Indigo Prophecy

"A gimmicky interactive film with bad controls... okay, it's not that bad."

I started this game two days ago, and was in love with it immediately. Sure, the graphics are a little dated. They could use some work. Yes, the controls are terrible. But the storytelling - genius. Right away I was sucked in by the horror/thriller atmosphere. All right, I'm a bit of a baby when it comes to horror movies, so I held my breath a bit during some of the more tense moments of the game. That just made it even better, as far as I was concerned.

The big problem is that I ultimately realized that the plot is completely stupid. This might be a hard concept to swallow, but consider this: The plot, the basic elements of the story, were written in five minutes by a group of chimps with typewriters. Chimps with very short attention spans; the plot is very shallow. And yet - and this is the complicated part - the story is told so beautifully that it makes up for it. At first. I'm really trying hard not to spoil the story with any specific details, but essentially the first 66% of the game tells about 10% of the story, in exquisite detail, and then the last 1/3 of the game throws the remaining 9/10 of the story in your face as quickly as possible. It's all thrown together, and you suddenly realize that it's just not a very good story when it comes down to it. Like I said, the storytelling is far better than the story itself, but even that completely falls apart after the first 2/3 of the game. Throw in some obnoxiously long Matrix fight scenes near the end, and, in the European version, a number of sex or nudity scenes that are obviously only thrown in to keep the attention of mongoloids, and the whole thing just feels gimmicky, and you walk away from the experience feeling dirty, cheap and used.

I wasn't sure how to rate the game when I started writing this review. I mean, it really is a good game for the most part, but I spent the last couple hours of the rather short-lived experience shaking my head at the screen, asking myself "WHY did they do that?" At any rate, I'd recommend this game to anybody, but with the same disclaimer I give every game I review: Rent it first, then buy it if you still think you need a copy permanently. Frankly, I don't see much replay value in a movie that changes only slightly depending on the way you play it. And as for the unlockable "Bonus" features... by the time you beat the game once, you'll have far more "Bonus Points" than you'd ever need to see them all. So, check it out if you've got a few free hours. Hopefully you'll find the controls less frustrating, and get more out of the story than I did.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 10/10/05