Fahrenheit

Fahrenheit Description

It's 2009, and New York is rocked by a bizarre series of murders. People are killing other people that they don't know for no apparent reason, and each murder bears the same strange ritual hallmarks. At the same time, the temperature is dropping as it gets colder and colder every day. The latest person to commit one of these strange killings is Lucas Kane. Suddenly entering a sort of trance he carves a symbol in his arm and murders a person he's never seen before, all the time hallucinating about a small, helpless girl. As he regains his senses, he flees the scene and realises he is now a criminal on the run. This is the plotline in Quantic Dreams' pitch at the growing genre of cinematic thriller games, Fahrenheit, published by Atari. The game's makers boast that the eerie style echoes that of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, and while we're not so sure about that, it does have some interesting ideas in it. You can switch between four characters in the game: the damned Lucas himself, his brother Marcus, and two police detectives, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles, as the drama unfolds and you try to make sense of the mystery. This being a psychological thriller, you have to look after your character's psychological well-being by helping them to make the right decisions. The game certainly has a distinctive look, too, with split screens keeping you abreast of what's going on elsewhere, cinematic camera work and movements and motion captured from real live stuntmen. There are 44 acts to work your way through as you try to uncover the mystery. In the background is the slightly implausible legend of the Indigo Child: an ancient prophesy states that one day a powerful and pure child will be born somewhere in the world. A desire to possess the child's birthplace is - they say - what drives man's compulsion to wage war and accumulate land, power and wealth. Whatever's behind the strange events, here is an ambitious game that seeks to give the player a unique experience.

Choose to play as one of four characters including lead character Lucas Kane, Detective Carla Valenti, Detective Tyler Miles (Carla's partner) and Lucas' brother Marcus Kane

Play through a total of 44 bone-chilling acts and manage the mental health of each main character by choosing the correct course of action and maintaining their psychological balance

Special multi-view split-screen allows players to see what is happening in a different area of the game while playing through a particular scenario

Motion Physical Action Reaction (MPAR) interface allows the player to make the same movement as his character on screen, which creates a physical identification between the player and his character

Physical Action Reaction (PAR) interface is used during mini-game action sequences where the player has to move the analogue control sticks in the proper direction in order to succeed

More than 50 stuntmen and actors were used to motion capture in-game characters in order to create the most realistic character models, dynamic cinematics and high-calibre, Hollywood-style action sequences.