Indigo Prophecy

"Frustrating, but gripping."

For a modern game with a heavy storyline, you will be hard-pressed to do better than Indigo Prophecy. It's modeled like a movie, with split cameras, an intro from the "director", MANY cutscenes... the menu even says "New Movie" instead of "New Game".

Games like this show that there's still a market for classic adventure games, ven though this game is only similar to classic adventures in spirit. The interface is innovative, with most commands being accomplished with mouse movements, and action scenes accomplished with a strange DDR-like minigame mixed with the strenuous "alternate left and right keys!" minigame we saw in Track and Field for the NES. You'll also come across scenes where you need to keep an arrow in the center of a bar for various reasons, and it works like the grind system in Tony Hawk.

Unfortunately, the action sequences tend to be very long, and if you run out of "lives" (Lives??? In this day and age??), you'll have to start the entire action scene over. Not to mention you'll be paying attention to the DDR-ish indicators, so you'll miss a lot of the tense action behind the indicators.

On the bright side, talking to characters is quite fun, as you have a short time to decide which response to pick from the convo tree. This makes it more realistic, since in real conversations one doesn't sit for half an hour trying to decide on a response.

You'll find yourself switching between characters often, which adds another element of (intentional) confusion. You are both helping and hindering the protagonist alternately, which really toys with your head.

In one scene, you control a cop while he tries to get a computer sketch of the protagonist's face from a witness, so they can ID him. It provides a major dilemma, since if you make the sketch accurate, the cops might find him easily. If you make it inaccurate, you might end up costing the cops some major Mental Health points later on. (more on this later)

The game rarely makes it completely clear what you have to do, so you are forced to rely on wits and quick thinking. This is especially so during the couple of stealth sequences, which rely a little TOO much on blind groping. You get a Metal Gear Solid style radar in these parts, but that's it. These sections are designed so that ANY deviation from the correct path is an almost certain do-over. Goes from fun to downright evil very fast.

Indigo Prophecy also has one more innovation, the aforementioned Mental Health system. In short, if good things happen, your character will be more calm. If bad things happen, the Mental Health points will drop at varying rates, and if they get too low your character will either commit suicide, or go insane. If that happens, it's do-over time.

The story itself is brilliant, if a little contrived. I can't say exactly what the game is about without spoilers, so let's just say it's like a sci-fi whodunit story. It will keep you guessing quite a bit.

The acting is quite good from most characters, thankfully. You really feel for some of them.

The music is fantastic. A mix of licensed music and orchestral scores, it never feels out of place. Very much movie quality, and it doesn't sound compressed.

This game does so many things right, and so many wrong. It's frustrating, annoying, even downright broken at times (my PC exceeds the requirements by a mile, yet it still drops major frames at random moments, even though it should run at a solid 60 fps at all times.), but in the long run, this game is a hit. I sincerely hope for a sequel.

PLUS SIDE:
-Great music, acting
-Innovative
-A+ Storyline
-Fun
-Lengthy

MINUS SIDE:
-Robotic character movements
-Frustrating
-The action sequences.
-The Stealth sequences.

BUY OR RENT: If it's the console version, rent first. Most of today's gamers are used to either shooting or driving their way through a tough spot. They may not like the sudden change of pace. But if you are an old-schooler, BUY!

Reviewer's Score: 8/10, Originally Posted: 07/03/07