Good Game: Fahrenheit (PS2)

Another Good Game

Today its Fahrenheit (Indigo Prophecy) a 2005 cinematic interactive action-adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Atari, Inc. for the PlayStation 2 (PS2) and Xbox. The director’s cut and uncut versions were later released for Microsoft Windows. Fahrenheit sold over 1 million copies and has won several awards.

A remastered version of the game, entitled Fahrenheit: Indigo Prophecy Remastered, was developed and published by Aspyr in January 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X, Linux and iOS. A port for the PlayStation 4, which was developed by International Software Development Group at Sony Interactive Entertainment, was released on 9th August 2016 via PlayStation Network.

Fahrenheit is a paranormal thriller, in which New York City experiences a series of mysterious murders that follow the same pattern; ordinary people become possessed and kill strangers in public. The main characters of the story must uncover the supernatural forces behind these crimes. Publicity was generated from the developer’s rejection of conventional game genre labelling; preferring to brand it as the first “interactive film” rather than an adventure or third-person action title. The game features motion captured animation as well as branching story lines, split screen cameras and an interface designed to be intuitive and realistic. Event triggers in the game are also mainly time-based, as opposed to the more common player-initiated progression found in most games.

It took designer David Cage a year to write the full game-design document. The final script was about 2,000 pages long. The game’s use of multiple views was inspired by the TV series 24. This created a considerable technical challenge to implement successfully due to the limitations of the PlayStation 2’s memory. A team of nearly 80 people worked on the title for about two years. Simultaneous development took place on three platforms (PS2, Xbox and PC.) The game’s storyline was inspired by the films Seven, Fight Club, Dune, Jacob’s Ladder and Angel Heart. The game’s mechanics were influenced by Shenmue, particularly the use of quick time events.

Watch the video I made below showing about the first 37 minutes of the game.

Video:

Fahrenheit Gameplay.

Developer: Quantic Dream.
Publisher: Atari, Inc.
Platform: PlayStation 2.
Release: 16th September 2005 (EU), 26th September 2005 (NA).
Genre: Interactive movie, Action-adventure.