Indigo Prophecy

The Good
Indigo Prophecy is a trendsetter. This game is just so damn awesome that I don't know if I'll be able to word things correctly, but here goes nothing.

You start out at a diner, in the bathroom, on the throne. You're unconscious, fully clothed thank goodness. A man comes in and uses the urinal... you twitch.

He walks over to the sink slowly, while your body begins to shake and convulse rather violently. He's washing his hands, and you step out of the stall, staggering like a wooden puppet. A small steak knife is in your hand, and you lift it. Your head lifts up, revealing your face. A grimace of death and agony is upon you, and your eyes are rolled back. The man sees you in the mirror, and turns around just in time to catch the blade in the heart. He falls to the ground, you on top of him, struck silent in horror and pain as you raise the blade high into the air again, and strike again. You lift the blade one more time, and plunge it into the last artery, completely severing the man's heart. You raise your hands in the air, covered in blood, head looking upwards as you almost seem to levitate, still twitching violently. All of a sudden, SLAM.

You fall the the ground, waking up as if from a deep sleep. You don't remember what the hell just happened, but you know that if you don't cover this up quickly, someone is going to find out. You drag the body into a stall and mop up the blood, and then wash your hands of the stain of your sin. A cop tells the cook to hold onto his food, he needs to use the restroom. You don't have long. You leave in a rush, with the option to pay for your food calmly or just rush out like a bat out of hell... You think you got away, but they're on your heels like bloodhounds... Who did this to you? What the hell even happened? It all unravels in my favorite game for Xbox: Indigo Prophecy.

I love that game so damn much. The game's graphics are eye-candy, and the storyline just gets deeper and deeper and drags you in with it. User controls allow easy movement and control of objects around your house, such as a stereo with real working music, a sink, a fridge, the works.

The voice-acting and sounds are sublime! Everything... to tell you the truth, it's just like a freaking movie! It's just so damn good!

The Bad
Well, it had to end for one. Also, I wished that some things that you do/see/hear have a little more... explanation. This game has basically no flaws...

The Bottom Line
The best game for Xbox, in my opinion. Rent first, but a definite buy. Rent first so you can make sure you're okay with the controls and method of talking.

The Good
Fahrenheit is the second game from Quantic Dream, a small company that develops games that has an emphasis on storytelling. It was well received by the press that their next product was so much better.

First, I like how the game introduces you to the four protagonists that you need to take control of, with Lucas Kane being the main protagonist. One minute you are controlling Lucas as you try to cover up a murder before making your escape out of a quiet New York diner, and the next you're in charge of Detectives Miles and Valenti as they investigate the murder and interview witnesses. They eventually discover that there are murders all over the city by ordinary citizens, and that these murders are ritualistic. The information that you gather is right up there with the James Patterson novels. Really captivating stuff.

Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy as it was called in North America) is an adventure, but there are two uniques things that I like about it. During the game, you perform all your actions by using a series of mouse movements that imitate real-life actions like picking up or dropping objects, turning on something, mopping floors, and climbing fences. Also, when you talk to different characters, you are presented with a series of dialogue choice that you have to make. But these choices are timed and force the player to make a quick decision.

Besides talking to characters, you also have to endure a series of actions that must be performed within a time limit. An example of this is the chapter where you have to cover up the murder before a NYPD cop turns up at Lucas' apartment. There is also a chapter where Carla has to navigate the basement of a police station, and you have to perform a series of left-right movements to control her phobia.

Fahrenheit can be played with the keyboard, but the game is meant to be played eith a gamepad similar to the PS2 or XBox controller. There's these PAR games that operate in the same vein as “Simon Says”, except that you have eight buttons, four on each side. With the keyboard, you use the cursor keys to control the left side, while using the numpad to cntrol the right.

Some actions in the game increase or reduce your character's mood, and if they are in a really bad mood, they will have a nervous breakdown. It doesn't matter if three of your characters are happy; if one of them breaks down, the game is over. The game auto-saves at the beginning of each chapter, meaning that if you don't like what mood of whoever it is that's in control, you can always restart the chapter.

The camera work is brilliant, and it isn't long in the game when you will see the camera split-screen effect (a la 24), and this lets you know what is happening in another room nearby. In the very first scene where you are trying to cover up a murder in the bathroom, you see a cop in the main arena standing up and heading toward you. In non-interaction modes, the camera automatically adjusts your position when you are spending your time walking around, but clicking the right mouse button lets you adjust it to your satisfaction.

Sound-wise, the music really blends in with what you are doing, and the voice acting is superb. There are a few licensed soundtracks and I enjoyed listening to some of them, particularly outside the game (within the menus).

The game automatically saves your progress at the beginning of each chapter, and in between every scene. Even if you progress through the chapters, you are free to replay previous ones. Included in the game are extras like design sketches, soundtracks, and “making of” documentaries” which is ideal if you want a break from the action for once. There is also a tutorial which you can complete before you start the real game, courtesy of David Cage. I did not even bother with the tutorial as it teaches you how to move around and do other things that are necessary to complete the chapters.

The Bad
Most of the chapters are quite short, and can take less than twenty minutes to complete. I also don't like how the majority of PAR games require you to press a button quickly, resulting in a loss of life or a repeat of the cinematic if you are not quick enough.

I really didn't like Valenti as a character. To me, Valenti sounds like she gets turned on every time that the person that she wants to apprehend badly is one step ahead of her. Having said that, it isn't long until she develops a relationship with Lucas – when she finds him - and “does it” one more time because she thinks that it is the end of the world.

The Bottom Line
Playing Fahrenheit is one of the best games I have played this year. The title plays out like an interactive movie, with every action and dialogue choice affecting the outcome of the game. The ability to switch between protagonists is brilliant, as in the amount of work that was put into the game, so that it matches the quality of any high-profile movie out there. Anyone who is a fan of heavy storytelling should get the game.

The Good
The most important element in an adventure game is its story, and Indigo Prophecy has a very good one. You start as Lucas Kane, who has just murdered a complete stranger in the men's room of a diner, under the control of an outside force.

Starting from that point, you start deciding what to do next and watch the story unfold, and there are consequences to your choices, so there isn't always a single way to complete a single chapter of the game; you have alternatives. For example, in the beginning, you can run away quickly or take a cooler approach and try to conceal as much evidence as you can before you leave.

The story is well written, with lots of twists throughout the game. But the presentation is even better. It is designed much like a movie: You play the game from different perspectives. You play Lucas Kane, and then the "movie" cuts to the detectives Carla Valenti and her partner Tyler Miles, and play them. Sometimes you play other characters as well, like Marcus Kane, Lucas' brother. The game succeeds in doing a very hard job, where it lets you play different (even opposing) characters and still not spoil the story for you.

The game has unusual controls. Basically you have one action button, but you use it in combination with a mouse gesture, usually reminiscent of the real-life movement you would make to take such an action. For example, to pull a door open, you might hold down the mouse button, pull the mouse towards you and then to the left. There are indicators on the top of the screen that show you what gesture you need to make to take a particular action.

There are also two unusual aspects of the game, that add to its movie-style atmosphere. One of them is the conversation system: The characters talking to you will not wait forever for you to choose from different things you might say. You just see some keywords (like ideas that go through your mind) and have to choose one of them within a limited time, or the game chooses the default keyword (which is probably not the best or most revealing choice) for you and the conversation goes on.

The other aspect is the mental health system. When bad things happen to your character (and not necessarily directly, it might be anything that would make them feel bad), the mental health lowers by a number of points depending on how bad it is. And when good things happen, including little things that might give some relief (such as drinking water or taking a shower), the mental health raises by a number of points, again, depending on how good it might make them feel. If the mental health comes down to the lowest score, the character may just give up, or even commit suicide, so you should make sure to stay in a good mood, you never know when you might get some terrible news that can drive you to suicide if you're already depressed.

The game has many thrilling moments where you have to act against time, avoid suspicion, fight your phobia, among other things. Sometimes the game uses split-screen cameras which makes the situation much more exciting, as well as realistic. The action scenes are really great, and are made using motion capture and wire-flying techniques, and the choreography is also amazing and make them very stylish.

Throughout the game there are also tarot cards that give you points to unlock extras, such as concept art, behind-the-scenes videos and bonus scenes, as well as some replays of key moments.

Finally, you might enjoy the game's references to literature and popular culture, as well as real-life situations.

The Bad
The first thing that is bad about Indigo Prophecy is the controls. They're obviously made for console gaming and haven't been optimized for PC.

Using mouse gestures for the actions are a really good idea and gives you a somewhat realistic feel, but they're not very flexible so you may mess up sometimes and this can be frustrating, especially in timed situations such as a conversation.

I also didn't care much for the character-based movement (as opposed to camera-based), but since this is not an action game, it's not really a problem.

The action scenes are great but you won't really appreciate them--you'll be too busy playing a dual "Simon", that color-code game where you have to repeat given sequences. Console gamers might already be proficient with these controls, as many console games feature such controls to represent reflexes in action scenes. On PC, however, it's really not a popular method, and it's not very responsive to the keyboard, plus the speed required varies on occasion, so there's a good chance you'll hate it. It's a bad idea that causes you to miss most of the action.

But the most important thing is, that it's short. The game is either really short, or really really feels like it. Either way, with so many characters, I expected more.

The Bottom Line
Indigo Prophecy offers an unusual experience, where the characters, the story, and everything evolves as you play. It feels very much like a movie, but it depends on your choices, which also gives it a replay value. I definitely recommend it.