.jpg)
Indigo Prophecy literally starts with you seeing someone get murdered. And after watching it in the most dramatic way possible, BAM you're in control of the killer. This man is Lucas Kane, who on this cold January night in the toilet of an East End restaurant, is possessed by something and kills a complete stranger. Knowing that story won't fly with the cop that just so happens to be in the restaurant, Lucas tries to hide the evidence and inconspicuously leave the restaurant. Or you can just run out without even paying. That's an option. Immediately, two detectives, that is Carla and Tyler, show up on the scene to investigate the murder that you just witnessed and helped hide. From there on out, the story splits between characters, with Carla and Tyler trying to find the murderer and occasionally messing about, and Lucas just trying to figure out what happened to him on that cold January night in the toilet of an East End restaurant. Of course, it doesn't take long for Indigo Prophecy to take a nose-dive into the weird stuff, which could be a plus or a negative.
Okay now the strange part: the gameplay. You'll be doing various things in Indigo Prophecy, so let's start small. For most of the game, you'll be moving with the left analog stick and performing actions shown at the top of the screen with the right analog stick, because David Cage is crazy like that. See the image above? That's a conversation, with the stuff on the top being what you're able to ask about by pressing the analog stick in that direction. You're under a time limit by the way. Indigo Prophecy also likes to see how you work under pressure, because most of what happens in Indigo Prophecy is time based, which leads to one of it's many game overs in the event of failure.
The mention of game overs allows me to segway into the "Mental Health" meter. Everything you say or do in this story will impact this meter positively or negatively. This representing a characters mental state, it's best to keep this as high as you can, though due to the theme of this game, that can be hard to do at times as most events in this game will lower the meter. There are optional events that can raise the meter, but there are also optional events that can lower it, so you have to watch what will do what to your sanity. Failure to keep the meter at comfortable levels and letting it go empty will result in a game over, so it's important to manage it at all times, as the number will remain the same between scenarios.
But that's not the bulk of the gameplay. That would be these bloody things. You can talk your way out of problems and you can run, but sometimes, you...have to run in style. Doing that would be done in action sequences, where Lucas taps into his inner matrix and the game goes full cinematic, while you're stuck playing Simon without the memorization. The left and right diagrams are controlled with the left and right analog sticks respectively, and you have to press in whatever direction is blinks in order to stay alive. And you'd better get good at these things because when Indigo Prophecy gets weird, it gets littered with these things. And some of these get really REALLY long. If you fail to play Simon, you'll lose a life, and I'll assume you know what happens when you lose them all. And when you restart, you only have one life to lose. It is possible to gain lives by snooping around, but those are AFTER the action, so you'll have to get good at these sequences unless you want to be stuck on these for a really long time.
Other action sequences are done with these meters, which either require you to press the left and right trigger to keep a bar even, or filling up the meter by pressing the triggers. I bring brief mention to this, because I seem to be the only one who has problems with these ones. I can't be the only one right? i myself have to problem with the Simon buttons, but these ones always give me a hard time. I think it might be because I'm playing on the Xbox, but it's always uncomfortable playing these sequences, and though there aren't as many as the Simon buttons, there's enough for me to bring mention.
Presentation wise...eh. Though the use of multiple views at once is cool and very cinematic, it sometimes makes it hard to keep track of what's going on. The action sequences are animated very well, but some of these models just don't look very good, even for 2005. The soundtrack doesn't really do a whole lot for me outside of the game. Using songs from groups like Theory of a Deadman and various others is good while playing the game, but nothing really sticks, which I guess shouldn't be what this game goes for, but still kind of bothers me. Plus most of the music is copyright, so watch out if you make a YouTube video of this game (though given how the ID system on that site is, you'll get flagged anyway). The voice acting is actually pretty good though. David Gasman does a great job as Lucas Kane, and the others all fit their rolls quite well, which for a story driven game, should be the case.
Indigo Prophecy is a strange case. A cinematic story that's strange with meh graphics and good sound, that tells itself with gameplay that keeps you on your toes in multiple ways that's stringed together with action sequences that have you be good at them or die trying again and again and again. I'll be honest. Indigo Prophecy is a game that considers itself to be a movie, and I feel like it would be better off if it was. It tells a good story and has very interesting ideas for it's gameplay, but Indigo Prophecy stumbles at the execution. Of course, should you be brave enough to face Indigo Prophecy, it's very cheap and available on Xbox Live, PS2 and PC, so you should be able to get your hands on it if you wish to solve the mystery of the prophecy.
The Silent Protagonist will never find out what happened to him that cold January night in the toilet of an East End restaurant...
All images are the properties of their original owners. Look at those models man.
No comments:
Post a Comment