Quantic Dream's flawed, experimental adventure, Fahrenheit, is now available on Good Old Games for $6. If you missed it when it came out six years ago (easy to do in the US, where an edited, sex-free version came out under the nonsense name Indigo Prophecy), it's still worth playing for the novelty of its effective first two acts.
Ultimately, Fahrenheit jumps the rails so hard that even its awful third act plotting is worth a playthrough. When a second conspiracy faction emerges from the shadows of what can only have been an epic case of writer's block, and introduces itself as an evil sentient computer network born out of Usenet, you know you are in the presence of a true original.
That said, there is a lot I still admire about this game. Fahrenheit, like the later Heavy Rain, is at its most effective when it trying to recreate the experience of everyday life, even if the "Simon says" controls don't really make a lot of sense. Before the stupidity begins, Fahrenheit is a great game about alienation. Each character is somehow out of place in life, and much of the gameplay revolves around simply keeping it together long enough to get through another day.
Fahrenheit also features some great suspense sequences, including a few desperate attempts to clean up evidence, and a memorable hunt through an asylum for the criminally insane whose influence on Batman: Arkham Asylum is unmistakable.
Whatever you do, however, do not play this on normal or hard. And when you get to a button mashing finale, remember: this is why we have YouTube.
