Customer Reviews

Indigo Prophecy

5 star:		(34)
4 star:		(14)
3 star:		(9)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Note: I own the Xbox version of this game. From the PC demo I've played the PC version doesn't have the aliasing problems as the Xbox and the game has a much better resolution. Other than that, the review below should be accurate.

There have been games throughout the years that have truly done something original, different and completely engaging. It always seems to be that these games fall by the wayside in terms of popularity which is a shame. Indigo Prophecy falls into this category as an original game with a fantastic premise and incredibly exciting gameplay.

Never before have I played a game that was so interactive in its story-telling. When trying to describe this game, I would point to God of War, a PS2 game in which there were scenes where you have timed button presses that would move forward a cutscene. It helped bring you into the story, the cutscenes so that it was you that were doing all of the cool acrobatic manuevers killing the hydra. Another game that used this to a lesser effect was Resident Evil 4, for example with the knife fight that you had to push buttons to keep Leon safe. Indigo Prophecy takes this idea and pushes it to the extreme.

IP is basically and incredibly interactive movie. It mixes the adventure genre, which is seldom seen on console, and movies and melds them into a cohesive and incredibly engaging story. It starts off with a bang as you immediately find yourself killing someone you don't know in a diner. You feel like you're not in control of your actions and as a result you have a body in a restroom and a policeman drinking coffee in the restaurant. What do you do? You're free to act from here on out. Do you leave the body and rush out? Do you hide the body? What about the blood? What about the blood on you? What about the knife? When you leave do you pay your bill? You can take care of all or none of the options above. And the story will be different, sometimes marginally sometimes drastically. Oh, and by the way, that cop sitting outside needs to use the restroom and soon the screen will split and you better be out of there before he makes it to the restroom.

This opening sequence exemplifies everything this game is about. Choices, story and gameplay all merged into one. But innovation doesn't end there. As soon as Lucas (the murdering protagonist) is free of the diner, you take control of two police detectives who investigate the scene. You can switch between the two on the fly and you have to find clues, make theories and basically do everything in your power to catch Lucas. Its this give and take gameplay, where you have to play one side against the other, that truly gives the game a sense of urgency and excitement.

Going back to the God of War example, when you have cutscenes in this game, you better not put your controller down. Gameplay pushes forward the story-centered bits as well. Whether its doing a simon says type control scheme to manuever your character past cars that are hurtling toward him, alternating between the L and R trigger as fast as you can to save someone who's drowning or using the R stick to make dialogue choices on the fly (you're timed) to hear all you can, the game makes sure to bring you into the story. Its very effective and really ratchets up the tension.

If there is one sore spot in the game its the graphics. While not bad, exactly, they don't necessarily push the Xbox in the way that this last year of Xbox life should. It looks like a first or possibly second generation Xbox game. Artistically the game is good. The characters in the cutscenes move really well and realistically. And there is never a moment of lag or skipping seen in a lot of games today. The character's faces have some nice emotion to them and the graphics aren't stellar, like I said, but they do a decent job. There's a ton of aliasing, however, which is sad.

Another sore spot is the controls. When you are in direct control of your character (i.e. actually moving them as opposed to having control of the cutscenes via button pressing) the game is pretty loose. It reminds me of playing the old Resident Evil games. You have the cinematic camera which causes some confusion as to which direction you should push your character. As a result, you will do a lot of figure 8s in the game which can cause a lot of problems when you have to hide the evidence because a cop is at your door and the timer is going down. Character animation while moving is also very stiff and a big difference from the cut scene animation.

The audio is terrific, however. While the box says the game does not run in 5.1 in game, I think it lies. My receiver lights up whenever 5.1 is being used and its always lit with this game. And it sounds like 5.1 is being used. The voice acting is absolutely wonderful and professional. Each voice matches the character and it helps enhance this feeling of playing a murder mystery movie. With voice acting becoming so important in games today, this is most welcome and really helps sell the game. Musically, the game also excels by using the very talented Angelo Badalamenti to score it. That name might not mean much on the outset but he has created scores to many Hollywood movies including most by David Lynch (Lost Highway, Mulholland Dr., Twin Peaks) but also Dark Water, Arlington Road, etc. The score is absolutely beautiful and moving; it really fits in with what is happening on screen.

What this game does best is meld the story-telling of a movie with the gameplay of video games. It exposes the limitations of both and yet uses the best of both to create an engaging, moving and very interactive story. For me, this game is a perfect building block for video games. I can overlook most of its flaws because it is so different, so exciting and so damn cool. It warrants a 5 star review simply because of what it did. I would most heartedly recommend this game to those who love a good story, like action adventure games and want to be impressed with what video games and movies can accomplish together.

This is by far one of the most engrossing, impressive games I've played and was well worth buying a game controller for. (Now that I've got one, I'll never go back to gaming with my mouse and keyboard again!)

Unlike many point-and-click adventures, there is very little boring lag time on this one: the developers chose, instead, to keep players engaged by making the "story development" episodes interactive.

Meanwhile, the player is presented with many action and conversation choices throughout the game, and each choice can lead the storyline in a wholly new direction.

In other words, playing the game once does not mean you've seen or done it all. Thank goodness for that, too, because I finished the game on Saturday (or so I'd thought) but didn't have another waiting to be played. Rather than cleaning house, I decided to play Indigo Prophecy over again... only to find that just TWO different choices in the opening chapter changed my entire game play experience.

Why can't more games be so well-planned, interactive, and wonderfully designed?

First off, let me say that I was very torn with giving this game a 5-star rating. What for the most part is an intriguing fast-paced adventure game would at times get bogged down by temperamental controls, ultimately reducing the gameplay to a series of frustrating repetative motions just to complete the most mundane of tasks. At times I really had to restrain myself from smashing my gamepad to pieces (while swearing that I would rate this a 2-star game!), but once the story begins to move along again, the frustration is quickly forgotten. Indigo Prophecy is one hell of a game.

This is an amazingly well presented game with an engrossing and compelling story. The atmosphere is dark and moody, and is accented by a perfect music score that seems to be lifted straight out of your favorite David Lynch thriller. The graphics, while not cutting edge, are up to par and do not detract from the experience. The voice acting is by far the best I've heard in a game.

The main aspect of this game that will turn off many gamers is the control scheme. This is a console game ported to the PC, and the controls were designed as such. This game is virtually impossible if you do not purchase a dual analog gamepad. The players interactions with the game involve pressing the analog sticks in a series of motions displayed on the screen (think of the old simon game) while your character reacts in the game when sequences are pulled off correctly. The more frustrating parts of the game involve climbing fences and poles, which requires a series of repeated (and timed) quarter-circle motions. I've been playing video games for most of my life (and have pulled off dragon punches in Street Fighter 2 using only my feet on the controller!), but let me tell you, the climbing motion is VERY HARD TO PULL OFF correctly. Since its timed you have very little margin for error, and many times you'll pull off 10 climbs on a pole only to fall off on attempt number 11 and have to do it all over again. At times like these the gameplay is reduced to spending a half an hour (or more) just to get over a fence. It really can kill the experience.

Luckily these sequences are not very abundant in the game, and if you can get past it, what's left is a great unique experience that isn't very common in the gaming world today. For those adventure gamers with good coordination, a gamepad, and some patience at times, this is a great buy.

The multiple perspectives, chilling atmosphere, and killer graphics will keep you intrigued for the first few hours of play. However, the action sequences are mind-numbing. You have to play a sort of Simon routine by pressing buttons in the order that they are flashed on the screen. The button presses come fast--so much so that you miss the action while paying attention to the buttons. The worst part is what other players describe as "button-mashing sequences". In these you have to press the arrow keys repeatedly to motivate your character to run fast, hold on to a ledge, or some other "feat of strength". No matter how fast you mash the buttons, it never seems fast enough and your character falls repeatedly to his death (or drowns, or gets run over, or...). An action sequence that seemed fun at first quickly gets HELLA BORING. I played on the easiest level and eventually gave up during one of the final battles. I didn't care about the ending enough to invest another hour in watching my character mangle himself and then indulge in a self-pitying death monologue: "I guess I didn't have what it took to save the girl. Now I'll never know what was really going on. If only my human controller had drunk six more cups of coffee to mash those buttons just a little faster..." Blech. Game Over.

OK, this is obviously bucking the trend of the other reviews, but I have to say I'm really disappointed in Indigo Prophecy. (Note: I'm talking specifically about the PC game - console gamers will probably love it.)

The pre-release hype about this game really pushed the idea that this was an ADVENTURE GAME. Guess what - it's not. It is also not really a PC game - it's a port from a console. Translation: Action sequences. Mindless, twitchy action sequences. And the requirement that you have the reflexes of a bat to proceed through the game.

If, like me, you're a die-hard adventure gamer, a la the old King's Quest series, Gabriel Knight, The Longest Journey, Return to Mysterious Island, and even the simplistic-but-beautiful Syberia, Indigo Prophecy will be a great disappointment. Story seems ok, music is decent, graphics are adequate (but no more than that). But the puzzles are all "how fast can you twitch your fingers" type.

Don't make the mistake I did - spend your $40 elsewhere!!

Indigo Prophecy is a movie, as much as it's a game.

That's what I heard, when I first read about Indigo Prophecy. In truth, that sort of put me off. When I game, want to play a game, not watch a game. I expected endless cutscenes, with the character really only filling in the blanks.

That's really not the case. There are short cutscenes, usually as an introduction to the action of the scene, but the story really does unfold through the character's actions more than anything else.

The story and world are dark, emotive, and mesmerizing. The score, camerawork, and sets really work together to pull you in and make you put yourself in the place of the characters. Just watching the opening credits, I get that same rush of anticipation that I get watching the credits of a movie for which I've been waiting a long time.

All in all, it's a great, fun experience. The action parts of the game are definitely about reaction and reflex, but many can be 'failed' while only slightly affecting the storyline. And if it really is too fast for you, there's a difficulty setting to make thet timing more lenient.

As someone who's played a lot of games over the years, I really recommend this game. It's a new experience. To non-gamers, I also really recommend the game - it's one of the few that my wife enjoys to play with me. I'm really looking forward to playing through it again, to see what I can do differently.

Indigo Prophecy promised innovative game play and story line. I was feeling like there was nothing new under the sun and waiting for sequels of beloved games to come out, so I purchased Indigo Prophecy. I read reviews suggesting that the controls were clumsy, but figured I could simply remap them on my keyboard. Boy, was I wrong. Not only are the controls impossible to remap, the movements required to play the game made me wonder if I was going to destroy my keyboard and mouse. One of the control sequences requires you to furiously tap the left and right arrow keys repeatedly. I mean FURIOUSLY. The only way to move that fast is to move HARD - hence the worry about damaging my keyboard. Another control sequence requires you to move the mouse in awkward and precise archs to climb. I found it impossible. I am not fine motor challenged, but I spent one hour a day for three days attempting to make the perfect shapes required with my mouse and failing. Without a save game option, I was forced to start from the bottom again and again. I had to just quit playing the game altogether for my own sanity and pc equipment. I love a challenging game, but this one doesn't even go beyond those insane controls. It depends way too much on a impossibly perfect interface between your hands, the pc keyboard, and the mouse. And on you furiously tap and potentially damage your keyboard. Or you try, while clenching your jaw, to make perfect arches with flat bottoms within the two second time limit without running out of mouse pad space. I fell off the fence again! I swear, I made the weird arch perfectly that time! Aaaaaacccckkkk!

so i bought this game expecting good things. unfortunately, it's quite overrated.. there are a lot of good things going for this game. there's an original idea, amazing graphics, and a cool story line (i guess, if you can stand playing it long enough to get to it). the problem with this game is the control and THE CAMERA!!!! the camera view is TERRIBLE, probably the worst i've ever seen in a game. people are complaining about tomb raider legend's camera view, well this one is a million times worse. it's obvious this camera should have been done in a way where you see the character over his or her shoulder and it moves in the direction you move. instead, the camera's moving all over the place. it makes it extremely frustrating to find your way around - even if you're just looking for a door in your own apartment! the sprint key is useless, too. if you try to sprint to get somewhere faster, your character just runs into something quickly. why? because you can't move your character while he's sprinting - he just sprints in a straight line. that's bad control. the other problem with this game is the "mini-games." you don't experience these in the demo, but in the full game, your every important action depends not on FPS-like moves, but on silly little mini-games that are exactly the same as a "simon says" game. so almost this WHOLE GAME'S GAMEPLAY depends on simon says? that's what i'm telling you, believe it or not. and the other part of the gameplay depends on that crappy camera. sound dumb? well, IT IS.

the problem with this game is it's a great game in theory.. and it could have been a great game in execution, but i guess the guy who made this game never really PLAYED many games. he's got a lot of cool ideas, no doubt about that. but when all your actions depend on "simon says," well it doesn't really get you into the action. instead of the success of "simon says" determining whether you beat off a bunch of spiders, why not let me actually beat off the spiders?? also, while the ideas here are original, most of the execution of the game is stolen from other games. the sims 2, grand theft auto san andreas, and metal gear solid, to be exact. at this point in the game i'm trying to navigate someone through a military base.. how is this done? exactly like i'm playing metal gear solid, except with the horrible camera control where i can't tell where i'm going or what's in front of me. fun? i think not. frustrating? very. you could just trudge through the game saying "ok, the story will kick in and things will be cool once i get past this dumb part," but these dumb parts are just too much of the game (at least the part before i gave up!) i'm not even a big adventure game fan, but i believe games can be good in any genre. however, you need to do something well. if you're going to make a good adventure game, don't throw in a bunch of crappy mini-games that ruin things. in fact i'd prefer if there were no action parts AT ALL if they're done this poorly. the glowing reviews of this game are given just for the story, graphics and immersion factor.

on the positive side, i did enjoy the execution of actual choices in an adventure game. you get some control over how the story turns out, and supposedly you can go back and play the game a different way and it will end differently. now that's the kind of original thinking that PC games need. also instead of choosing from a stock list of questions, the questions you ask actually change the course of things a bit. (although i didn't like the time limit on quickly choosing which question to ask based on a vague keyword - perhaps full sentences or removing the time limit would have been better). i also like how you get to play different characters on different sides of the same story. now that is some cool original stuff.

also a scene at the beginning where you have to clean yourself up and get dressed quickly was fun. although the camera made it hard and i had to try about 3 times to get everything done right, it was pretty fun. this game should have stuck with its strong points. there are many games that are very "limited" but stick with their strong points and succeed greatly.

and one more thing i forgot to throw in.. this game uses the ARROW keys. are you kidding me? how am i supposed to use the arrow keys and mouse at the same time? it's clumsy. i had to reassign the keys to the typical WASD thing that every game uses now. it's just another small sign of this game being more of a CONCEPT than a full-fleshed game. it IS, however, creative, at times very immersive (involving) and possibly a good sign of things to come from the creator, or other game creators in the near future.

I have been playing games on computers and consoles since the NES was first released on the market in the US. I have played a lot of first person shooters and I still do.

I have been very bored with video games the past few years; Halo, huge disappointment most likely the most boring game I have ever played.. Half life 2 had some interesting parts to it and in the end I admitted I had some fun.. Doom 3, looked damn good but ultimately boring in the end. That kind of trend goes for most games I have played over the last 6-7 years, that is until a friend introduced me to Indigo Prophecy on her PS2. The controls are a little weird at first and the graphics are decent for what they are designed to do, but I like game play, storyline and over all enjoyment over graphics any day of the week.

When I first started playing Indigo Prophecy with my friend I got really in to it after the first few minutes. After that first night of playing the game I went to Amazon and bought it for the PC. I have no idea how far through the game I am currently but I have enjoyed it so much it does not really matter. The storyline is well done so far, I can actually feel for the characters for the first time in a very long time which is another huge bonus to me. The game has it's limits just as any game does, but in terms of this game I find the limits to be unnoticeable.

All in all I have enjoyed this game more in the last few days than I have all the games in the last 5 years combined. Maybe that is because I am burned out on all of those types of games, but this is one that got me on the first try. I highly suggest it to anybody who is looking for a good game and is tired of the normal "I kill you" junk.

The writer/director David Cage put a lot of work and love into this production. He put too much in.

The controls get out of control. The bouncing ball at the top of the screen for dialogue and/or physical actions to be performed are executed by the mapped camera controls. Step out or too close of the area (that executes the bouncing ball) and instead of going through a door (for example) you are looking at a ceiling while stumbling over a policeman.

The player controls many characters in the game...but not really. Each character has a preset limit of actions and dialogue. If you don't choose a character's actions in a certain sequence, no matter how inane or unrelated to the story, you will be thwarted from your goal of what you want that character to accomplish.

The biggest frustration is having choices to be read and chosen before the timer runs out. I get flustered, and move the stick in the wrong direction for the choice I want to make...every time.

For dyslexic, near sighted players, such as myself, all the above overshadows the sophisticated beauty and story of the game everytime the game has to be saved. As far as I can tell, its AutoSave and Autoload or nothing...which is very annoying. I've started over so many times, I've given up.

This game would be so much better if one character's actions determined the reactions of the other characters. Choosing who you wanted to play (as) would turn 'Indigo' into four different games (to play), instead of playing four different games at once.

Its been long over due for an intelligent, sophisticated PC action-adventure game to be produced for adult PC gamers. 'Indigo' almost exceeded the requirements (that such a game would demand). The chilling musical score and eerie, very original storyline along with the gritty "set decor" almost made this game a breakthrough genre all unto itself. I've never seen anything like it. But because of the controls and the player put in the position of being a "blinded" writer of the game...its just another game.

I hope David Cage doesn't give up. I hope the game companies don't give up on him either. He's very talented and very bright. He just needs a better editor.

marf