Indigo Prophecy is a very "outside the box" gameplay experience, with a
very adult, semi-interesting storyline, but is ultimately killed by
overly repetitive play and one too many plot twists.
The plot starts out with the player taking the controls of Lucas Kane.
Lucas Kane has found himself watching his own possessed body kill a man
that he has never met. It's an odd setup for a storyline and game, but
it works. As Kane regains control it's surprisingly suspenseful to try
and cover up the murder scene and to not draw attention from the
restaurant patrons where the murder takes place (one of which is a
police officer). The game also shifts back and forth between Kane, to
Carla and Tyler, the two homicide detectives in charge of catching the
killer. It's unique to control both sides of the story and is one of
this game's largest highlights.
Controls consist of simple analog movements to do special tasks like
examining an item or to use an item. Say approaching a chair, you
simply push the right analog down during the on screen prompt in order
to sit down. During more action oriented segments controls switch to a
mixture of "Simon Says" colored movements that are mapped to the two
analogs sticks. Movements are displayed on a set of colored wheels and
the player basically has to mimic these movements in time with the on
screen cues. The last control is a basic "Track & Field" mechanic
that uses the two triggers to simulate things like running feet, as
triggers for balancing segments, or to pump up a meter for power moves.
All of these mechanics work well enough and they throw in a few stealth
missions for spice, but in all honesty, once you reach the halfway
point all of these different mechanics become really repetitive. If not
for the interesting storyline, the superb voice acting, and it's
excellent cinematic feeling, the "game" portion wouldn't even make for
an engaging cell phone game.
The graphics are adequate if unspectacular. The snowed in New York City
is a unique setting, but the developers never really seem to use it as
affectively as they could. The game says New York City, but it could
actually be Any City, USA and no one would really notice. The character
models look good, but none of the characters go thru any significant
visual changes (outside of Kane). Even though the plot takes place over
several days, characters still wear the same outfits throughout. It's
not a big nit to pick, but it does sort of take the player out of the
story a little bit when Carla and Tyler wear the same outfits for
several days straight.
The storyline (and I promise not to spoil) is very intriguing as we
learn about Kane and the things that caused him to murder. From things
like mysterious crows, the occult, Mayans, and Kane's childhood
memories, the storyline is almost always interesting and handled with a
nice adult touch. With that said, some of the plot is handled with
almost too much of an adult touch. I don't mind sexual content in a
game, but some of the sexual content in IP is borderline gratuitous.
Not one, not two, but THREE times we get to see characters "do it" in
this game and I personally can not think of one time in which it was
necessary for the plot. Maybe once, to set the adult tone of the game,
but not THREE.
This also leads me to IP's greatest flaw. For as great and interesting
as IP's storyline is, and could have been, the last 30 to 45 minutes of
this game is blood curdlingly AWFUL. I can't delve too far into it
without spoiling, but there are two or three times within those final
moments that are beyond weak and are insulting of the intelligence of
the type of player who would give IP a chance. The "true evil"
introduced during the final hour is RIDICULOUS and the third time we
get see two characters "do it" it is so forced and unbelievable that it
did, in essence, kill the spectacular setup of it all.
It's sad really that the writers of Indigo Prophecy couldn't tie up the
loose ends of the story without throwing them all out the window and
bringing in a completely new ball of yarn at the last possible moment.
They had the ingredients for something truly great, but unfortunately
they ultimately burn the cake.
Indigo Prophecy is a good game for the avid adventure/story heavy fans
or maybe as a nice gateway game for a non-video game playing adult, but
beyond those few I can't really recommend it to anyone. The gameplay
gets repetitive pretty quickly, the storyline is killed by it's own
ending, and the graphics are nothing to write home about. It has some
really great potential, and I'll be interested to see what Quantric
Dream does in the future (i.e. Heavy Rain), but next time they need to
come up with a satisfying and less hackneyed ending.
