Indigo Prophecy: Falling short

I listen to a lot of podcasts and one of them is 1upFM, which has a great segment called backlog. In the segment they discuss older games that few people played but were highly acclaimed by not just game critics but also by the few people that played them. The first two games were Shadow of the Colossus and then Pyschonauts. The most recent one they've tackled is Indigo Prophecy which I was happy enough to find in a local store for seven bucks, so I said why not. The final discussion on 1upFM has already taken place and I have yet to listen to it but I thought I would weigh in here.

Honestly I think Indigo Prophecy was ahead of its time but as a game its not very well structured. The game starts off as a very intriguing detective story were you play the detectives as well as the fugitive. However it devolves into a cheesy cliche sci fi story that has no real emotional impact. Which is really sad because I really cared for all of the characters and was interested in what they were going to do and how they would evolve. But halfway through the game after a couple of mysteries are exposed those feelings are torn asunder and I couldn't care less.

This is a game however and that's why it makes me sad that the story couldn't keep up with the game play. As far as I know the dialogue system in this game is what Mass Effect was trying to achieve but came years earlier and the way you interact with the environment is way ahead of anything that came out at that time. From that era most games had shiny keys that would unlock the next door to the next area. But in Indigo Prophecy the objects and interaction with the environment doesn't feel forced but very organic as if I was existing in this world. I have never played a game that made me feel so immersed when I'm going around looking for clues or out maneuvering someone during a conversation scene. Its the action scenes that are the weak point of the game. Instead of giving you control over the character you are forced to play an elaborate game of Simon Say's to get through the cinematic sequences that are the action set pieces of the game. All I'm saying is that I always felt very removed from these parts.

What makes this game very unique however is the role that the player takes. In nearly all games you either play a god character or the actual main character. In Indigo Prophecy however you play the director. At times you are god, maneuvering the characters like pieces on a chess board, and at other times you control the characters themselves. It's only during the action set pieces that the player has to sit back and let the game just play itself.

All in all I really enjoyed the game which made me sad when it decided to take a left turn into a really bad SciFi original movie.


"A severed foot is the ultimate stocking stuffer." - Mitch Hedburg