To be quite honest, Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy, as it is known in the U.S.) is an amazing experience which shouldn't me missed by anyone, especially adventure and movie fans. Movie? Yes, in some ways I don't even consider Fahrenheit a game, but more of an interactive movie. It's cinematic, has great and well-developed characters, an interesting story and unique gameplay.
Here's the plot: Lucas Kane is an ordinary man that has something extraordinary happen to him. One cold January night in New York a man is washing his hands in a bathroom of a small diner. Lucas Kane appears behind him, holding a knife and slowly but surely makes his way to the unsuspecting man. He turns around, but it's too late. Lucas strikes and the man falls to the floor, bleeding. His attacker climbs on top of him and stabs him three times in the chest. Lucas suddenly comes to, realizing what he had done. Now what? Hide the body, get rid of the knife or just get the hell out of there? It's your choice and everything you do will have its consequence.
That's just one thing that's amazing about Fahrenheit, the freedom of choice. Every choice you make will have an impact on how the story unfolds. Well, the repercussions of your actions aren't really as deep as the game let's you believe, but it still offers some replay value which is extremely rare in most adventure games.
The graphics are pretty good, but don't expect anything spectacular. It's worth noting that this isn't a classic point 'n click adventure game with pre-rendered environments, but a fully 3D game. The movement controls are a bit clunky, but not as horrible as the PC ones (I played the PC demo and decided to get the Xbox version based on that) and the camera has it's issues, although it's nothing serious.
The sound is great, the voice acting superb, but what really stands out is the original soundtrack scored by famed movie composer Angelo Badalamenti who scored David Lynch's Mulholland Drive, among others. The licensed soundtrack is good with one standout track "Sandpaper Kisses" by Martina Topley-Bird (it can be heard in Carla's apartment). It's also kind of ruined by a Nickelback rip-off band Theory Of A Dead Man (as if Nickelback aren't horrible enough), but happily you can turn the stereo in Lucas' apartment off.
There's only one major gripe I have about this game and if you want to get in this game completely spoiler-free don't read the following paragraph 'cause it concerns the relationship between the main characters Lucas and Carla (nothing relevant to the plot is revealed).
Their relationship throughout most of the game is basic; Carla is a cop trying to catch a murderer and that would be Lucas. Then, without any apparent reason, she decides to help him and then, completely out of the blue, she falls in love with him. It's really weird and while the rest of the characters have a strong, compelling relationship, this one just doesn't feel right. And her statements like "I love you" and "Be careful. I need you" feel very forced and shallow. The sex scene is nice (although I wish Carla had more polygons, he, he...) and it would be just fine if it was a one night thing, casual sex, but they're making love and it feels all wrong. She doesn't really know him and nothing significant happened that could bring them together to this extent. It's very unsatisfying. Maybe most of you don't care much about this sort of thing, but for a game that has great potential on finally delivering a meaningful love story it fails miserably in that aspect.