Indigo Prophecy

[Novasonic of /flex]

So I may be a little late on this, considering the game came out a while ago, but I just recently acquired it and finished it about 10 minutes ago, and all I can say is wow.

The basic story of the game is the opening sequence is the main character, Lucas, sitting in a bathroom stall, carving symbols in his arm with a knife, then brutally murdering a man who came in to take a piss. After the murder, he wakes up and has no memory of killing the guy, nor why he did it. And that's where the game starts. It's VERY unique gameplay wise, being how involved and intricate it is. There are multiple actions and things to do in every part, every scenario, and each action you take has a direct impact on the game and the story. You have a mental health bar, that increases and decreases depending on your actions, and if it gets too low, your character gets very depressed, commits suicide, and game over. To give you an idea of how involved it is, one scene takes place in Lucas' apartment, he can't sleep, so you can wander around the apartment doing things, playing guitar, listening to music, etc. If you turn on the TV and see a news story about the murder, your mental health drops. If you drink alcohol, it gives you a boost at first, then drops your stats every time after that, and your vision blurs and you stagger around. If you take the medication at your bedside table after that, you die from mixing alcohol and prescription drugs. So like I said, it's pretty involved.

The other cool thing is, aside from playing as Lucas, you also play as the cops assigned to the murder case, each of whom have their own pretty interesting side and backstories. It also presents an interesting decision, because many times the cops will show up after Lucas has been somewhere or done something, for instance the bathroom where the murder was committed. You know where the murder weapon is hidden, you know what happened, and it's your decision whether you find it and catch Lucas as quick as possible, or you let it slide to give him time to get away and sort everything out. It's a VERY interesting concept, and it's executed pretty well.

You also have control of almost all the dialogue scenes in the game, you choose what to say in all conversations, and depending on what you ask/say, you may get certain scenarios, you may not. The game also changes dramatically every time you play it, depending on the things you do and say. Me and 2 of my friends played through this about the same time, and all 3 of us got different story branches and outcomes that the others had never seen, and the replayability is through the roof.

The one place the game is majorly lacking is in the control scheme, because to be honest, they're fucking horrid. All action scenes take place through a sort of Simon-esque system, where 2 circles with 4 directions come up, and you have to push the appropriate analog stick in the appropriate direction indicated, or alternate tapping between L1 and R1 anytime something physical comes up, which isn't too bad, and keeps up the feel of it being a movie of sorts. The actual character movement is fucking atrocious though, it likens back to early 3rd person games on PS1, like the tank controls from RE only worse, to be honest. However, it's easy enough to get around, and there's nothing really that dependant on controls that you could easily lose the game.

My only other complaint is that it gets a little out there storywise towards the end, and some of the action stuff starts to resemble the Matrix, but it's a petty complaint. It's out for PS2 and PC, and I definitely recommend finding a copy and checking it out. It's not the best game ever by any means, but the things they do and some of the gameplay innovations are really REALLY cool. The people who made this game are also making Heavy Rain, the game for PS3 with the amazing trailer of a casting call, and I can't wait to see that either. It seems like they've had this one game to get their feet wet, and as long as they can fix some control issues and a few other things, the next game is going to be amazing as well.

So yeah that turned out longer than I thought, but discuss, ask questions, anything. Just make sure you play this game.

[recessionatalus]

yeah, I thought the game started out absolutely amazing and just got retarded at the end

there are a lot of little things (for example, the ending you get is determined solely by the last conversation you have) that I found irritating and insane for no reason. The matrix ending is kind of bullshit, and I feel it made the game lose a lot of it's coolness by doing that.

if the entire game had been like the first half, though, it would've been amazing.

[sanagi]

agreed, the premise itself made me buy the game. the 24-esque(like the tv series) flow was a nice touch altho not original. some portions were interesting like the police sketch of the protagonist. but when the whole thing turned into some screwed up dragonball sequence i stopped playing and handed the controller to my cuz. it feels like it was trying to fit in into all kinds of genres, suspence, action, adventure, drama, romance and of course, MATRIX, dur. the latter half of the game was a letdown.

[Blacksgiving]

From the 15 minutes that I spent playing this game, I thought it was fucking tedious to do so much shit right at the start of the game. I had no idea what I was supposed to do, upon exiting the diner. I spent like 5 minutes running down all streets.

I'll give this game another shot.

THIS BETTER BE WORTH IT.

[cj iwakura]

Got this from Circuit City earlier today for $8.98.

I have high expectations, even though I heard it was edited for the US, which is all kinds of retarded.

If the game has an M rating, it should have everything in it the creators intended.

[Revolver Koala]

I wrote a couple paragraphs about the game last night, but it got lost in the electronic miasma between my computer and my ISP not fucking working at all last night, so I'll summarize my thoughts on the game:

-The story starts off very strong and then gets very retarded about halfway through.

-The gameplay is refreshing and not quite like anything else I've ever played.

-The game has some of the most annoying stealth sequences ever devised.

-The ending depends entirely on how you do in the last chapter.

I recommend it for a rental, or if you see it for under $20 it's a good buy. It fulfills its goal of being an interactive movie admirably, even if the plot goes retarded halfway through, and I had fun playing it through once or twice. It's the sort of game you don't see very often, and I wish people would make more games like this.