An "interactive movie" that nails the movie parts and mostly gets the game parts right too
Indigo Prophecy is a little oddball of a game. From developers Quantic Dream, the game is an "interactive movie" as Quantic Dream has labeled it. This is essentially a glorified way of saying it's an adventure game with an emphasis on the player's choices. The game puts an emphasis on making sure the player is invested in the happenings of the characters. This is apparent from as early as the tutorial where one of the developers flat-out tells you: as the character you control does something tiring, you're going to get tired with them. This usually means that whenever a character is doing something physically enduring, you the player are going to be frantically alternating pressing L and R until it feels like your index fingers are going to fall off. While this sounds conceptually like it would be infuriating, it surprisingly works quite well at making the player feel like they're part of the experience.
Like all adventure games though, immersion and interactivity are almost useless if the story isn't engaging. Fortunately, Indigo Prophecy grabs you in the first minute and keeps up until the very end. Indigo Prophecy tells the story of 3 main characters: Lucas, Carla and Tyler. Lucas one day feels possessed and kills a stranger and Carla and Tyler are the detectives investigating the murder. For a game so story-driven, I am extremely hesitant to give anything at all away, so I'll abstain from going more in depth about the plot, but know that it is full of twists and turns and is genuinely interesting.
What Indigo Prophecy particularly nails with its story is the mood and the characters. Every single character is likable and you grow to actually care for them. You control each of them at different parts of the game and get to really know them in these sections. Not all conflicts have to do with the murder or its investigation, but also with personal demons each character has and trying to stay relaxed while going further and further down the rabbit hole. I'm not joking about this either; there's a Mental Health Meter and when a character becomes too overwhelmed or depressed, it's game over. This can get challenging at times as the creepiness and supernatural elements of the plot are constantly there to stress out the characters.
The story isn't perfect, however. There are some questions that remain fuzzy in the end and needed a more clear explanation, but the ride to the very end is still extremely interesting. Also, Indigo Prophecy has one of the least believable love stories in video game history. This doesn't happen until the game almost ends, but when it happened I was just shocked at how unbelievable it was. The game would have benefited from not forcing in a sex scene, but I guess Quantic Dream thought breasts were more important than plot in at least one scene of the game.
Indigo Prophecy, like I already mentioned, is an "interactive movie." It really tries to sell itself as a movie. It has a scene selection option. The pause menu has options like "play" and "stop" and could easily be mistaken for a DVD menu. Indigo Prophecy definitely gets the "movie" aspect of "interactive movie" right. Thankfully, it also gets the "interactive" right too. All conversations with NPC's, for example, are timed. You have a few seconds to read and pick what you want to say to an NPC. This keeps the player engaged, but also makes the conversations more realistic by eliminating awkward pauses in conversation that would never happen in real life or in films.
There are action sequences in the game as well, which are definitely of note. All combat is done with the two analog sticks and the L and R buttons. Essentially, all action is scripted and end with an inevitable conclusion. There are a bunch of quick time events prompted on screen that need to be executed in order to reach the end of the scene. It's fun, and in a game like Indigo Prophecy where the emphasis is on the mystery, it works well as a combat system (if you can even call it that).
These sequences don't just happen when there's a big fight happening though. For example, one character has a dream involving supernatural being talking and you must execute QTE's throughout it. It doesn't quite make sense as to why you need to do this. It feels like Quantic Dream didn't want to go heavy on cut scenes so that they could keep the experience very interactive, but at times it would have been okay for the interactivity to have been cut back a smidgen.
So for the most part, Indigo Prophecy aces the movie portions of the game. When it tries its hand at being a pure video game, however, it stumbles. Making characters walk is can be unbearable at times and the camera is truly nightmarish. The couple of stealth segments of the game are almost unplayable due to the camera. It's unfortunate that these are the only action segments to not rely on QTE's.
Visually, Indigo Prophecy is good. The graphics are fairly average for an Xbox game, but the art style is quite nice. There is identity with every setting of the game and the atmospheres span from realistic to out of this world whenever necessary. The design of the game is very good.
In an audio sense, Indigo Prophecy is rather impressive. The voice acting ranges from excellent to average, but is usually good. In particular I was impressed with the voice actress who played Carla. The music is truly excellent. There are original pieces that set the tone wonderfully and there are also licensed pieces which play as they would in a film. For example, there's a basketball sequence set to funk. It doesn't feel hokey and works well in the game.
Overall, Indigo Prophecy works past its shortcomings to provide a great experience. The story will last only about eight hours, but it's so engaging and rewarding that it's worth playing. Interesting controls and a good amount of interactivity make Indigo Prophecy a must-play for fans of the genre and definitely make the game recommendable for all others who are looking for a good way to kill a weekend.