Indigo Prophecy

"Great ideas and potential, but overall a horribly disappointing finished product."

I write this review as a rebuttal to all the other reviews out there for this game that have given it a high score. Why? Because I honestly think this game doesn't deserve it.

The game, a point and click adventure, starts off brilliantly. Where you can actually decide what your character does, and these choices all have an effect at some point in the game. Perfect for any adventure game, this involves you and makes you feel like instead of just linking events together; you're deciding which way the story heads.

However, about half way in the system falls apart. Characters are introduced abruptly and briefly, puzzles take no brain power what-so-ever and the entire system of freely determining what happens through-out the game…just disappears. It becomes a boring stream of linking events with lots of Track and Field Quick Time Events scattered through-out.

What's most annoying though is the way this shouldn't matter. Point-and-click games like this have a large focus on plot, and many games in the genre are very reliant on this factor; without any intuitive gameplay in them at all. So it's incredibly annoying that as Indigo Prophecy's gameplay falls apart, its plot does too. Unlike other point and click games this no-longer has a fall back.

The story seems intriguing and clever, but soon it falls into the oldest and possibly most annoying tricks there are. I can't reveal much because of spoilers, but I can say this: half way in the game you are thrown head-first into a pool of crap. Blaming everything on “legend” and not providing a satisfactory explanation or back-story, then throwing in completely ridiculous Matrix copies which just don't fit at all. Towards the very end you can tell the writers wanted to fit in as many stupid twists as possible, adding in pointless characters and stupidly written character relationships. Eventually this intuitive game becomes nothing more than a Track and Field B-movie.

The way the main endings are so very similar (not including the ridiculous Game Over sequences), as is getting there, completely removes the point of the player. The biggest effect you have is deciding the fate of 2 main characters. It's just a shame that after the choices are made nothing else is affected; it's as if there was no point in them from the beginning. It's just an attempt to make the player feel important in the middle of a very linear (and badly written) story.

I'm not saying this is the worst game ever, I'm just passionate about it for one reason: it started so damn good. If the writers had done a better job this could've been a masterpiece. Fantastic action scenes, great conversation system, timed tasks and puzzles, as well as some well thought out branching points towards the beginning. That's why it's such a tragedy it ended up the way it did. I heard Quantic Dreams did exactly the same with Omikron; their previous “epic”. If only the plot was there; the gameplay was already far better than the likes of Broken Sword.

In the end Shadow of Memories, a game about 5 years old, beats this game's system. It had timed puzzles, involving story and branching paths which actually make a difference. I'd recommend checking that out if you like the basic premise of this. It also lasts a lot longer with its many endings and thicker plot.

Kinda fun game; but despite the beginning don't expect anything extraordinary:

6/10

Reviewer's Score: 6/10, Originally Posted: 09/19/05