Fahrenheit is an interactive cinema game, the second game developed by the French studio Quantic Dream, released on PC, PS2, and Xbox. The game received numerous positive reviews from various gaming publications, won multiple awards, and the magazine "Igromania" awarded it the title of "Game of the Year 2005." In the USA and Canada, the game is known as Indigo Prophecy.
The action of the game takes place in New York in 2009. The plot centers around a man named Lucas Kane, who wakes up in the restroom of a diner, slumped over a dead man's body. Lucas realizes that he killed him, as he is holding a bloody knife, but does not remember how he committed the murder. Wanting to sort everything out, Lucas hides all the evidence and flees the diner. The story reveals that a mysterious cult is involved, seeking to take over the world, and similar murders have already occurred, albeit by different people.
In addition to Lucas Kane, players can also control two other characters: detectives Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles. Each of the characters has their own unique personality and fears, which are deeply felt during gameplay. For example, Carla suffers from claustrophobia and feels uncomfortable in closed spaces. Each character has a mental and psychological state meter. If it drops to zero, the game ends: Carla or Tyler will give up on their investigation and surrender their badges, while Lucas may either commit suicide, surrender to the police, or end up in a psychiatric hospital. Besides the state meter, Lucas has life points that are spent in various battles upon taking damage or dying. Life points can be replenished using crosses found throughout the game.
The gameplay mechanics consist of a quick-time event system, meaning that at certain moments messages appear on the screen indicating: "Get ready!" - and the player must quickly press the keys in the order they light up on the screen. Depending on the correctness of the key presses, the gameplay cutscenes will differ. In the time away from quick-time events and cutscenes, the player can control the main characters and interact with surrounding objects and characters. During conversations with characters, the player can choose specific phrases, which will affect how the interaction unfolds.
The game can be completed with one of several endings, the content of which changes depending on the actions taken in the second half of the game.