RANT: Fahrenheit's gamedesign

JKMakowka

It's time for another RANT session

So after reading rave reviews of the game Fahrenheit, I finally got around trying it on my brother's Xbox on the weekend at my parents home.

And at first I was really enjoying the game's possible choices and different storylines that overlap with each other quite nicely. Ok graphics are really outdated by todays (PC) standards, but I was beginning to really like the game and its story.

But boy, was I WRONG

At about 2 or 3 hours into the game I was starting to feel a strong urge to kill who ever had the 'brilliant' gamedesign idea to mix an interactive movie (which Fahrenheit basicly is) with a series of utterly stupid, completly random, and so often repeating button smashing mini-games that are completly unrelated to the story and often require you to repeat them so long until you beat them to advance in the story (sometimes failing alters the story though, which is ok I guess).

Seriously how can such a nice game at first glance turn out to be so utterly annoying and stupid?
I really hope someone reads this, and fires that damn gamedesigner who did this!

/rant end

Back to Quake4, which, while not innovating at all, is at least fun to play.

Ninjas

It sounds like Shen Mu without the ass kicking.

pogonip

I think Doom 3 is the same way . It looks gorgeous so your sucked in by the graphics . It has a basic story that you go along with . Then after a few hours you relize it's just shooting creepies jumping out of the dark .

Maybe basic game design can be over-looked by presentation ? I mean look at how basic the game design is for Shadow of the Collosus but yet everyone loves it because it's something new . At least that's my theory . Even Soul Calibur when it first came out was not ground breaking in the game play dept. , but with pretty graphics and a new twist of gameplay everyone loved it .

Ha, it's funny you say Quake 4 is not innovating but is fun to play . Maybe that's why game designers hardly ever take chances and just rehash the same working game designs over and over., because...it work

rooster

I guess the button mashing bits are easier using a keyboard, I didnt have much trouble completing them. You know you dont have to get the bar all the way to the right, just keep it away from the left? They are the weakest bit truly, but the rythm action bits I loved.

ninjas: actually there is indeed ass kicking . And voice actors who don't sleepwalk through their parts

JKMakowka

@ rooster, It is not only those special button smashing minigames, but also all those other, 'press now a button', or 'move your stick this way and than that way' or 'follow that color pattern' (kinda like DDR) minigames that are annoying as hell.

Anyways, yeah it is a bit sad that innovation is so much lacking in todays games, and I am always looking for innovating games. But they have to be at least fun to play (Darwinia is a good example).

Rick Stirling

Aileen felt exactly the same. We bought it on the same day as the PSP, and for the first 2 hours she loved it, then it degenerated into a reflex/simon game with equal parts track and field. It was one of the rare game I've taken back for a refund.

swampbug

Fahrenheit was a great game for me.. but i really was turned off by some of the story in combination with those sequences. Resident Evil did it perfect. It felt challanging, but no so annoying. I have to admitt I did like some of fahrenheits button mashing sequences.
The sequence that really turned into annyoing was when the wind was blowing every damn piece of your apartment at you.. that you had to dodge.

I didnt let this spoil the entire game for me. I turned the other cheek and moved on.. and enjoyed the rest of the "non annoying parts".