helps the characters feel like “normal people”, rather than archetypal characters. This minor interactions also serve the purpose of maintaining your character’s mental health. It puts the events of the story into perspective, as all of the big, meaningful plot points can depress or encourage your character depending on the situation. The controls for the game try to emulate a movie, with varying success. The usage of split screen camera angles is often well executed, while the camera often feels awkward when trying to move. Overall, the game swings for the fences, causing the game to vacillate between fresh, new ideas that work well, and terrible experiments in game mechanics that should have never been attempted.
