Cleril
12-24-2009, 12:12 PM
In America the game is known as Indigo Prophecy (Indigo from now on) but in Europe it's called Fahrenheit. Anyway Indigo is a unique game and is unlike any other game out there, due to it's movie-like presentation and gameplay. It's a movie-like game, telling a story which you control through your input of actions, featuring the occasional combat sequence. If your excited for Heavy Rain this game was made by that same company. Indigo has a dark premise and is mature in nature, not in the same way as Grand Theft Auto is though.
http://geekofalltrades.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/indigo.jpg
The story is about how one man, Lucas Kane, goes from being an ordinary guy to a murderer in little more than 5 minutes. Lucas awakes from some sort of possession ritual made by some unknown to find himself over a dead man whom he stabbed three times, in the bathroom of a diner. There are two cops, Tyler and Carla on the case as Lucas escapes the diner. You play as these three characters as the story progresses. It's a good story, until a cult aspect comes in and some random unexplained super power switches get turned on. Think Condemned 2: Bloodshot.
The gameplay is rather interesting. You can move your character with your left control stick and interact with objects in the world. By moving your right control stick in the given direction prompt on the bottom of the screen. As you move your stick in the direction the animation follows you so you can kind of roleplay with it or just make your character dance. It's unique and works very well.
Based on what you do and don't do the story changes ever so slightly, ranging from new dialogue to new choices you can make. For example, when you are leaving the diner do you burst out the back door bloody and without paying your check, leaving the scene of the crime? Or do you clean up the mess as best you can; go back to your table, drink some coffee, and pay your check leaving quietly out the front door? Every detail is taken into account of what and how you do things. This can change the story drastically although the endings are all available to you at the end of the game.
As well as change the story what you do affects your character's state of mind. It's essentially your health meter. Your character does not change physically or sound differently when they get for example, depressed but if they stress out they will commit suicide. Based on what you were doing determines what suicide scene you'll see. Standing outside in the cold too long? Hypothermia. Drinking alcohol after taking a pill for your headache? Poison. If anything is bound to catch your interest at all it's how many possibilities there are to kill yourself.
During combat or a chase scene a game of simon says starts. Two circular rings appear on the screen and you play simon says until you win the fight. Occasionally you have to rapid press buttons like in God of War as well but you don't actually control your character. If you get enough cues right you will slowly win the fight, if you not you will lose. Each fight gives you five chances to get hit but after that you will die and get a game over. It's again a unique system but if you like actually controlling your character well, tough luck.
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/957/1123893747.jpg
The graphics are of the standard quality on a PS2 if not a tad better. The animations are generally realistic using motion capture technology and the characters are decent looking. The action that goes on doesn't hinder the FPS and when action goes down boy does it go down. The chase scenes and fights look great if you can multi-task and actually look at them.
The sound is fine for the most part. The voice actors take things seriously and jokingly when they have to and they all sound good. The music is on the subtle side for the most part but it's meant for suspense building. A few sounds may break the immersion or just sound off but 90% of all sounds are of the standard fair, tried and true sounds.
Indigo Prophecy is a hardcore game, surprisingly. It does get a bit silly when the great storyline turns into cult city with a side of random super human powers but overall this game is a unique experience on it's own and a great way to pass the time while waiting for Heavy Rain to come out. It's very repayable and enjoyable if a tad too hard during certain action sequences.
Cleril still doesn't know how imaginary dust mights can kill you....or make you try swallowing your tongue.
Rating (for those who care, I don't): 8/10
http://geekofalltrades.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/indigo.jpg
The story is about how one man, Lucas Kane, goes from being an ordinary guy to a murderer in little more than 5 minutes. Lucas awakes from some sort of possession ritual made by some unknown to find himself over a dead man whom he stabbed three times, in the bathroom of a diner. There are two cops, Tyler and Carla on the case as Lucas escapes the diner. You play as these three characters as the story progresses. It's a good story, until a cult aspect comes in and some random unexplained super power switches get turned on. Think Condemned 2: Bloodshot.
The gameplay is rather interesting. You can move your character with your left control stick and interact with objects in the world. By moving your right control stick in the given direction prompt on the bottom of the screen. As you move your stick in the direction the animation follows you so you can kind of roleplay with it or just make your character dance. It's unique and works very well.
Based on what you do and don't do the story changes ever so slightly, ranging from new dialogue to new choices you can make. For example, when you are leaving the diner do you burst out the back door bloody and without paying your check, leaving the scene of the crime? Or do you clean up the mess as best you can; go back to your table, drink some coffee, and pay your check leaving quietly out the front door? Every detail is taken into account of what and how you do things. This can change the story drastically although the endings are all available to you at the end of the game.
As well as change the story what you do affects your character's state of mind. It's essentially your health meter. Your character does not change physically or sound differently when they get for example, depressed but if they stress out they will commit suicide. Based on what you were doing determines what suicide scene you'll see. Standing outside in the cold too long? Hypothermia. Drinking alcohol after taking a pill for your headache? Poison. If anything is bound to catch your interest at all it's how many possibilities there are to kill yourself.
During combat or a chase scene a game of simon says starts. Two circular rings appear on the screen and you play simon says until you win the fight. Occasionally you have to rapid press buttons like in God of War as well but you don't actually control your character. If you get enough cues right you will slowly win the fight, if you not you will lose. Each fight gives you five chances to get hit but after that you will die and get a game over. It's again a unique system but if you like actually controlling your character well, tough luck.
http://media.teamxbox.com/games/ss/957/1123893747.jpg
The graphics are of the standard quality on a PS2 if not a tad better. The animations are generally realistic using motion capture technology and the characters are decent looking. The action that goes on doesn't hinder the FPS and when action goes down boy does it go down. The chase scenes and fights look great if you can multi-task and actually look at them.
The sound is fine for the most part. The voice actors take things seriously and jokingly when they have to and they all sound good. The music is on the subtle side for the most part but it's meant for suspense building. A few sounds may break the immersion or just sound off but 90% of all sounds are of the standard fair, tried and true sounds.
Indigo Prophecy is a hardcore game, surprisingly. It does get a bit silly when the great storyline turns into cult city with a side of random super human powers but overall this game is a unique experience on it's own and a great way to pass the time while waiting for Heavy Rain to come out. It's very repayable and enjoyable if a tad too hard during certain action sequences.
Cleril still doesn't know how imaginary dust mights can kill you....or make you try swallowing your tongue.
Rating (for those who care, I don't): 8/10