Indigo Prophecy has a unique and mysterious storyline, as well as some exciting and often intense gameplay.
One of Indigo Prophecy's strongest qualities lies within its storyline. Throughout the game, you follow the paths of three different characters. Lucas Kane is a tormented man who is trying to figure out what exactly is happening to him. Carla Valenti is a very serious detective, and then there is her partner Tyler, a more laid-back kind of guy. Players will begin to see the story unfold through each of these characters as they start to piece together evidence.
Immediately following the first cutscene, you are faced with many choices. What you have to do is think as if you had actually just committed a murder. What would you do first? Hide the weapon, clean up the blood? You really have to pay attention to details in this game as well. For example, you might have cleaned up all of the evidence in the restaurant bathroom, but then you might forget one crucial detail. Let's say you calmly walk out of the restaurant after leaving the bathroom, in order not to raise suspicion. As you open the door and the cold winter air hits your face, the restaurant owner yells for you to come back in. You think you've been caught, but it turns out you simply just forgot to pay your dinner tab. But as a result, the police officer drinking coffee at the table notices you: your face, and your voice are now familiar to him. And when he finds the body, he'll have a face to go with the crime. There are some very complex details that you really have to think about in this game.
Another interesting aspect of the gameplay is the sanity meter, which is always visible in the bottom corner of your screen. Almost every action you perform has some effect on your character's sanity. You can make your character feel better simply by going to the bathroom, or maybe stopping to take a drink of water. Your character can also lean toward a broken state of mind if their feelings are hurt by other characters, or if something traumatic occurs. If you don't control your sanity and keep your character as healthy as possible at all times, you might seem more suspicious to other characters, which may result in a slight change in the storyline.
The majority of Indigo Prophecy's gameplay deals with puzzle solving, and stealth. There are also a few side missions, as well as a mini game where you try to remember something from your past. Most of the puzzle solving is really well-done, and some of them will take a while to figure out. There were some puzzles that were a bit obvious, but for the most part, you feel like a real detective. In one of Carla Valenti's storylines, one of her main clues is a ripped piece of paper from an unidentified bank. You have no idea if it is connected to Lucas Kane. A knock is heard at the door, and her next door neighbor visits her, has some wine, and then leaves. He is a seemingly random character, until you find out that he works for a bank, and can identify the paper you have. Some of the side missions include dancing, playing the guitar, boxing, basketball, fights, and flashbacks. Each of these tasks are performed by pressing a sequence of buttons on the left and right thumbsticks. It sounds easy enough, but in more frantic moments, there are several fast buttons combos to press. Missing a combo will result in a failure to do a certain action, such as dodging a couch that has been flung at you by an evil force. If you miss a combo in a flashback, you will not remember as much. Some of the other mini-games may seem completely random and useless (some of them probably are), but Indigo Prophecy tries to depict the everyday events of life, which can sometimes be seemingly useless.
As far as graphics, Indigo Prophecy is mixed. While the character models look great, some of the environments often look bland. You can call it an attempt to depict Lucas Kane's feelings, but I call it lack of detail. For the most part, the graphics aren't one of this game's problems. Most of the levels are indoors, and building interiors are usually fairly detailed due to all of the interactive objects. This game also has very good sound, and you'll often hear eerie or frantic music that complements the gameplay very well. The voice acting is very well done, aside from some of the minor characters whose voice actors weren't nearly as professional.
One of Indigo Prophecy's main weaknesses is its lack of changes in the story. Although the storyline is really awesome, the same things will happen even when playing the game over again with a different mindset. The first time I played the game through, I did everything in Lucas Kane's favor. I always tried to hide all of the evidence that would lead to his arrest. In the second time through, I did many things differently, and still ended up with basically the same storyline and ending. It would have been nice to see some different occurrences when performing different actions in the game.
In the end, Indigo Prophecy is a great game with a very interesting storyline. It is almost like watching a mystery movie, but instead, you control the outcome and the fate of each character. There are plenty of decisions to make in this game, and it is really cool to watch the core events of the story unfold before your eyes. I strongly believe that there should be more games like Indigo Prophecy, as this is one of my favorite games.