20Aug

What was Fahrenheit? Parsing the game Quantic Dream.

Fahrenheit is a game of which, not only on its creator, the Quantic Dream studio, but also on the genre of interactive cinema as a whole is difficult to overestimate. At the time of her exit in 2005, she made a splash and was highly appreciated by critics (recall at least Gamery, where Fahrenheit received the “Best Game of the Year”). It definitely stood out among all the quests and the FMV IGR that came out to this: she had a simple intuitive interface, could boast of an excellent production and cinematography, suggested “playing the plot”, as David Cage himself put it, in general, she could actually move the movie to the video game.

But how good Fahrenheit is now and whether it can also impress today as at the time of his exit? We will try to figure it out.

Well, let’s start with the plot.

Plot

The game starts actually cool and actual promising. The main character, Lucas Kane, being under hypnosis, brutally kills a random visitor in the toilet. Here it is worth paying tribute to the director. The opening scene still causes goosebumps, and indeed the rest of the production, counting the action scenes, at a fairly high level.

Lucas stained with blood needs to be done rather and wash off something, because a policeman is sitting behind a bar in the eatery, who can decide to celebrate the need from a minute for a minute. But what to do? Jump out of the toilet in this form and give the tar right away from the toilet? Or take everything and linger a little, so as not to arouse suspicions?

And I think here is worth talking about nonlinearity.

Yes, she is present in the game, but in a limited form. The choice of replicas and actions only expands the plot, but does not change the sequence of events in it and their essence. In most cases, only the episode itself changes. That is, the plot is lines, but you can get to its main events in different ways. Also does not matter and the choice for whom to play first after the end of the episode.

Guillaume de Phonomier, one of the general directors of Quantic Dream and the executive producer of Fahrenheit, called such a plot structure “bending history”. It has a beginning, middle and end, but its individual parts you can stretch like an elastic band, so that history becomes longer and wider. As an example, take just the first episode where all this is clearly visible.

Lucas really can panic, without putting himself in order, not hiding either a corpse or a knife to run out of the toilet and escape through a black move. This is the fastest way, the main thing is not to get confused and not to run straight to the policeman (as I did for the first time). And it can be methodically washed, get out and get out of the restroom as if nothing had happened, have a little bite, call, watch TV and even talk with the police officer, and then, paying for food, with a calm step, just like an experienced serial killer or leave for a taxi. It doesn’t matter what sequence of events you choose, but agree the second will be more interesting and more profitable from replenishment of the scale of the mind, which we will touch later. So nonlinearity works in almost the entire game, with the exception of two points that change, but not to say that it is essential, the penultimate and final episode.

After the escape and detection of the corpse, two more characters are included in the game: Karl Valenti, Detective;

Smart and attractive Karl in 2009 in PlayGround received eighth place among the sexiest female characters. I think deserved.

And Tyler Miles, her assistant.

Tyler is a very cool and positive character and for me personally the best in the whole game, which is only worth his gait and the title theme.

Here, so as not to spoil once again to those who did not play, I will go to the conclusions, well, if you do not care, or you want to refresh this story in your memory, I am mercy under the hidden text.

Here the plot is divided into two branches: an investigation of police officers with a break for their daily classes and the daily life of Lucas with breaks to visions with some girl and hallucinations. Police, digging in the archives, find a long -standing case of Kirsteen, very similar to the current. Lucas is also not inactive and, on the advice of his brother Marcus, turns to the old blind seer Agate, who confirms that Kane actually did not commit a crime, but simply ended up at the wrong time and asks him to wait until tomorrow, so that she could tell more about the real criminal.

Together, comparing evidence, Karl and Tyler go to the Nezer & Jones bank, in which Lucas works, and go there with interrogation. Almost when he caught, Kane hurries to Agate, but finds her already dead. Having escaped from the police house, in upset feelings, Lucas returns home and turns out to be taken by surprise-Carla studied the existing evidence already calculated the “killer” and burst into his apartment, painted with occult symbols. Not wanting to give up, Lucas, having made a series of incredible tricks runs away.

The first half of the game is really good. It exudes the cold noir atmosphere, the level of mystery and tension with each episode is growing – in general, all the components of a good detective thriller on the spot. And it’s a pity that after such a climax, the plot turns off somewhere in the wrong place.

Not finding another place, Lucas spends the night in the cathedral in which his brother Marcus serves. There he meets the ghost of Agatha, who hastily and abruptly talks about Maya, some kind of thakinitlana and oracle. Angels attack Kane after Kane, but he manages to escape again.

At the same time, after the failure of the operation to capture Kane Karl goes to Belvewu’s psychiatric hospital to meet Yanos, Kirsten killer. And here the orange clan is mentioned for the first time – an organization that underground runs the world.

A day later, Kane, who is on the run, is a completely tired one does not find another way out except to turn to his ex -girlfriend Tiffany. There, he successfully stumbled upon the news about Professor Kuryakin, a Mayan culture specialist. Logically assuming that he can tell about Tchanitlana, Lucas goes to him, introducing himself as a journalist. The professor explains that, they say, Tchaninanin is a two -headed snake looking at our world with one head, and the other – to the otherworldly, and that the oracle can see the “other side” through him.

To do this, it is necessary to conduct a sacrifice ritual, but necessarily committed not by the oracle itself, but by the random layman through hypnosis. Before that, on his wrists, he must cut out this very thakinninlane for himself. Usually after the performer goes crazy.

By the way, most likely all this leapfrog is just a scriptwriter fiction and the Mayan has nothing to do with the real.

Kuryakin is not a fool and soon guesses that Lucas is not a journalist. He has to tell the whole truth that the ritual is real, and as evidence to show his wrists, with thacinitelane carved on them.

He will believe (even somehow too fast) and lead Kane to the underground parking to show him a certain code. But it wasn’t there, furious cars were waiting for them there. Due to his dexterity, Lucas was able to escape, but Kuryakin was not lucky, and before his death he tells that the oracle is needed in order to find an indigo child – a child with a pure, previously not reborn soul, whose appearance was predicted 2000 years ago. He must strain to someone coming 10.000 years, which will endow. If he does not do this before his death or tells this not to a person, then a new ice age will come (as a decrease in temperature throughout the game is explained).

Immediately, Lucas mentally moves about unknown where, but in an obviously hotter place than New York (the place of main events) and directly meets with the oracle, which is surprised at how Kane could withstand his influence for so long and not to go crazy, but immediately finds the reason for this. Lucas is not an ordinary guy, but by the owner of the chrome – the forces that created everything, the beginning of all the beginning. He received it, as is recognized later, even in the womb of his mother, who was a researcher of the source of chromium on a military base in goodbye. It was this force that allowed him to survive, and also increased his physical indicators. In general, with his choice, Oracle did not screw up like that, because it is dangerous to leave the performers at least in their right mind, since after hypnosis they can also see that the oracle, that is, meetings of the orange clan, the details of the murders and, most importantly, the whereabouts of the Indigo child. Now Lucas needs to be eliminated as soon as possible.

But this time, the oracle doesn’t succeed – Kane saves Agatha and gives him the task of finding a child of Indigo (a girl from visions) earlier than an orange clan who, thanks to her, wants to strengthen his power.

Lucas is hiding in an old hotel https://winzter-casino.net/ and again wakes up from a vision, in which he finds out that Marcus is in danger from the oracle. At the same time, Karl and Tyler are already looking for the number in which Kane stopped. But he is lucky – detectives are mistaken, than win Lucas a little time.

He hastily calls his brother and … now it depends on the correctness of the replicas you have chosen whether Marcus will survive or not. This is precisely one of those moments that slightly change the subsequent episodes, and, perhaps, the only one in which the character’s life depends on your actions.

Soon the detectives find the desired number, but Kane is not found (hid). As soon as they left, the oracle called him. He captured Tiffany and threatens to kill her if Lucas does not appear after her in an abandoned amusement park. Like a real hero Kane comes after her, but it turns out to be a trap, and both die ..

But Lucas survives. Well, how does it survive, not quite, or rather turns into a half -boiler or a living corpse. Who he became, to be honest, they don’t clarify, they just say “you died, we resurrected” and focus on the fact that he exhales cold air, and he himself is far away. But whatever it is there, Lucas meets with Carla next to the Tiffany grave and asks for help, tells everything that he knows about the Indigo child and the orange clan. She fluctuates a little, notes that all this sounds like nonsense (with what I agree), but agrees, and two plots are connected.

Then there is a short episode in the police station. The girl Tyler, Samantha, and offers a choice, stay in the service or go to Florida with her. It doesn’t matter what you choose – Tyler appears in the game for the last time, for which I personally offend me. Such a cool character merges like this, even the whole truth does not know about this cooling and does not participate in the final events when continuing the service. His departure is a little disappointed, because there will be no half -word further about him, although we controlled them a decent part of the game.

Time passes. Oracle and Lucas, respectively, recognize the location of the child. Lucas gets to him the first. They are a girl named Jade. Kane does not have time to run away with her and a funny fight with an oracle in the style of Indian militants is tied.

And a degree of seriousness everything falls and falls ..

In general, Lucas manages to hide, and he meets Agatha. There is a conversation and here one more choice is facing you: give Jade or leave it. This choice is not to say that the essential, the essence of the last battles will simply change. And so and so it turns out that the same Agatha, who saved Lucas from hallucinations, is not the agate who said that he was not guilty, but a cyborg from a purple clan.

In short, these same cyborgs manipulated agates in Lucas to get a child and with its help to destroy humanity. They also resurrected him, introducing the chip into the head so that they could be controlled in case.

Further, with Jade (or without her), Kane, along with Carla, is saved by the organization of the “Invisible” fighting homeless people, which is fighting both the orange and against the purple clans and directs a couple (or trinity) to the nearest source of chrome in goodbye, where the child will fulfill its purpose.

“Invisible” are often found closer to the end of the game.

Marcus may sit in the lair of invisibles if you saved him, but this will not bring anything like that. The brothers simply hug and talk. There will be no dialogue with him when playing for Karl will not be.

The love line between Lucas and Carla will also develop development. Ask, but did she? Yes, and I myself, at the first passage, was not so surprised why it was they so unexpectedly became close and for no reason they took up “this”. All their love, as it turned out, occurred behind the scenes. If you look at the dates at the beginning of episodes, it turns out that about three weeks of residence in the same apartment passed from their meeting before the trip for Jade. True, even so, all their love seems very stretched.

But this was not the most embarrassed by me. Remember, they said that Lucas is actually dead and does not exude heat? Knowing this, the scene causes an even greater misunderstanding and seems completely inappropriate and even a little unpleasant. How Lucas was generally able to do it? Why the scriptwriters needed it? In my opinion, without this, their relationship, on the contrary, would be much more interesting and dramatic.

Okay, let’s move on to the endings. There are three of them in total: the victory of the orange clan, the victory of the purple clan and the victory of Lucas. With the victory of the purple clan, the second ice age will come (after all, the prediction will not be told to a person), Lucas with pregnant Charla will go underground, and their child, also irradiated by lame in the womb, will become a new Indigo child who can revive humanity. With the victory of the orange clan, everything will return to their circles, but they obviously will think something with such and such force. Well, with the victory of Lucas, everything will be approximately the same, only now Kane will be omnipotent. I can’t call the ending with Lucas the most positive, because in fact nothing will change. Both the orange and the purple clan will still exist, perhaps even pursue the protagonist. In any ending, Karl turns out to be pregnant, and they live with Lucas together.

And always everywhere there is one thoughtful pose … (from left to right – purple, orange endings and ending of Lucas)

I sincerely do not understand why many publications at one time praised the plot of Fahrenheit and even nominated it for awards. Its main problem is a very sharp and strange transition from a detective thriller to an action movie about the salvation of the world, and not of the highest quality. It has too much mixed in it, and most importantly, it is done so not skillfully that closer to the end everything turns into a untold parody and rolls into absurdity. After this, I hardly believe that Cage wanted to write a serious story, because in such an absurd setting it is simply unrealistic.

It also finishes the game and a sharp acceleration of the pace in the second part of the game, because of which the story begins to seem trimmed and contradict itself. The love line between Carla and Lucas Znsan from the finger, most of it, in principle, is behind the scenes, Tyler leaves the game too quickly, Jade, a plot of an important character, remains a function and an unsolved log. And although they explain this somehow, I personally did not care about her. Important information for the plot begins to literally dump with Ushats, which only confuses. I found out some plot information only after reading Wikipedia. But this can at least be understood, the development was difficult, for four years with a change in the publisher, especially since games of this type were not created before. It was also necessary to urgently release the game in 2005, because for that year Fahrenheit was technically outdated.

But at the same time, strange, even inappropriate ideas in the script to justify it is already more difficult. Perhaps the studio made the integrity of the story to the sacrifice with a stunning plot turning, maybe they just decided to come off in full. But this, however, is no longer important.

As a result, today we get a weak story with a promising, gloomy beginning and funny, disappointing end.

But with gameplay, fortunately, everything is not so deplorable.

Gameplay

Here it is worth specifying one thing right away. Fahrenheit is the first game that has shown today a familiar gameplay of an interactive film. She set his standards. Because of this, many mechanics that you saw before in the games of a similar genre (from Quantic Dream in particular) are here-QTE about and without, frantic pressing of buttons when performing efforts to the character, mandatory pulling of the right styling for performing the action, etc. D. But at the same time, Fahrenheit is a first-hand game. Because of this, it has a number of its features.

The same QTE are organized in the game “more hardcore”. If in subsequent Quantic Dream games, it is enough to press one button on the right cross in time, then you need to alternately or at the same time press the buttons on the right and on the left cross. But at the same time, QTE is forgiven and more errors, up to about three.

Many QTE in the game are pulled. And if in the action scenes anywhere else, then during some visions of Lucas, where QTE is also used when nothing happens on the screen, it tires strongly.

The indicator of “lives” is closely connected with QTE in action scenes. The player receives them throughout the game in the form of crosses. The maximum number of them is five. If the QTE was overwhelmed, then one life is spent and the player begins with the last conservation, if all lives are spent, then everything QTE begins again, and life is restored to the past number. This is generally an openly strange idea, because in this way the already prolonged QTE can stretch even more and begin to bother. Of course, this still needs to be brought to this and personally, this happened only once, but even so this mechanics are frankly superfluous and inappropriate.

Power actions are also performed unusual – alternating pressing the right and left trigger on the gamepad. This is inconvenient and requires more strength, but at the same time it is much more realistic and better allows you to feel the efforts of the character.

The right stick in the game is used not only for performing actions, but also for choosing a dialogue replicas, which is also unusual, but not to say that it is inconvenient. Why it was impossible to initially do this by pressing the buttons of the right cross remains a mystery.

In most dialogs, except for the above, it is actually not necessary to choose some remarks at all, the characters will answer and nothing to change from this.

Now let’s move on to a more interesting mechanics, to the scale of the mind.

The scale of reason shows the emotional state of the character we control. It can, how to decrease from stress, traumatic, frightening events or memories, and increase from the performance of actions like playing a guitar, eating, going to the toilet, etc. D. Also, the scale can increase or decrease along the path of the plot. When the scale decreases to zero, the game stops, Lucas is in a psychiatric hospital, and detectives are quit.

This mechanic is not completely optional, as it might seem. If you do not follow the scale at all, especially playing Lucas, you can get into a hopeless situation, when the scale is almost at zero, there is nothing to cheer up, and the next event will definitely worsen it. This, of course, is not very good, but the benefit of grinding here is not necessary and the replenishment of the scale is very organically inscribed in the gameplay. True, whatever one may say, this mechanic does not play a special role, does not affect the plot and actions of the characters and is more than an appendage, albeit quite imperceptible and easy, that it is a pity, because it feels like she could play a more interesting role.

But the fact that I really pleased me in Fahrenheit was, oddly enough, gameplay diversity. With the exception of the usual QTE in the game, there were a lot of diverse mini-games in the game.

Here is the compilation of a photobot (not influencing anything, but still);

And a shooting range with increasing complexity;

And whole gameplay inserts with a first -person view, even with a hairpin on a horror;

Well, a couple of puzzles.

We must not forget about two sufficiently large level stages.

Yes, of course, all this has been done far from the highest level, but it fulfills its main task – it dilutes the main, monotonous gameplay very well.

We will also touch the topic of bonuses. In the game, they open access to additional content. The glasses of these same bonuses are scattered at some levels of the game in the form of cards of different colors and the number of glasses. Sometimes they lie just like that, sometimes hidden in the lockers. The implementation of the receipt of bonuses, of course, is not very neat and logical, but not the point.

Nothing strange, every day I see these cards.

The bonuses themselves are ordinary: music, gallery with sketches for the game, characters. But the section “Cinema” is of particular interest. There are also funny Tyler’s fights with old man Takeo, and the Samantha dance, as well as a video using Motion Capture’a and other development details (though it’s a pity that they didn’t start with me). In general, it is worth it to open, all the more to find bonuses is not so difficult. But if you don’t want to bother anyway, then for the completion of the game for the end with the victory of Lucas they give 200 points, which should be enough to open most of the buns.

Summing up, gameplay in Fahrenheit can hardly be called perfect. It has enough curves and uncomfortable moments in terms of management, unnecessary and not brought to mind a mechanic, but at the same time it is worth taking into account the fact that for its time Fahrenheit was a kind of experiment. Moreover, very successful, because even in such a minor form the game was able to shake contemporaries with its innovation and unusual. Even now this game is able to surprise.

But, whatever one may say, today Fahrenheit is largely outdated and obviously inferior to the current projects manufactured in the genre of interactive cinema from Quantic Dream as well as.

Music

Although I don’t think myself as a music love, but I think it is worth saying a few words about music, because she was also praised at one time. The main soundtrack for the game was written by Angelo Badalamenti, known for his work in David Lynch’s films. And I … have nothing to say on this subject. I would not call any of his compositions in the game memorable or some kind of standing out. Its soundtrack is simply good and it is not bad, but does not cause me the same emotions and sensations as music at the sea, Max Payne or VTMB . But I think this is more likely a matter of taste.

From other licensed tracks, as an interesting fact, several songs of the Theory of the Dead Man group from the Gasoline album, which are in Lucas in the player. Also in the credits and some episodes are played by their song from the same album – “Santa Monica”.

In addition, the game has single tracks of other performers, for example, from Teddy Pendegrass, Nina Simone and T. D. The best tracks, as for me, came across Tyler, especially I note the “Let it Crawl” from “Society’s Bug”, which plays when we control them in some episodes. Although I am not a lover of such music, it was this track that came to the point and became for me the main topic of Tyler.

Total

Now Fahrenheit can be called a transitional link between quests and interactive films, a long -standing interesting experiment. She was able to become cult and truly significant, but, unfortunately, did not become a masterpiece for all times due to a weak scenario and far from ideal and outdated mechanic.

But this does not mean that I do not advise you to play it. At least Fahrenheit is an important milestone in the development of a whole genre, which will be interesting to familiarize yourself with. Also, the game will become an interesting and unusual experience for those who like the genre of interactive cinema, but to whom he was very boring. Yes, even for ordinary players, it will actually be exciting experience.

What was Fahrenheit? Parsing the game Quantic Dream.

Plot

Gameplay

Music

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