Fahrenheit review

But you didn't mean to kill him, did you? Yet here you are, in this dirty, downtown New York diner on a cold and snowy night; blood all over you and on the floor, dead stranger in your lap, crimson-covered steak knife in your hand. Oh, and there's a cop in the diner - yes, the ruddy diner - and judging by the amount of coffee he must've had, he's going to relieve himself quite soon.So, what do you do?Do you run for it now and risk not getting caught, or do you stay at the scene and try to erase your involvement? There's a mop there, but how long would it take to clean it all up? Where do you dump the weapon? Do you hide the body? Too late, the cop has gotten up, he's walking towards the bathroom right now. You panic. You've just killed a man and you're still in the bathroom where you did it. How do you leave the diner? Won't everyone see you? Will you pay the bill?So, what do you do?Picture the scene: a murder has just taken place in a diner. The killer has escaped, but the murder scene is being investigated. By you.Yes, in a strange twist of fate you're attempting to unravel the clues you've tried so hard to hide as the killer - because you're now a New York detective. It's a unique role that Fahrenheit places you in, as in one scene you're helping the killer to evade the law, and in the next you're in the shoes of those attempting to catch him. It's an interesting paradox and one of many that you won't have experienced in other games. Not only are the situations and the ways in which the game lets you deal with them interesting, but the narrative is incredibly well-structured and particularly intriguing: in fact, Gamestyle would compare it to a good book or film at the outset - one wishes to keep playing the next scene just to find out what happens. And whether this means staying up late or neglecting your social life, it's an unexpected outcome. Much like the game.Insomuch as Fahrenheit presents a truly interactive story (and one that the games industry has foreshadowed for years), it's an immersive world bordered by contradictions. While the cast of playable characters share unique voices and locations, they are two steps removed from believable autonomy. For instance, remember Shenmue? Remember those oft-derided Quick Timer Events (aka QTE)? Well, they're here in abundance.At first, Gamestyle thought these events would be relative to the rest of the game. Then they appeared in conversations and cut-scenes for no apparent reason (in fact, quickly becoming pointless - even for reactionary purposes). Then they were used continuously for 5-10 minutes in a row. In fact, Fahrenheit is so dependent on this quick-time jig that you might as well play it with a dance mat. It completely removes the player from some immersive situations (such as the opening where you have control over your choices and options), and progressively dumbs things down - you'll either be pushing the controller sticks in different directions or mashing the trigger buttons towards the end. And, in the end, it becomes quite ridiculous. Oh, and do you know what else becomes quite ridiculous towards the end? The story. When it was good, you forgave its QTE over-indulgence, but when it goes 'bad' (ie, the finale), you're left with nothing but a broken control scheme. In fact, this combination almost scuppered our desire to replay the game again (to see where many of the fork-in-road choices would lead us; a desire that was set in stone towards the first half of the eight-hour adventure). Yet replay it we did, albeit finding that our choices made precious little difference to the game world - perhaps furnishing a new line of dialogue or slightly altered cut-scene (which you probably wouldn't notice because you were unduly concentrating on the QTE).All in all, Fahrenheit tries hard to be that truly interactive story game we've always wanted, but at some point collapses under its own weight, proving that we're not at that stage just yet. A good effort, though.