indigo prophecy

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jimmy corrigan
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Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:00 am
Location: 1313 mockingbird lane

indigo prophecy

Post by jimmy corrigan »

so, i was over at my friend's house yesterday and got sucked into this xbox game called "indigo prophecy" and immediately thought of my regular gaming groups here on the boards, as the mechanics/interface and story was something i believe tabletop gamers can really come to appreciate. it did enough for me to prompt this review, if that tells you anything. further, it should be known that i traditionally do not like video games, so, yeah, that speaks volumes, too. it was definitely one of my most enjoyable gaming experiences in recent history (second to maybe katamari damacy and guitar hero).

to give you an idea of the interface and mechanics, think choose-your-own-adventure style gaming where your every action/inaction, and the order in which you choose to execute them, determines the vulnerable landscape around you. there is not exactly a linear progression, so far as you can tell. you can do whatever you wish and can even switch perspective from one protagonist to another, in well edited jump-cuts and through well written inner monologues. granted, there isn't an infinite array of options at your disposal, but the good amount of options given afford some interesting effects. the designer and writer of the game really made an effort to go beyond the industry conventions of mainstream gaming and uses some inventive and refreshing interfaces to propel the story. for one, it's not like most rpg's where there are chapters of primarily physical battles merely interspersed between cut scenes. instead, the whole game from start to finish feels like a movie. the soundtrack, "24"-esque editing and convincing voice talent lends itself to a filmically immersive world. truth be told, one of the best attributes of the game is that you don't really have to be deft at hand-eye-coordination-- the bare requirement to play is an opinion of what the characters should do next. in that respect, i would venture to say that it is less self-conscious of its videogame-ness than most of its competition. it literally feels like a fairly well produced movie where you control the narrative.

you walk around, pick up stuff, manually use items, speak to others, and manipulate camera angles. as mentioned before the makers liberally grift the editing sensibilities of tv's "24", and as such, offer multiple simultaneous views of the same occurence. there's also a gauge on the bottom right that comes up periodically and states your psyche-- anything from neutral (the most chipper you can be, which i find morbidly hilarious) to stressed to suicidal, all based on the actions you take. the only critique i have of the interface is that the analog joystick controls can be a little wonky, and when your character is moving from one preset camera angle to another, the compass directions change and make it a little tetchy to handle. outside of that minor transgression, the game presents interesting encounters for your various characters to manuever in, the success of which is sometimes governed by your simultaneous analog joystick reactions a la a hybrid system of don bluth's "dragon's lair" and that handheld electronic game from the 80s we all know and love, "simon".

the story itself is compelling, if a little macabre. without giving too much away, in the opening scene you are a youngish to middle-aged man hacking a defenseless stranger to death with a knife near the mens' room stall of an unspectacular diner. you are helpless to stop and you realize your crime after it is gruesomely committed as if awaking from a real-life nightmare. what do you do first? wash your hands? pay your bill and leave the restaurant quickly as possible? dispose of the murder weapon? hide the body? take a panic-induced leak? cut to: you are a crime investigator working with your partner of many years, trying to track down... you guessed it, the unbeknownst murderer you were just playing! it's fairly "trippy," as the youngsters say, but mildly habit-forming. all the choices you made as the murderer (say ditching the knife, or leaving it where it dropped) play into what your subsequent detectives are able to do (say look for the knife, or not bother to, as it is in the middle of the bloody tile floor). i played for a good three hours, and for me that's, again, saying a lot.

if you have $10 (clearance bin at circuit city-- xbox, and maybe ps2) and want to try a console rpg that doesn't succumb to the "kill bad guys, shoot the crates to get more ammo" paradigm that floods the marketplace today, you might like this gem.
User avatar
jimmy corrigan
Posts: 4900
Joined: Mon Aug 11, 2003 11:00 am
Location: 1313 mockingbird lane

Post by jimmy corrigan »

here's a review on gamespy. incredibly, they reference simon and choose-your-own-adventure in their review as well. they speak well of the game, save its graphics, which i admit is bit on the lean side.
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