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A poor, pretentious man's Shenmue.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 9 / 32
Date: December 09, 2005
Author: Amazon User

After playing the XBox demo I had high hopes for Indigo Prophecy. The initial encounter in the diner played out quite nicely. Split screen chaos, split second decision making, a simple interface, a 'mature' storyline - the complete package. Good times guaranteed.

Or not.

Unfortunately the rest of the setups stumbled from boring to lame to worse. After the first ten minutes (i.e. the demo) the choose-your-own-adventure gameplay goes out the window and the cliches start hitting you hard and heavy. First off, could they have made the black cop any more stereotypical? For whatever reason he's the only character in the game that swears, his apartment is a funkified joke (can't get enough that vinyl, aw yeh), brother-man loves the b-ball and the ladies too. Maybe that could be excused if he wasn't such a dunce of a cop. All he does it complain about how tired he is and can't wait to get home with his woman. Plodding along we hit every other cliche in the book: the devil made me do it, humanity is doomed (cue the child saviour foretold in prophecy), the priest brother, the headstrong chick cop (I'll get to the bottom of this in the insane asylum - oh no! the power just went out!), bullet time kung-fu sequences, crazy old woman with pets, the list goes on. At one point (spoiler) the chick cop and the serial killer fall in love (almost instantly), have sex, she gets pregnant and the hope for a new world is at hand. Unbelievable. Maybe if we drop in some nods to Shakespeare and Nietzsche it'll sort itself out. Nope. Sorry.

It almost seems like the game's 'director' would prefer to make movies. Maybe he even bounced this script around a few studios and when they finished laughing kindly asked him to leave. And so we're left with Indigo Prophecy, a game where you spend half the time looking at pointless mini-games that distract you (purposely?) from any meaningful action on the screen. Surely in this day and age we can expect more from a video game. For all its faults and flaws Shenmue (2000) on the Dreamcast is an infinitely better game. You can actually explore and interact with other characters and surrounding environments. Mini-games are in fact 'games' and involve some sense of play. The story is hokey but at least it doesn't take itself so seriously as to consider itself high art.

...the one star Indigo Prophecy earned here goes to the soundtrack and voice acting. Maybe audio presentation fooled people into thinking there's a game in here somewhere...

terrible game with no point

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 8
Date: October 22, 2007
Author: Amazon User

this has to be one of the worst games ive ever played. there is freedom to move around, but everything else follows a close script. there is no real shooting in the game which makes it far from the shooter catagory it was listed in. the story itself is hard to follow and not very great. dont waste your money. go buy frogger instead, it might be more of a challenge

Adventure gamers - don't be misled!!!!

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 20 / 26
Date: October 03, 2005
Author: Amazon User

OK, this is obviously bucking the trend of the other reviews, but I have to say I'm really disappointed in Indigo Prophecy. (Note: I'm talking specifically about the PC game - console gamers will probably love it.)

The pre-release hype about this game really pushed the idea that this was an ADVENTURE GAME. Guess what - it's not. It is also not really a PC game - it's a port from a console. Translation: Action sequences. Mindless, twitchy action sequences. And the requirement that you have the reflexes of a bat to proceed through the game.

If, like me, you're a die-hard adventure gamer, a la the old King's Quest series, Gabriel Knight, The Longest Journey, Return to Mysterious Island, and even the simplistic-but-beautiful Syberia, Indigo Prophecy will be a great disappointment. Story seems ok, music is decent, graphics are adequate (but no more than that). But the puzzles are all "how fast can you twitch your fingers" type.

Don't make the mistake I did - spend your $40 elsewhere!!

Could have been great if I could get the controls to work

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 15 / 19
Date: October 12, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Indigo Prophecy promised innovative game play and story line. I was feeling like there was nothing new under the sun and waiting for sequels of beloved games to come out, so I purchased Indigo Prophecy. I read reviews suggesting that the controls were clumsy, but figured I could simply remap them on my keyboard. Boy, was I wrong. Not only are the controls impossible to remap, the movements required to play the game made me wonder if I was going to destroy my keyboard and mouse. One of the control sequences requires you to furiously tap the left and right arrow keys repeatedly. I mean FURIOUSLY. The only way to move that fast is to move HARD - hence the worry about damaging my keyboard. Another control sequence requires you to move the mouse in awkward and precise archs to climb. I found it impossible. I am not fine motor challenged, but I spent one hour a day for three days attempting to make the perfect shapes required with my mouse and failing. Without a save game option, I was forced to start from the bottom again and again. I had to just quit playing the game altogether for my own sanity and pc equipment. I love a challenging game, but this one doesn't even go beyond those insane controls. It depends way too much on a impossibly perfect interface between your hands, the pc keyboard, and the mouse. And on you furiously tap and potentially damage your keyboard. Or you try, while clenching your jaw, to make perfect arches with flat bottoms within the two second time limit without running out of mouse pad space. I fell off the fence again! I swear, I made the weird arch perfectly that time! Aaaaaacccckkkk!

Compelling Story, Lousy Gameplay

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 9 / 11
Date: January 03, 2007
Author: Amazon User

The multiple perspectives, chilling atmosphere, and killer graphics will keep you intrigued for the first few hours of play. However, the action sequences are mind-numbing. You have to play a sort of Simon routine by pressing buttons in the order that they are flashed on the screen. The button presses come fast--so much so that you miss the action while paying attention to the buttons. The worst part is what other players describe as "button-mashing sequences". In these you have to press the arrow keys repeatedly to motivate your character to run fast, hold on to a ledge, or some other "feat of strength". No matter how fast you mash the buttons, it never seems fast enough and your character falls repeatedly to his death (or drowns, or gets run over, or...). An action sequence that seemed fun at first quickly gets HELLA BORING. I played on the easiest level and eventually gave up during one of the final battles. I didn't care about the ending enough to invest another hour in watching my character mangle himself and then indulge in a self-pitying death monologue: "I guess I didn't have what it took to save the girl. Now I'll never know what was really going on. If only my human controller had drunk six more cups of coffee to mash those buttons just a little faster..." Blech. Game Over.

Ultimately Disappointing

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: January 16, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The game has garnered some good reviews and I was impressed with the demo I had played. The beginning was fun and captivating, but that was where it ended for me. As I played on, I felt like I was playing a game that had ripped off several movies (End of Days, The Matrix, The Crow, etc.). Not only that, the game was riddled with cliches, especially in regards to the African American cop.

The gameplay is decent, but leaves much to be desired. This is especially evident during cutscenes when you are required to operate the controls. It detracts anyone from paying close attention to the story and ruins the cutscenes.

The story seemed to go somewhat smoothly until you get close to the end. So little emphasis is payed to a huge chunck of time that your left wondering what happened, what did I miss.

The most disheartening aspect of the game is that it's short. I beat this the same day I bought it on the normal mode.

The game trys to come off deep, but only proved to be thick-witted.

I recommend to anyone who wishes to play this game to rent it.

great potential... but......

2 Rating: 2, Useful: 4 / 5
Date: June 12, 2006
Author: Amazon User

so i bought this game expecting good things. unfortunately, it's quite overrated.. there are a lot of good things going for this game. there's an original idea, amazing graphics, and a cool story line (i guess, if you can stand playing it long enough to get to it). the problem with this game is the control and THE CAMERA!!!! the camera view is TERRIBLE, probably the worst i've ever seen in a game. people are complaining about tomb raider legend's camera view, well this one is a million times worse. it's obvious this camera should have been done in a way where you see the character over his or her shoulder and it moves in the direction you move. instead, the camera's moving all over the place. it makes it extremely frustrating to find your way around - even if you're just looking for a door in your own apartment! the sprint key is useless, too. if you try to sprint to get somewhere faster, your character just runs into something quickly. why? because you can't move your character while he's sprinting - he just sprints in a straight line. that's bad control. the other problem with this game is the "mini-games." you don't experience these in the demo, but in the full game, your every important action depends not on FPS-like moves, but on silly little mini-games that are exactly the same as a "simon says" game. so almost this WHOLE GAME'S GAMEPLAY depends on simon says? that's what i'm telling you, believe it or not. and the other part of the gameplay depends on that crappy camera. sound dumb? well, IT IS.

the problem with this game is it's a great game in theory.. and it could have been a great game in execution, but i guess the guy who made this game never really PLAYED many games. he's got a lot of cool ideas, no doubt about that. but when all your actions depend on "simon says," well it doesn't really get you into the action. instead of the success of "simon says" determining whether you beat off a bunch of spiders, why not let me actually beat off the spiders?? also, while the ideas here are original, most of the execution of the game is stolen from other games. the sims 2, grand theft auto san andreas, and metal gear solid, to be exact. at this point in the game i'm trying to navigate someone through a military base.. how is this done? exactly like i'm playing metal gear solid, except with the horrible camera control where i can't tell where i'm going or what's in front of me. fun? i think not. frustrating? very. you could just trudge through the game saying "ok, the story will kick in and things will be cool once i get past this dumb part," but these dumb parts are just too much of the game (at least the part before i gave up!) i'm not even a big adventure game fan, but i believe games can be good in any genre. however, you need to do something well. if you're going to make a good adventure game, don't throw in a bunch of crappy mini-games that ruin things. in fact i'd prefer if there were no action parts AT ALL if they're done this poorly. the glowing reviews of this game are given just for the story, graphics and immersion factor.

on the positive side, i did enjoy the execution of actual choices in an adventure game. you get some control over how the story turns out, and supposedly you can go back and play the game a different way and it will end differently. now that's the kind of original thinking that PC games need. also instead of choosing from a stock list of questions, the questions you ask actually change the course of things a bit. (although i didn't like the time limit on quickly choosing which question to ask based on a vague keyword - perhaps full sentences or removing the time limit would have been better). i also like how you get to play different characters on different sides of the same story. now that is some cool original stuff.

also a scene at the beginning where you have to clean yourself up and get dressed quickly was fun. although the camera made it hard and i had to try about 3 times to get everything done right, it was pretty fun. this game should have stuck with its strong points. there are many games that are very "limited" but stick with their strong points and succeed greatly.

and one more thing i forgot to throw in.. this game uses the ARROW keys. are you kidding me? how am i supposed to use the arrow keys and mouse at the same time? it's clumsy. i had to reassign the keys to the typical WASD thing that every game uses now. it's just another small sign of this game being more of a CONCEPT than a full-fleshed game. it IS, however, creative, at times very immersive (involving) and possibly a good sign of things to come from the creator, or other game creators in the near future.

I expected better from Atari. Seems rushed out the door.

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 7
Date: November 29, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I just finished playing Indigo Prophecy and was somewhat disappointed. The initial description and demo really caught my interest. I am a big fan of Atari games since the prehistoric days of M.U.L.E. on the Atari 800 PC and matured to really appreciated games that can offer more than mindless destruction in favor of an intelligent plot and story to tell. Unfortunately, my final perception is that this game started with tremendous potential but was released prematurely to meet corporate deadlines and I am genuinely puzzled by the unbelievably high ratings for this game by users on GameSpot (several actually gave this a 10 out of 10; c'mon guys, is this really a 10???).

You begin the game playing the role of Lucas Kane, an NYC IT technician for a banking firm who savagely murders a stranger in the bathroom of a diner for no apparent reason. You spend the rest of the game trying to piece together the motive behind the murder, uncovering a plot by secret forces out to take over the world.

The game is played out in a series of chapters involving Q&A between characters, hunting for hidden objects, and action sequences. The game is played almost entirely in the 3rd person by sending commands to the characters to execute specific tasks, such as open a door, play a guitar, or ask a question. There is a lot of freedom in terms of the order of events necessary to complete a chapter so one can replay chapters in a different order to see how this affects the outcome but many chapters have time limits to complete a set of directives so one has to think fast.

The action sequences are unique. Rather than use the keyboard or controller to throw punches or block attacks, there is a series of flashing lights corresponding to controller positions or keystrokes that one must mimic in a very short amount of time. Entering the sequence incorrectly results in a hit against the character or some other penalty. Hardcore gamers will likely find this format boring for several reasons. Firstly, mastering the sequences is very easy, even on the highest difficulty level. One is even given a "Get Ready" warning that an action sequence is coming. Gamers who sharpened their controller skills on modern action titles like Mortal Kombat or Half-Life will tear through almost all of the action sequences on the first attempt with little difficulty. Secondly, one must focus acutely on watching the flashing lights. As a result one does not get to appreciate the action actually taking place on the screen. More than once, I felt myself asking the question, "Wait, what did I just do there?" because I was watching the lights instead of the action. Thirdly, given the fact that this game comes from arcade pioneer Atari, I expected a more polished interface to let one actually fight a character; instead, I get the feeling that I am directing someone else playing the game.

The story and plot development in the game is excellent in the beginning but later seems awkward and rushed. Early on, the characters think and act much as real adults would. One note of caution, the game is rated M for mature but it is definitely not for the violence or gore (note I said the characters act as adults). More importantly, depending on the actions of your characters, the mental state will improve or decline. If the mental state drops too low the chapter will end. I am told that in some cases you can induce a character to commit suicide due to depression. I was able to land one character in an insane asylum. But by mid-game, characters are introduced without sufficient explanation. This really lent to my impression that the game was released too early and if the developers had more time they could have included more explanation behind the characters actions and motivations.

The voice-acting is good but not exceptional and there are some sections, like when a character asks himself, "What am I, in a video game?" That would be laughable if they weren't so clichéd. The graphics are so-so and can be played on a modest system but on a high note the sets and scenes are well rendered even if the characters seem a little wooden.

Along the game, one can collect cards that contribute to Bonus Points. These bonus points can be used outside the game to unlock special features such as art galleries, soundtracks, and goofy additional movies but these are all just fluff with very little value.

In the end, I was disappointed. A big name like Atari really should have released a better overall product. Beginning gamers may appreciate the game for its simplicity but serious gamers would be advised to steer clear of this one until it is available at bargain bin prices.

Breaks the cardinal rule in that it's boring

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: February 12, 2007
Author: Amazon User

First of all, I should state that I am a huge fan of adventure games. I must have played half of the Sierra catalog of adventure games back in the late 80s and early 90s. Those games were a lot of fun (if not sometimes frustrating). With this in mind, I approached Indigo Prophecy with a lot of excitement.

Unfortunately what I found was that, as intricate and well-scripted as the plot might be, the game is, in a word, simply not that fun. And as we all know, being boring is the cardinal sin of video games.

Much of this, I think, is the fact that the game has no open-endedness to it at all. The whole thing is played out in 'scenes' where your character has a couple of usually uninteresting (and unchallenging) things to do before moving on to the next scene.

Another problem I found with the game was the much-hyped aspect that 'your actions influence the outcome of the game'! Really I think this is sort of false. My experience was that it doesn't seem to matter what you do, the story still follows the same basic linear path. And if you do try to go off on a real tangent, the game will just end and force you to start the scene over. So much for the 'choose your own adventure' aspect of the game.

All this kind of adds up to an unfulfilling, linear, boring experience. About halfway through I just sort of stopped caring what happens.

Where are the puzzles?!

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 2
Date: July 05, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I too was very excited about this game. However, it turns out that this is not really much of a "game". It is more of a interactive movie type software. -Where are the puzzles? I didn't had to think for one second while watching this software. I was very disapointed...

If you like figuring out the puzzles on your own, and actually doing something aside from coaxing the software to continue the cutscene by standing up from a chair. Then skip this one.

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