Indigo Prophecy

Indigo Prophecy is a game that is very original in it’s own right. It’s a game that will continue to draw you into its fantastic story right until the very end and leave you feeling completely satisfied. Based upon the less popular genre of today’s gaming world, Prophecy takes the adventure style of gameplay and makes it its own, implementing other little touches along the way.
It is important to note that the game has two different titles depending on where you are. In the the game is called ‘Indigo Prophecy’ and in the , it is oddly titled ‘Fahrenheit’. It’s unclear as to why the name was changed when it was ported to and seems pointless. Throughout this review however, I will refer to Indigo Prophecy as the title mainly because it is the best suited name for the game even though the game I’m basing this review on is Fahrenheit. Bear in mind however that both games are near enough the exact same with the exception of a few scenes being cut from the version.

1. STORY


You firstly play as Lucas Kane, a seemingly ‘average’ man living his normally boring life as an IT specialist in . The game begins with Lucas telling you of how his world was to turn upside down during one cold night inside an all night café. Soon enough you find Lucas inside a bathroom stall cutting symbols into his forearms and then proceeding to murder an innocent man inside the bathroom. And so it begins. After all this suddenly unravels, you then take on the roll of the games 3 main characters; Lucas, Carla & Tyler. Lucas; the average guy who has seemingly went mad and committed murder as he searches for the reason why and how he could have killed another man whilst avoiding the law. Carla Valenti; a single woman detective hired to solve the case of the café murder. Helping her do so is Tyler Miles; A middle aged male detective with a girlfriend of 2 years assigned to solve the case with Carla.

It’s worth noting also that due to the game’s gameplay involvement with the story, playing through it more than once will actually produce quite different results in terms of plot. Most importantly there is a range of 3 different endings of which you can unlock depending on how well you play through the game’s chapters. Luckily enough you are able to replay any chapters that you have already played through in order for you to make sure you haven’t missed out on any alternate story developments. The only problem with the game’s plot is that sometimes, some elements will go unexplained and pretty much left up to your imagination to deal with. A lot of logic is thrown out the window entirely and really relies on you sitting back and simply enjoying the tale with no strings involved.

All in all, Indigo Prophecy’s story and plot is stuffed with enough emotion, involvement, mystery and excitement to keep you satisfied for many hours. It’s this element that will most likely make you unable to stop playing and see you re-playing once you’ve finally gotten through it all. The writing and direction of the whole story is fantastic and is certainly a highlight of Indigo’s experience.

Story Rating: 10/10



2. GAMEPLAY & CONTROL


The controls within the game are very basic. During the adventure sequences when you are walking around looking for clues and such, you will only be using a couple of buttons to run occasionally and analogue sticks to move around and interact with objects. It is within the movement that some annoyance may occur. Due to the awkward camera movement whilst looking around, moving your character will prove sometimes hazardous due to perception you have suddenly changing. During the game’s excellent action sequences you will be required to make movements of the analogue sticks in time with the corresponding lights on the screen. Yes, pretty much like every dance game out there but I’d certainly say that it works a lot better for Indigo Prophecy.

Depending on how well you do during the action sequences, certain parts of the action will change. For example, trying to avoid the chair flying towards you will most likely prompt you to push both analogue sticks upwards to jump over the object. Fail to do so however and you will take a hit and lose one of your limited ‘lives’ or lifelines. Lose all your lifelines and its game over, this probably won’t happen that often however which will most likely be a good thing.

Another part of these sequences is the typical battering of the Left and Right trigger buttons consecutively in order to break free from grasps or grip onto a ledge or something along those lines. An altogether simple process but can get tiring on longer periods of continuously doing it. Infact some of the action sequences -although not the majority of them- will more than likely tire you very efficiently and realistically creating a very good experience that feels like your truly doing all you can to survive. Not only do you play the analogue reaction gameplay during action sequences but you will have to do them throughout other scenes such as interrogations of raids by the police. Failing to do it properly will raise the ‘suspicion’ meter and you will be arrested leaving the game to an early end. It is also worth noting that for PC gamers, it may be handy to use a dual-analogue controller add on for your computer as compared to using the keyboard as doing so doesn’t really do the game much justice.

Also implementing this great gameplay style is Indigo’s various mini games scattered throughout the story of which you can unlock with bonus points you pick up around New York in the form of small revolving playing cards. Such mini games involve you playing guitar, basketball and dancing. All of these games are highly enjoyable and add even more reason to go back play previous chapters of the story again.

Whilst playing through Indigo Prophecy, you will also have to look after your specific characters, making sure that they stay happy and don’t end up killing themselves in despair. This is a nice feature that helps add a little more realism to the characters and how you make decisions, however it isn’t that necessary and doesn’t change that much. One final thing I will mention about the game’s gameplay is the ‘decision’ mode of which you will be given a certain period of time (around 5 seconds) to decide on what you want to ask or say to another character. This can sometimes prove intimidating and lead you to making gut reaction decisions but is ultimately not that important and dependant on anything remotely significant. So the gameplay and controls and very simple and basic and don’t prove any challenge for the user at all in most cases with the exception of the odd tiring action sequence. Very solid but with nothing spectacularly new for it’s genre.

Gameplay & Control Rating: 8/10



3. GRAPHICS


The visual style presented within Indigo Prophecy is nothing spectacular and yet has nothing noticeably bad about them either. All the animations are fully motion captured and on more than a few occasions characters facial expressions seem a little overused and inappropriate at certain moments. Other moments however, such as the action scenes look particularly amazing, realistic and very well constructed. Character models generally look very generic with the odd exception with a couple of the main characters. Some on the other hand, oddly placed in with the particularly impressive environments. So you might think that at times you may feel like you’re playing a different game, but that generally doesn’t happen, thanks to the atmosphere created by the fairly detailed environments of which you explore.

There are points throughout the game’s story that the screen will be split into two or more camera angles of which will be split onto the screen to show you different perceptions of characters and views of the action around you. This is greatly effective and creates a very atmospheric cinematic feel that really brings the games visual style score up. In terms of platforms, the PC and Xbox versions are the most favourable showing clear signs of a much smoother frame rate. The Playstation 2 version although featuring equal graphical performance, slows down during specific scenes.

Graphics Rating: 7/10



4. SOUND


Indigo Prophecy’s sound is another highlight of the adventure, making the experience just that bit more enjoyable. The actors who play the parts of all the characters do so brilliantly and add their own style to the game’s story. The acting is of great quality and feels just like a cult classic movie, with very few exceptions. The soundtrack itself is something that adds a great deal to the game and every song is fantastic and matches the scenes of which you’re in almost every time. The songs range from alternate rock and highly enjoyable grooves of funk and disco to scores written by Angelo Badalamenti which all help to add to the atmosphere of the environment around you. Sound overall is brilliant and is a fantastic addition to the multimedia side of the game.

Sound Rating: 9/10



5. LIFELINE


So with all the great gameplay, graphics, sound and story does it last and offer replay value? Yes and no. Upon completion of the game you will more than likely have all bonus points you need to purchase all the game’s extra features and look through them in a small half an hour or so. On top of this, there is the fact that you can go back to specific chapters and play them again differently to see how it affects the ongoing story. This does add a few more hours of gameplay to the game’s short-lived 6-7 hour first-play life but ultimately doesn’t last very long. Only serious enthusiasts of the game will probably play the game through a full time again and maybe more than twice so as a result Indigo Prophecy’s lifeline falls relatively short.

Lifeline Rating: 6/10



6. DIFFICULTY BALANCE


Indigo Prophecy’s difficulty doesn’t really test the average gamer that much other than that it will sometimes demand a lot of button mashing at times which can break a sweat more than once. The learning curve is around 20 minutes and thankfully, the tutorial supplied before the main story covers a lot of the games basics efficiently. The difficulty when on the default setting won’t really push you much and shouldn’t cause that much of a problem. Following that initial curve, the difficulty level itself doesn’t really increase that much although it does pick up the pace at certain moments. Therefore the balance within the game is just a little off and doesn’t prove to be that much of a ‘true’ gaming experience in that you will have to keep at a certain level for at least a few tries. By doing this however, Indigo offers a totally enjoyable experience in that it never gets incredibly annoying due to terribly overdone difficulty.

Difficulty Balance Score: 8/10



7. ORIGINALITY


Although not entirely an original game, Indigo Prophecy has its own little features that make it unique in its own way. For a start, the story as mentioned above is in a unique group of games in terms of development and story involvement. The entire theme of film-noir and darkness of the game almost makes it a game of its own genre if it weren’t from the fundamental gameplay. Another part of the game that strikes a sense of originality is the gameplay element in which you press the analogue sticks in the direction that is required to create a string of action orientated movements of which alter the story in varying degrees of ways. What Indigo Prophecy does not do however is add anything to the adventure game genre and doesn’t particularly do itself any justice when it comes down to the game’s main gameplay element. Don't let this put you off though!

Originality Score: 8/10



8. ENJOYMENT


Indigo Prophecy is a game that you will most certainly enjoy throughout and never seems to get dull or repetitive. Although the gameplay is limited and only lasts a short while, the story will always have you going further wanting to delve further into the plotline. The action sequences seem almost perfectly balanced with the story and adventure elements which never get too challenging themselves. The level of difficulty isn’t too much of a problem however and doesn’t take that much away from the overall enjoyment taken from going through this title in around 7 hours.

Enjoyment Score: 10/10



OVERVIEW


Story: 10
Gameplay: 8
Graphics: 7
Sound: 9
Lifeline: 6
Balance: 8
Originality: 8
Enjoyment: 10

FINAL SCORE: 8.3/10



SUMMARY


Although Indigo Prophecy isn’t exactly groundbreaking stuff in terms of graphics and gameplay, what it does have is something special and unique in its own manner. Featuring a story that feels like it’s been lifted straight from a movie script and placed completely in your control. Characters will undoubtedly stick with you for a long time and as will the detail that went into the story and development of its characters and plot. Action isn’t exactly sparse and the sequences that you will find yourself in are will sometimes leave you very impressed. The only problem with the game is that it doesn’t offer that much lifeline and replay appeal. Some people however will find going through he game a pleasure due to its rich and compelling story and style. So a good idea would be to rent the game if you still aren’t sure but be warned, after playing through Indigo Prophecy you may find yourself wanting to add this to your collection to play years down the line to enjoy once more, just like an old movie.