Fahrenheit is one of a new breed of games. Its creator, David Cage, aimed to create a game where you do more than just kill zombies over and over. He wanted a game that asked questions and gave answers. A game that pulled you in with the story and made you truly feel for the characters. He claims inspiration from a number of sources, including ‘24’ and ‘Fight Club’ - you can see some of those influences in the game, but the story is his own, and has some interesting twists.

It is hard to describe Fahrenheit, or to tell you what to expect. It is not a standard adventure, or a shooter, but it is so much more than the old ‘interactive stories’.

You start the game as Lucas Kane - you find yourself having just committed a murder but you don’t know why. As the game progresses you switch from character to character - you play the killer, his investigators, and even his relatives as the story goes on. The game starts with you coming to your senses after the murder, realising what you have done, and having to get out of there. Later, you have to go back, and hide the evidence - fighting against the clock. This gives you a taste of the urgency and suspense that you will feel throughout the game.

Your goal as the player is to find out what compelled Lucas Kane to kill, and try to save him from prison. What you will discover is something much more than just a simple murder.

There are multiple endings, your actions have consequences, sometimes immediately sometimes in the longer term. There is a finite number of stories, but you do not feel that you are pushed down any fixed paths - the story flows naturally and is incredibly engrosing. Other games have done the multiple endings thing before, but often their stories have been just a means to show off the game - this is a game to show off a story, and as such, you may want to see each of the possibilities.

The thing that struck me the most about this game was the atmosphere - everything about it, the sound-track, the graphics, the dialog, was amazing and really pulled you into the game. It felt more like watching a movie than playing a game, but in a good way. The game play did not ‘get in the way’, it just added to the excitement. This was the first adventure game in a long time to give me one of those ‘jump moments’ that you would normally associate with the cinema.

To aid with certain parts of the game you are given a split-screen view, allowing you to see things happening in areas the main character at the time cannot see. This reminded me slightly of one of the modes in the game ‘Alias’, although in Fahrenheit they are used slightly differently - in Alias the focus is more on action and stealth.

The game play itself comes from a number of elements, including puzzles and a mini-game style ‘press the direction when it flashes on the screen’ challenge. These aren’t handled in the way of, say, Knights of The Old Republic, where the game stops and a logic puzzle, thinly veiled, appears on the screen - everything flows smoothly and is very intutitive - no remembering insane button combinations to perform special moves in combat.

The controls can be annoying sometimes - the camera moves violently and quickly, but since this game is more about thought than about twitchy-reactions it isn’t too much of a problem.

Some purists may feel that the system in Fahrenheit makes certain parts of it too simple, or that there isn’t enough twitch based action, but if you give it a chance, you will be pleasantly suprised. This game isn’t about the button pressing, or the analogue stick wiggling, it is about the story, and even the most cyncial ‘skip the cutscenes and get on with the action’ type gamer should find themselves intrigued.

Fahrenheit is a very well executed game, with very good graphics and sound and an incredibly engrossing plot. It is a game that will keep you clutching the controller for hours and hours, playing it several times to see ‘what if...’. Yes, it has flaws, but considering it is trying to do something different, I think it has done it incredibly well.

David Cage set out to create something that people would remember, he wanted a game to touch people the way books and films do. I think he has succeeded.

Graphics: 9/10
Sound: 9/10
Controls: 7/10
Game Play: 9/10
Longevity: 10/10

Overall: 9/10