Cool in concept, buuut.....
First, the story. The story is very good for the most part, fitting comfortably in that odd subgenre of Satanistic-horror-meets-film-noir and is successful in keeping you pumped for the plot. For the most part, anyway. Somewhere after the half way point in the story, it feels as though the bean counters over at Quantic Dream burst through the writers' door and yelled "The budget's been cut! Quick, tie everything up!" Yes, it's that bad. I found myself laughing aloud in several instances towards the end because of just how ridiculous things had become. Way too much recycled Matrix garbage (as we all know, the key to saving the world is knowing kung fu). Too abruptly, the story goes from being an intriguing hook - dead man, blood, knife, and YOU'RE the killer - to a blathering overload of utterly meaningless epic words, like "ultimate evil", "apocalypse", "the answer to EVERYTHING", et al. All the usual junk. And it's such a huge crying shame, because the first part really is quite good and had me invested wholeheartedly in the characters - even Tyler, who always seems to have his own groovy theme music playing no matter what he's doing.
The game is quite unique in the way that you can control three characters in whichever order you choose, sometimes allowing you to switch back and forth between them to advance the story. Topped with a neat split-screen effect a la 24, it's an interesting way to let you be the director of your own sort of game-movie. On the other hand, you are playing both the "hunters" and the "hunted", and there are some strange instances where you have to basically sabotage yourself in order to help yourself. It sounds cool in concept, but it can end up being plain confusing.
Worse, I found this game to be just plain unnattractive. Take a look at the screenshots -- everything is brown and grey, AND the story is set in winter. While this sort of aesthetic was put to great use in other games like Max Payne, the overall atmosphere of Indigo Prophecy is just...dull. Where Max Payne was a gritty, realistic, intense world, this game feels like it's in the City of Boxy Buildings, Flat Light, and Grey Walls. On the whole, its graphics and design feel very outdated.
If you've ever played Guitar Hero, then you'll have a good grasp of what controls are like for Indigo Prophecy. It's kind of amusing how many things you do with that four-button approach, including dancing with a girlfriend and even having a conversation, something which I still just don't understand. Sound mundane? Well for the most part, those are the things you'll be doing: opening and closing cupboards, eating and drinking, hanky panky, taking leaks, and so on. You'll Guitar Hero your way through bad guys, claustrophobia, and windstorms, too. Don't get it? Yeah, I don't really either. When you're not Guitar Heroing, you're busy with other equally weird control schemes like holding both mouse buttons to walk, or giving yourself Carpal Tunnel with some particularly annoying button mashing sequences. It's all meant to enhance the immersion, says the creator David Cage, but I found myself concentrating harder on strange controls than what I was controlling. Again: sounds cool in concept, but...
So there we have it: a potentially great storyline suffering from J.J. Abrams syndrome, "meh" controls. But there is good to be found too: excellent voice acting, and excellent music. Did I have fun playing this game? Yes. Is it an excellent game? No. But I admire what it's trying to accomplish, and it's definitely not lacking in ambition. I'm still wondering if I'll ever forgive the lacklustre controls, the sad, sad graphics, and that dropped-ball storyline. I can almost smell the 10 that I would have loved to give this game, but instead I can only really honestly give it a 6. 5.