Indigo Prophecy
Added September 20th, 2005 by Barnolde
Introduction:
From the same people that brought you Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy as it’s known in the U.S.) has been billed as “interactive cinema” for good reason. This long-awaited and very innovative game has finally been released on the Xbox and it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that it has probably single-handedly revitalized the dwindling adventure genre. The name change to Indigo Prophecy came about when Atari realized and worried that Americans might confuse the game with the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11”. There were even some minor scenes censored (less than 30 seconds is missing) and some scenes were changed for the U.S. release. You won’t notice it and it certainly doesn’t hurt the game. This was due to Atari fearing another crazy Hot Coffee-esque debacle, which is clearly our society’s fault, (freaking out about pretty much the only legal thing you can do in GTA: San Andreas is madness). This either says a lot about our society or Atari, you pick. Anyway, the point is, this game is finally out, but was the long wait worth it?
From the moment you turn the game on, you’ll probably realize that this game more resembles an indie film than your typical game, which is probably why it’s called “interactive cinema”. In fact, the game reminds me more of movies such as Se7en, Memento and certain David Lynch movies, than it does most other games. You’re presented with a narrative from Lucas Kane, the main character of the game and soon you’ll find out why. This game takes a seemingly real-life experience and adds a surreal twist to it. The game begins with Lucas sitting in a bathroom stall in a diner on a chilly January day. Instead of your typical bathroom business, we watch Lucas carving into his wrists while apparently in a trance. Lucas Kane emerges from the stall and walks over to a man washing his hands, surprises him and then stabs him to death. How’s that for an introduction? After killing a total stranger in the restroom for no apparent reason, you awaken from your trance and are now in control of Lucas.
Gameplay:
For starters, this is an adventure game, but there sure is a hell of a lot of tense moments that rival or surpass many action games, so for those who think adventure = boring, you’re dead wrong. The gameplay has a focus on exploration, investigation, intrigue and most of all, choice. Indigo Prophecy puts you in the shoes of Lucas Kane with a vast immersion factor. You, the gamer, know only what Lucas knows; you just killed a total stranger in cold blood for no reason, only “you” really didn’t do it. There is a huge amount of interaction from the get-go, what do you choose to do now? If you’ve ever read one of those choose your own adventure books, you’ll find Indigo Prophecy to be somewhat similar, as you get to choose your actions. Each choice you make affects the outcome of the game. Interacting in the game couldn’t be easier, because when you can perform an action, an icon pops up indicating the direction of the right thumbstick that you push in order to interact with the object. Some decisions to make include: do you walk Lucas over to the sink to clean yourself up; do you try and hide the body; how about mopping up the blood; and what about the bloody knife you used as a murder weapon?
From the same people that brought you Omikron: The Nomad Soul, Fahrenheit (or Indigo Prophecy as it’s known in the U.S.) has been billed as “interactive cinema” for good reason. This long-awaited and very innovative game has finally been released on the Xbox and it wouldn’t be far fetched to say that it has probably single-handedly revitalized the dwindling adventure genre. The name change to Indigo Prophecy came about when Atari realized and worried that Americans might confuse the game with the movie “Fahrenheit 9/11”. There were even some minor scenes censored (less than 30 seconds is missing) and some scenes were changed for the U.S. release. You won’t notice it and it certainly doesn’t hurt the game. This was due to Atari fearing another crazy Hot Coffee-esque debacle, which is clearly our society’s fault, (freaking out about pretty much the only legal thing you can do in GTA: San Andreas is madness). This either says a lot about our society or Atari, you pick. Anyway, the point is, this game is finally out, but was the long wait worth it?
From the moment you turn the game on, you’ll probably realize that this game more resembles an indie film than your typical game, which is probably why it’s called “interactive cinema”. In fact, the game reminds me more of movies such as Se7en, Memento and certain David Lynch movies, than it does most other games. You’re presented with a narrative from Lucas Kane, the main character of the game and soon you’ll find out why. This game takes a seemingly real-life experience and adds a surreal twist to it. The game begins with Lucas sitting in a bathroom stall in a diner on a chilly January day. Instead of your typical bathroom business, we watch Lucas carving into his wrists while apparently in a trance. Lucas Kane emerges from the stall and walks over to a man washing his hands, surprises him and then stabs him to death. How’s that for an introduction? After killing a total stranger in the restroom for no apparent reason, you awaken from your trance and are now in control of Lucas.
Gameplay:
For starters, this is an adventure game, but there sure is a hell of a lot of tense moments that rival or surpass many action games, so for those who think adventure = boring, you’re dead wrong. The gameplay has a focus on exploration, investigation, intrigue and most of all, choice. Indigo Prophecy puts you in the shoes of Lucas Kane with a vast immersion factor. You, the gamer, know only what Lucas knows; you just killed a total stranger in cold blood for no reason, only “you” really didn’t do it. There is a huge amount of interaction from the get-go, what do you choose to do now? If you’ve ever read one of those choose your own adventure books, you’ll find Indigo Prophecy to be somewhat similar, as you get to choose your actions. Each choice you make affects the outcome of the game. Interacting in the game couldn’t be easier, because when you can perform an action, an icon pops up indicating the direction of the right thumbstick that you push in order to interact with the object. Some decisions to make include: do you walk Lucas over to the sink to clean yourself up; do you try and hide the body; how about mopping up the blood; and what about the bloody knife you used as a murder weapon?
Indigo is highly story driven and it helps that there’s an excellent and unique story here as well. The majority of the gameplay is similar to your usual adventure game, where you have to explore things and occasionally solve a puzzle, which I’m happy to say that they are based on logic and they will not drive you completely mad. One unique thing to this game is that your character has a mental health meter, instead of a health bar. This is used to describe how your character is feeling emotionally and depending on your actions, it can either be increased or decreased, just don’t let it get extremely low or you may commit suicide. There is plenty of exploring and interactions in the game, as you can interact with almost everything in your quest to unravel the mystery of who or what made you kill that man in the restroom.
If the burden of finding out what the hell happened to you wasn’t enough, during certain chapters, you’ll also get to play as the two detectives who are hot on your trail. Seeing the game through the eyes of the other team will further show you that not only does everything in the game have a meaning, but like Fable’s tagline, “every choice, a consequence”. However, unlike Fable, your actions actually are worth a damn in this game. One great thing about this game is that it feels very real, with hints of surrealism tossed in (more so towards the game’s end). This interactive cinema feels so much like a movie for so many reasons, such as the great character development, intriguing and familiar surroundings that remind us of real life. As you play, you’ll grow attached to the characters and learn what makes them tick. Dialogue is selected the same as interactions, through the right thumbstick, which gives you a choice of what to say. This definitely affects the outcome of the game and it plays a very big part. Be forewarned, you only have a limited amount of time to choose what you want to say, so think fast.
Lucas Kane’s apartment is probably how the average single guy in New York lives. This is apparent with so many little touches such as how a single guy’s fridge is empty and the only thing to be found is Ramen noodles and canned food in his cabinets. This attention to detail really does wonders to bring this game to life. Interacting with the computers in the game brings up e-mail and internet news, which show everything from spam in your inbox to satirical shots at how videogame violence is portrayed in the media. The little touches in the game do wonders for the realism and it really makes the game that much more believable and that much more entertaining.
Now, for those of you not into using your brain and thus not liking adventure games, there is a good amount of emphasis placed on fast paced quick events. These are similar to the quick time events (QTE) found in the Shenmue games, although instead of using the four face buttons, you’ll have to use both joysticks, thus giving you eight directions in which to quickly push the joysticks. In addition to the QTEs, there are also certain times when you’ll have to press L and R alternately like a madman in order to accomplish a certain task, such as moving your character in certain scenes or moving an object. You’ll find these events in the fairly plentiful action oriented parts of the game, which make for some of, if not the most intense gameplay found in an adventure game ever. I was pleasantly surprised at how intense some of the scenes in the game were and they can really get your heart racing.
Graphics:
It’s hard to describe the graphics as a whole in the game, because they’re excellent in some parts, while sub-par in others. If you know anything about Quantic Dream, you know they have their own motion capture studio, which is why the animations are fantastic. The character models are also very, very impressive due to the remarkable motion capture and detail. The characters look like real people and they’re well animated down to their eye and mouth movements, facial expressions and body language. The characters clearly had a lot of work put into them and it really shows off the power of the Xbox, however, the settings are not that great overall. While there is a high amount of detail and a very meticulous amount of work put into making this animated New York look great, a lot of textures are pretty poor, such as the ones on the environments and cars. The game reminds me of the first Max Payne in some points. Aside from the character models, as far as the graphics are concerned they’re about on par with it (due to PS2 being the base development platform). There is also a grainy graphical filter that adds a nice gritty feeling to the game, which also aids its suspenseful nature. Indigo Prophecy shares the cold, wintery, dead New York feel of Max Payne, which is excellent and helps portray the bleak emotional feel associated with the game. This is also why the name Fahrenheit was originally chosen for it.
If the burden of finding out what the hell happened to you wasn’t enough, during certain chapters, you’ll also get to play as the two detectives who are hot on your trail. Seeing the game through the eyes of the other team will further show you that not only does everything in the game have a meaning, but like Fable’s tagline, “every choice, a consequence”. However, unlike Fable, your actions actually are worth a damn in this game. One great thing about this game is that it feels very real, with hints of surrealism tossed in (more so towards the game’s end). This interactive cinema feels so much like a movie for so many reasons, such as the great character development, intriguing and familiar surroundings that remind us of real life. As you play, you’ll grow attached to the characters and learn what makes them tick. Dialogue is selected the same as interactions, through the right thumbstick, which gives you a choice of what to say. This definitely affects the outcome of the game and it plays a very big part. Be forewarned, you only have a limited amount of time to choose what you want to say, so think fast.
Lucas Kane’s apartment is probably how the average single guy in New York lives. This is apparent with so many little touches such as how a single guy’s fridge is empty and the only thing to be found is Ramen noodles and canned food in his cabinets. This attention to detail really does wonders to bring this game to life. Interacting with the computers in the game brings up e-mail and internet news, which show everything from spam in your inbox to satirical shots at how videogame violence is portrayed in the media. The little touches in the game do wonders for the realism and it really makes the game that much more believable and that much more entertaining.
Now, for those of you not into using your brain and thus not liking adventure games, there is a good amount of emphasis placed on fast paced quick events. These are similar to the quick time events (QTE) found in the Shenmue games, although instead of using the four face buttons, you’ll have to use both joysticks, thus giving you eight directions in which to quickly push the joysticks. In addition to the QTEs, there are also certain times when you’ll have to press L and R alternately like a madman in order to accomplish a certain task, such as moving your character in certain scenes or moving an object. You’ll find these events in the fairly plentiful action oriented parts of the game, which make for some of, if not the most intense gameplay found in an adventure game ever. I was pleasantly surprised at how intense some of the scenes in the game were and they can really get your heart racing.
Graphics:
It’s hard to describe the graphics as a whole in the game, because they’re excellent in some parts, while sub-par in others. If you know anything about Quantic Dream, you know they have their own motion capture studio, which is why the animations are fantastic. The character models are also very, very impressive due to the remarkable motion capture and detail. The characters look like real people and they’re well animated down to their eye and mouth movements, facial expressions and body language. The characters clearly had a lot of work put into them and it really shows off the power of the Xbox, however, the settings are not that great overall. While there is a high amount of detail and a very meticulous amount of work put into making this animated New York look great, a lot of textures are pretty poor, such as the ones on the environments and cars. The game reminds me of the first Max Payne in some points. Aside from the character models, as far as the graphics are concerned they’re about on par with it (due to PS2 being the base development platform). There is also a grainy graphical filter that adds a nice gritty feeling to the game, which also aids its suspenseful nature. Indigo Prophecy shares the cold, wintery, dead New York feel of Max Payne, which is excellent and helps portray the bleak emotional feel associated with the game. This is also why the name Fahrenheit was originally chosen for it.
Audio:
I don’t think any words other than superb, magnificent, wonderful and excellent could describe the audio aspect in this game, well friggin’ awesome works too. Every little bit of it is so perfectly crafted, it makes the experience exponentially better. All of the voices in the game are superbly acted, with no one overacting their parts and even New York accents are done well. Emotion can be gauged from the characters’ voices and it’s just a very well done and authentic part of this game. The sound effects are just as good and it all sounds like you’d expect it to. Hit a machine in the bathroom and it sounds like metal being hit, use a hand dryer, turn on the radio or your stereo (licensed music is even available there for added realism), listen to the crunch of snow, the sound of a toilet flushing, glass breaking, objects smashing, it all sounds so well done and works perfect with the interactions found in the game. While the voices and sound effects are great, I saved the best for last, the music. It’s no accident that the game feels like something from David Lynch at times, because Angelo Badalamenti (of Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks fame) is responsible for it. Haunting melodies and suspenseful tense music are delivered so very eloquently. It’s important to pay careful attention to the music, because it adds so much to the game. Words fail to accurately describe the emotive, masterful works crafted by Angelo Badalamenti. It just makes this game that much more of an immersive and quality experience.
Controls:
Here is probably one of the more questionable aspects of the game, but it really all depends on the person playing the game. The interactions and movements done with the joysticks are great, as are the few other buttons needed. A makes you run, B switches between characters, Y checks your mental health, black is first person view and white is the camera reset. It’s very simple to get used to the few controls, but we have some things that may cause problems, depending on how you play. The camera is fixed at points. You do have some control over it with the left and right triggers, although it’s not perfect. If you’ve ever played another game with a fixed camera, such as Silent Hill, you’ll know that when the camera moves, you must adapt your movements accordingly. Indigo Prophecy forgoes this and if you’re walking/running in one direction and the camera changes, you’ll keep going that way, which will be a perfect feature for some, saving lots of camera frustration problems, but others will have trouble holding the joystick in one direction while your character moves in another direction. Regardless, there’s nothing too troublesome about the controls or camera, other games have had much, much worse, and Indigo Prophecy’s are more than manageable.
Replay:
Where most other adventure games fail in this category, due to having only one way to complete the game, Indigo Prophecy is probably the most replay-friendly adventure game out there. There are six different endings for you to see, but there are countless ways to complete the game. The “choose your own adventure” factor of this game clearly works in its favor in this category, as there are just so many different ways to do things. You cannot possibly see everything in one playthrough. As you play, there are cards on the ground, which give you points to unlock scenes, movies, pictures, music and more from the bonus menu, although I found it fairly easy to unlock everything. Also, you don’t have to start a new game if you want to have a certain different experience, you can pick up from any of the chapters and either not save, overwrite your save or save it in a new profile, which makes replaying the game that much more pleasant.
I don’t think any words other than superb, magnificent, wonderful and excellent could describe the audio aspect in this game, well friggin’ awesome works too. Every little bit of it is so perfectly crafted, it makes the experience exponentially better. All of the voices in the game are superbly acted, with no one overacting their parts and even New York accents are done well. Emotion can be gauged from the characters’ voices and it’s just a very well done and authentic part of this game. The sound effects are just as good and it all sounds like you’d expect it to. Hit a machine in the bathroom and it sounds like metal being hit, use a hand dryer, turn on the radio or your stereo (licensed music is even available there for added realism), listen to the crunch of snow, the sound of a toilet flushing, glass breaking, objects smashing, it all sounds so well done and works perfect with the interactions found in the game. While the voices and sound effects are great, I saved the best for last, the music. It’s no accident that the game feels like something from David Lynch at times, because Angelo Badalamenti (of Mulholland Drive, Blue Velvet, Lost Highway, Wild at Heart and Twin Peaks fame) is responsible for it. Haunting melodies and suspenseful tense music are delivered so very eloquently. It’s important to pay careful attention to the music, because it adds so much to the game. Words fail to accurately describe the emotive, masterful works crafted by Angelo Badalamenti. It just makes this game that much more of an immersive and quality experience.
Controls:
Here is probably one of the more questionable aspects of the game, but it really all depends on the person playing the game. The interactions and movements done with the joysticks are great, as are the few other buttons needed. A makes you run, B switches between characters, Y checks your mental health, black is first person view and white is the camera reset. It’s very simple to get used to the few controls, but we have some things that may cause problems, depending on how you play. The camera is fixed at points. You do have some control over it with the left and right triggers, although it’s not perfect. If you’ve ever played another game with a fixed camera, such as Silent Hill, you’ll know that when the camera moves, you must adapt your movements accordingly. Indigo Prophecy forgoes this and if you’re walking/running in one direction and the camera changes, you’ll keep going that way, which will be a perfect feature for some, saving lots of camera frustration problems, but others will have trouble holding the joystick in one direction while your character moves in another direction. Regardless, there’s nothing too troublesome about the controls or camera, other games have had much, much worse, and Indigo Prophecy’s are more than manageable.
Replay:
Where most other adventure games fail in this category, due to having only one way to complete the game, Indigo Prophecy is probably the most replay-friendly adventure game out there. There are six different endings for you to see, but there are countless ways to complete the game. The “choose your own adventure” factor of this game clearly works in its favor in this category, as there are just so many different ways to do things. You cannot possibly see everything in one playthrough. As you play, there are cards on the ground, which give you points to unlock scenes, movies, pictures, music and more from the bonus menu, although I found it fairly easy to unlock everything. Also, you don’t have to start a new game if you want to have a certain different experience, you can pick up from any of the chapters and either not save, overwrite your save or save it in a new profile, which makes replaying the game that much more pleasant.
Summary:
With all the hype surrounding the next-gen systems and the Xbox 360 launching in two months, you may decide to put off getting this game. Well, don’t! Go out and buy it now! Support innovative and great games such as this one, because there is literally nothing else like it on the Xbox. This game puts a unique twist on the adventure genre, a genre that has needed a breath of fresh air like this one for a long time. Its gameplay is innovative, unique and fun. I do wish that the QTEs happened before-hand, because sometimes youl'l miss out on some great scenes, but that's really a fairly minor complaint. The graphics are highly detailed and the motion captured animation is superb. I can’t say enough about the impeccable audio and while it doesn’t control perfectly, it has a considerable amount of replay value for a single player adventure game. I really liked how a surreal twist was put on reality, it really added to the intrigue and mystery of an already suspenseful game, which compelled me to play nonstop. The characters are memorable and the storyline is great, even if it gets a bit “out there” towards the end. It’s games like this that deserve to be called art, instead of just “games”. If you buy one more Xbox game this year or ever, make it Indigo Prophecy.
With all the hype surrounding the next-gen systems and the Xbox 360 launching in two months, you may decide to put off getting this game. Well, don’t! Go out and buy it now! Support innovative and great games such as this one, because there is literally nothing else like it on the Xbox. This game puts a unique twist on the adventure genre, a genre that has needed a breath of fresh air like this one for a long time. Its gameplay is innovative, unique and fun. I do wish that the QTEs happened before-hand, because sometimes youl'l miss out on some great scenes, but that's really a fairly minor complaint. The graphics are highly detailed and the motion captured animation is superb. I can’t say enough about the impeccable audio and while it doesn’t control perfectly, it has a considerable amount of replay value for a single player adventure game. I really liked how a surreal twist was put on reality, it really added to the intrigue and mystery of an already suspenseful game, which compelled me to play nonstop. The characters are memorable and the storyline is great, even if it gets a bit “out there” towards the end. It’s games like this that deserve to be called art, instead of just “games”. If you buy one more Xbox game this year or ever, make it Indigo Prophecy.
