11/06/05 >> Indigo Prophecy (Xbox)

Genre: Third-person, horror/adventure

 

 

 

 

 

When I first previewed this game, the concept appealed to me immediately – a new style of point and click adventure in the vein of the old school puzzlers (like Monkey Island, Day of the Tentacle etc), but with a gritty action storyline and truly cinematic presentation. I followed the progress of the game, and it seemed to me to take an eternity to arrive. However, it’s now here and thankfully, it delivers.

 

First off, the story. You play Lucas Kane – an ordinary guy who regains consciousness in the restroom of a diner to find a dead man in front of him and a blood stained knife in his hand. He has no recollection of committing the murder, and doesn’t recognize his victim. It’s up to you to find out what happened, and why.
This opening scene is one of the many great things about this game – it leaves you to do things how you seem fit. Do you quickly run for it? Do you try to hide the evidence? It’s up to you. But act quickly so you don’t get caught!

 

For the most part, you play as Lucas as he runs from the police, but you also get to play as the cops chasing him! You control two detectives (who you can switch between most of the time to clue-hunt in more than one place at a time) and the game plays just like those old point and click games – ‘combine the paper with the fax machine then collect fax from other destination as the other cop’ etc. As you get closer to finding out whom the murderer is as the police, you also get closer to uncovering the truth as Lucas.

 

There are also various action set pieces that occur at key moments of the game. These basically involve pressing directions on the 2 analogs in a set sequence – kind of like those old laser-disc games (like Dragon’s Lair). Get it wrong and you have to start over. There are also button-hammering sections – either hammer L+R as fast as you can, or press L+R rhythmically to keep a bar in the center of a slider. Thankfully there aren’t too many of these sections as, although fun, they start to do your fingers in after a while!

 

Graphically the game is average – functionality and dynamic camera angles are the order of the day here. And it works rather well. The occasionally bland graphics kind of add to the depressing mood where appropriate, but on the other hand the game can look amazing when it wants to. Let’s just say that the graphics accompany the ambience of the game perfectly.

 

 

Sound wise the game is cinematic quality – tense soundtracks play when your character’s in trouble, soothing orchestral music plays while relaxing etc. It all fits rather well. You can even choose to put music on in your apartment when relaxing! (If ONLY the X-Box’s custom soundtrack feature would have been utilized here…oh well.) [Ed. - The soundtrack was composed by Angelo Badalementi of Twin Peaks fame.]

 

Gameplay is solid, and never gets too repetitive. There are however some issues here. For one – lining up your character to interact with an object can be a pain at times – and you can waste vital seconds of a rapidly counting down timer of death just by fiddling about trying to pick something up. Also, the camera can get pretty wild, meaning lots of running into walls when there’s a camera switch. The action sequences can often be awe inspiring (especially the last few), but you end up missing most of what’s going on because you too busy looking at the direction indicators! Despite all this, the game is still great fun to play.

 

What about challenge and replay value? Sadly, this is where the game falls down. As fun as it is to play, and as utterly brilliant as the story line is, the fact is the game is just too short and easy. I finished the game the same day I bought it and there was only really one part of it that I had to try more than once. On the plus side – there is so much stuff going on in this game-world that you’ll need to play through a few times to find everything and try out every possible story angle… if you can be bothered.

 

In conclusion, I would say that everyone needs to at least play this game – the experience is amazing. As for buying it, well maybe if you can get it cheaper than its retail price but to be honest you’re probably better off renting it. Just make sure you have enough time to finish it – the story is VERY gripping!

 

 

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Game Score: 8.8