Fahrenheit/Indigo Prophecy is amazing. Play it, if only for the opening level, to see the insane degree of interaction allowed to the main character. Fahrenheit lets you do all sorts of things, like clean up a murder scene before the police arrive, hiding the body and the murder weapon, mopping up, making sure you wash your hands. Do I want a wash-my-hands simulator? No, not really. But in the context of the game's storyline, it not only makes sense, I appreciate that I'm responsible for cleaning up each clue. What could have been handle in a cut scene is instead my responsibility, and the punishment for getting it wrong is getting hit with murder charges. It's intense. The split screen as the cop approaches, frantically searching the floor for missed pools of blood. It's memorable, and unlike anything I've played before.
But my favorite thing is that, for a horror game, it gives you the whole spectrum of a horror story.
Take Silent Hill. Yes, it's great on so many levels, but jeez, all you do is run around finding clues, fighting enemies, and talking to the occasional person. The tone is ALWAYS intense. The music is ALWAYS scary. There's no real scenes of levity, not even to introduce the characters before they get there. This goes for just about all horror games, which is why I typically don't play them. Beginning to end, they have the same constant grim oppressive tone as a Saw or Hostel torture porn flick.
Me, I like Evil Dead 2. I like House. I like the scenes where the campers get there, BEFORE Jason starts murdering them one-by-one. It's like that quote from Idiocracy:
"[we need] movies with stories that made you care about whose ass it was and why it was farting..."
Most horror games don't make you care about whose ass it was. They cram a burrito down their throat and let rip a constant stream of gas. Protagonists are IMMEDIATELY thrust into some nightmare scenario where from beginning to end they're faced with constant peril.
And the thing is, horror movies, horror books, they don't usually work that way. You get the first act to show the characters in their daily lives, to make them human before introducing the inhuman threat that will face them.
I suppose a lot of people can't imagine putting up with a horror game that introduces you to the character's daily lives, visits to family, friends, their asshole boss, taking you inside their head to show what makes them tick, before the zombies or monsters or ghosts show up. "Waah, it'd be dull!"
Well, Fahrenheit does this. And, IMO, it's rarely dull, up until the ill-adviced bat-shit insane flashback levels. After the bloody, gripping intro level, there's a ton of scenes of people, especially the detective, just talking, hanging out, relaxing, dealing with their ex girlfriends or practicing their kickboxing, and it's fun. By the time more scary stuff happens, I was a lot more attached to them than the protagonists of Silent Hill or Resident Evil, because they were fleshed out, actual people instead of soulless monster hunters.
Good lord this post is long.
Buy Fahrenheit.
