Indigo Prophecy Preview

Beware the Prophecy

Indigo Prophecy presents an occult-tinged mystery story wrapped up in adventure-game packaging.

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Indigo Prophecy stands out among a crowd of upcoming titles as both a welcome representative of the elusive adventure genre, and a unique example of a free-flowing cinematic experience that gives the player many ways to alter the story. After spending time with the PS2 version of the game, we continue to be entranced by the way events unfold, and the level of detail and thought that's gone into crafting the world, the tale, and how players get directly involved in it all. Indigo Prophecy definitely seems to be progressing nicely, and our hands-on time has shed some light on a few of the particulars of the game's mechanics.

The story of Indigo Prophecy centers first on a single man, Lucas Kane, who lives an ordinary life in the big city with little to set him apart from the crowd. That's until one fateful night at a diner, when Lucas enters a trance in the men's room and brutally stabs a fellow patron to death. He comes to his senses covered in blood, a dead body at his feet, a murder weapon in his hand, and no idea why any of it happened. You'll assume control of Lucas, and from that point onward you're immersed in the mystery of the strange killing. You'll get to see the story from many angles, as you'll play a variety of characters, including the tenacious police detective Carla Valenti, her easygoing partner, Tyler Miles, and Lucas' religious brother, Marcus. How you handle the characters and the choices they have to make as they go along will affect the overarching story, as well as how each scene plays out.

Stabbing a total stranger is a strong indication that you're having a pretty bad day.

The controls are pretty streamlined, with the left analog stick used for moving characters around, and the right analog stick used for interacting with objects. As you walk around and come close to objects you can manipulate, a small icon guide appears at the top of the screen, showing a picture of each option, as well as a direction to press. For example, in the initial restroom scene, you can walk up to a sink and press down on the right analog stick to make Lucas use it--which in turn causes him to rinse the blood off his hands and clothes to make himself more presentable and less homicidal-looking. Walking near the knife on the ground and pressing left will cause Lucas to pick it up and then look for a place to hide the weapon. There's no inventory system in the game, and no menus to page through. If you pick up a key to open a door, you'll simply use the key when you interact with the door. It's a refreshingly simple system, though things get a little more involved during action sequences.

When things get more heated and your character has to pull off some fancy moves, the controls change from a hands-on system to something the designers call the Physical Action Reaction (PAR) system. It's analogous to Shenmue's quick time events, where you'll have to press directions on the left and right analog sticks at the right times to successfully complete the event. A guide appears in the middle of the screen that flashes the necessary motions before you have to press them. They can move pretty fast, but there's a sort of automatic checkpoint feature that goes along with the story-based action bits, so if you flub up near the end, you won't have to replay the entire thing.

The control system in the game is quite streamlined. Look, ma, no menus!

PAR is also used for other events that aren't critical to your mission. We had Lucas pick up his guitar and strum a few tunes in his apartment. Mangling the strings didn't have any adverse effect, but plucking out a nice song improved his mood. During an autopsy scene with Carla, the doctor would explain the wounds, and pulling off the PAR event successfully let Carla infer things about the crime using the information she'd just heard. The two shoulder buttons are also used for certain areas where you'll have to alternately mash them to accomplish some sort of physical feat, like struggling out of the arms of a would-be assailant.