Fahrenheit demo available

By Ellie Gibson Published 27 July, 2005

Try out Atari's psycho-thriller.

A playable demo for Fahrenheit, Atari's forthcoming paranoramal thriller for PC and consoles, is now available for download.

The 285MB demo gives you the chance to play through the game's opening, and starts off with an in-game introduction by director David Cage.

Fahrenheit is set in a near-future New York City where ordinary citizens are going round killing complete strangers for no discernible reason. One such citizen is our hero Lucas Kane, who wakes up to find he has murdered someone in a men's bathroom - and has no recollection of why.

It's action adventure with a very dark flavour, essentially, and as you'll know if you read our first impressions of the game it's shaping up rather nicely.

Fahrenheit is due out on PC, PS2 and Xbox in the autumn.

Picture of Ellie.

About Ellie Gibson

Since joining Eurogamer in the mid 2000s, Ellie has written about subjects as diverse as the fall of Gizmondo, the rise of Hollyoaks actresses in Red Alert games and the noise a bear makes under NSFW circumstances.

Read more articles from Ellie by visiting the Ellie Gibson archive page.

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Comments (28) Latest comment 7 years ago

Comments threads automatically close after 30 days, but please feel free to continue chatting on the forum!

  • sickpuppysoftware #1 7 years ago

    The download link points back to the article

    edit - Help I'm trapped in recursion!
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/05 @ 11:52

  • space_ace #2 7 years ago

    from a great (fahren)heit

  • Eighthours #3 7 years ago

    Sort it out guys!! I want to play this!

  • space_ace #4 7 years ago

    psycho killer, que est-ce que c'est?

  • deepmenace #5 7 years ago

    whats it like......?

    anyone.....?

    /waits patiently in the corner entertained by sickpuppy stumbling about in circles/

  • deepmenace #6 7 years ago

    linkage (non-torrent)

    http://w ww.factornews.com/download.php?f=401

    p.s. the demo is, apparently, english.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/05 @ 12:09

  • Bezzy #7 7 years ago

    Research research research. Very interested in this.

  • smelly #8 7 years ago

    Is it me, or are demos getting bigger and bigger?

  • UncleLou #9 7 years ago

    Is it me, or are demos getting bigger and bigger?

    It's not just you, but it's weird nonetheless that you mention it in respect of Fahrenheit. 285 MB for the demo of a high-profile game is nothing these days.

  • Kronos #10 7 years ago

    the content however isnt particularly big or long in this case. lots of fmv.

  • gamesb*tch #11 7 years ago

    oooo 21kbps it's like 1992 all over again... :)

  • gamesb*tch #12 7 years ago

    a non FMV version (and let's face it, you'd opt in for that so no one can cry "DISAPPOINTED";) would have a lot more people playing the demo, but I never got the impression that games publishers ever really wanted people to play demos 100%. They know that 'big marketing spend = big sales' so why give people a taster that might turn them off?

    Personally, if I had to put my neck on the line for a crap game (Dave Perry, if you need a press guy for your next Matrix crock...) I'd only release PShopped screenies and they'd be about 30 pixels square and feature the only bit of the game with a hint of nipple about it... call me cynical.... :p

  • smelly #13 7 years ago

    "the content however isnt particularly big or long in this case. lots of fmv. "

    Which is my point.

    I mean, yesturday i downloaded worms 4 demo. Almost 300 meg, and only ONE level? WTF?!?!

    But in this case, if they didnt give me needless fmv, it'd only be about 20meg! (or so.. lol)

  • MoFo #14 7 years ago

    Wasn't too excited playing this demo. It frustrates me when the game limits you to what it wants to happen. For example, I hid the guys body in a toilet cubicle. As I was washing my hands a cop walks in to the restroom. Now at this point I would have wanted to leave as the cop was wandering around in there, but instead the game goes in to a sequence where the cop discovers the body and arrests me. Why can't I sneak out while he's following the trail of blood leading to the toilet?

    And then when you go talk to the cop you don't get a choice of things you'd like to say to him.

    Seems a little restrictive to me even if it does suggest multiple options.

  • Wash #15 7 years ago

    I downloaded the Psychonauts demo that was upwards of 500mb. Crazyiness.

  • kangarootoo #16 7 years ago

    @MoFo

    Your comments reinforce my biggest fear about this game. Interactivity and storytelling are kind of at opposite ends of the same stick, thought they can share the same space the balance can be difficult to manage.

    Though I would very much welcome a nice adventure game so I'll download the demo and have a nosey, with what might even be termed optimism (I am capable of it, though I generally feel its overated).

  • UncleLou #17 7 years ago

    Your comments reinforce my biggest fear about this game. Interactivity and storytelling are kind of at opposite ends of the same stick, thought they can share the same space the balance can be difficult to manage.


    Exactly. The thing is, if it was a typical linear adventure, noone would complain. Now that it's a bit non-linear, people (including me, probably!) will complain that it's still too limited. Make it even more non-linear though, and you just can't tell a good story.

  • Frankotiradore #18 7 years ago

    ^

    Then say thanks, play it and enjoy it as it is. Of course there will be reasons to bitch (body goes only in that particular booth, I can't mop the floor twice bla bla) but come on...

    I really liked the demo, I'm looking forward to the game (when's the euro release?)

    Oh, and they better not fuck up Omikron 2...
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/05 @ 15:27

  • mgns #19 7 years ago

    You know what I hate?

    Unskippable cutscenes. Fuck you, self-indulging director, but I don't want to watch it twice. Once was enough, now give me a skip option, you fuck! Goddamnit, why can't these people just go into films instead, if that's what they so desperately want to do?

    Also, "quickly hit the left and right arrow..." What is this? Track & Field?
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/05 @ 16:38

  • Aaarrrgh #20 7 years ago

    @Mofo, replay the demo. I actually found it to be very very non-restrictive. For instance, you simply had the option of leaving the bathroom a little earlier, and possibly interact with the surroundings outside.

  • Bezzy #21 7 years ago

    "Also, "quickly hit the left and right arrow..." What is this? Track & Field? "

    Nope! That'll be the interactivity they're forced to throw into their masterpiece.

  • Bezzy #22 7 years ago

    The only available options to you at any given time push forward the story, which is good. Unfortunately, each option rigourously scripted, and a one-time only deal. Vocabulary changes from moment to moment, meaning choice is inconsistent and illusury.

    For what it is, it's not done badly. The core concept is not even close to what interactive storytelling can achieve, however.

    Kangaroo - we talked about this thing before, and yeah, this is not what I was hoping for. I believe that story and game play are absolutely reconcileable. Games are stories in hindsight. This game is an aggrandized "choose your own adventure" model, but I'm looking for something a lot more generalized systems for what I'd dubiously term "story space" (like "possibility space" but the range of possibilities which are percievably "story like";). I'm not unimpressed by this game's execution, just its basic model.

    And that introduction was a bit patronizing, too. "You can make choices!" like it's some kind of friggin revolution in design.
    Edited by 1 at 27/07/05 @ 18:56

  • McP #23 7 years ago

    I agree, the interaction is very limited. It plays like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book, but I enjoyed it so I'll be buying the full game.

  • therev #24 7 years ago

    Hmm, I rather enjoyed what little of that they showed us there. I'll be wanting a console version though, I think, due to control and my-PC-being-a-crash-happy-piece-of-crap issues.

  • Wash #25 7 years ago

    Like i've always said, this game will average about 7/10 and dissapear. Its novel, but linear and the graphics are ancient. Also that deal with the designer giving you a little prep talk... right.................

    I'll wait till its cheaper...

  • Khab #26 7 years ago

    The four-minute-long, unskippable (even on subsequent plays) cutscene is a REAL turnoff. I'd say it was worth it, though. You do have some control of what happens, and from what I've read what you do here will impact the next scene, perhaps altering what choices you have there (hey, one can hope).

    Aroused my interest enough to make me buy it, I think. Just as long as they don't release in late november...

  • Kiigan #27 7 years ago

    What a load of fucking wank. Indulgent patronising intro, unskippable cut-scenes, rotten controls and stupid key bashing bits thrown arbitrarily into a game supposedly for mature gamers. For all its high aspirations, Fahrenheit is a mess. At least some of the less ambitious point-and-click style adventures out there achieve what they set out to achieve and manage to be entertaining and grown-up in their own little way.

  • hellgren #28 7 years ago

    Late to the party, but basically, I feel it was a great mistake not to include two scenes, so we (the players) could get a feel as to how the actions undertaken in the first willl influence the next.

    For a game that lives and dies - well, maybe not, but they certainly are attempting something relatively fresh here - releasing a demo that doesn't highlight the core concept of your game is just... well, stupid. And having the designer prattle on at the beginning just serves to highlight how stupid; we're not shown how the various actions - I'm loathe to call them paths, because really, there are only two "paths": you escape or you're caught - you can do through the first scene affect subsequent scenes. Does it matter if you drag the body into the stall? Clean the floor? Pay the bill?

    We just don't know...

    I remain intrigued, but that demo didn't really do anything to help me ascertain if this game is more than another glorified adventure game with QTEs.