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NES version worst of all.

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 16
Date: July 15, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I played the Xbox version at a friend's house but I don't have an Xbox so I had to get the NES version.

Let me tell you, as much as I love this system, it's just not the same. With just 25 colors (48 color palette) to work with, you'd think they'd use all 25, but it doesn't look like it. I don't think they use all the available sound channels either. This is in sharp contrast with the Xbox, which has more processing power than the onboard computer of Space Shuttle Discovery, or so I heard (in Discovery's defense, the shuttle was cheaper).

The game starts out with a prompt, and describes the environment around me. Dark, gloomy tower ahead. I'm likely to be eaten by a grue.

What the hell does that mean, anyway?

I'm starting to think the Nigerian I bought this from was lying to me.

GRAPHICS: 1/10
SOUND: 2/10
GAMEPLAY: 4/10
INTEGRATION WITH MSN MESSENGER: Priceless.

no -- it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests

Virtual Toothache

1 Rating: 1, Useful: 0 / 11
Date: July 22, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Fahrenhiet is a game with a good narrative structure and a reasonable script that's utterly destroyed by its uniquely irritating system of keyboard based controls. If you're old enough to remember the awful 'simon says' game of the 1970's then you'll understand what I mean.
Simon says was a portable console about 12 inches in diameter that displayed a series of flashing lights in sequence - players followed the sequence, which became increasingly complex as the game progressed, resulting in fatigue, irritation and general neurosis. Fahrenheit has chosen to rehabilitate this nightmare of yore, to the detriment of the game and the annoyance of players. Even worse, many sequences in the game depend on an even worse modality of torture - the rapid alternation of left and right cursor keys. So having immersed yourself in the convoluted detail of the plot you can find the game grinding to a paralysing halt because you're unable to manipulate cursor keys at 40 cycles a second. Depressing, and very irritating.

Fahrenheit has attempted to blend a progressive, cinematic narrative with a series of infantile keyboard controls. The resulting mess combines tedium with stress in a unique synthesis.
Don't insert this game into your PC, take a trip across your apartment and firmly insert it into the toilet bowl. If you flush hard enough it'll disappear.

Nice Change, but Fell Short

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: December 08, 2005
Author: Amazon User

This game is an interesting concept but I think it fell short on actually being fun. More a movie then a video game the graphics and the cinematography are great. I played the whole game through simply to find out how it ends.

The problem with the game, was there really wasn't much playing to it. You steer the character around until you see an action option, then you click it. The only real 'thinking' you do is to try to quickly read the conversation options and pick one, before your time runs.

The action sequences are simply following the on-screen prompts of moving the directional pads left-right/top-bottom. I found this to be the worst part of the game as you miss all the action going in the background as you try to follow these prompts.

I give them an A for effort, but I think they need to try again.

Great Story....but....

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: January 07, 2006
Author: Amazon User

Can this really be considered a game?

Indigo Prophecy is a movie. It says so right in the main title screen. Fortunately, it was made in video game form because I don't think it would've done too well on the big screen. However, as a video game, it makes for a great dramatic presentation. The characters are believable, the voice talent is some of the best I've heard in a while, and the story is simply gripping. As I was playing, I truly felt for the characters in the story, especially the ones you control. The game sort of plays out like the sims (without the action sequences of course). You control your character and pretty much have free will as to where they go and what they interact with. Unlike the sims, however, your story will eventually end the same every time.

That being said, this game isn't really that fun as a "game." The action sequences and question choices seem more like a tedious task than enthralling gameplay. In fact, it's the game's biggest downfall. I can overlook the character graphical detail and the mouth movement that is worse than a Neversoft game, but I can't overlook the fact that the action sequences where I am forced to "DDR" with my joysticks or repeatedly pull the left and right triggers seem so unnecessary and unexciting. Plain and simple, this game is not fun. It has a great stroy, one of the best in a while...but it fails as a game because the gameplay is horiffic. I wish that I felt like I was controlling the character (which, as the creator says in the tutorial, is the idea), but I just feel like I'd rather do it myself than being rewarded for "bopping it" correctly.

Rent it.

Should've been made differently

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 2 / 3
Date: April 21, 2006
Author: Amazon User

The "moviestyle" concept is great, and the music, mood and characters are really top notch. It actually manages to get one emotionally involved (at least a little more than games usually do)

But it has too many flaws to live up to the hype.

* The camera. It sucks balls. When your outside u can sweep it 360 degrees around, pretty good but a classic 3rd person perspective with movable camera would have been better. The real downer is inside (which happens to be where most of the game is set). The angles are residentevil-style stuck ones, though you can change between a few different angles with a button. But this is very confusing, and frustrating when you're supposed to perform a task in a limited amount of time.

*The hammering of left/right triggers. During action sequences you need to keep peppering R and L buttons like a ping pong-professional parkinson-patient to avoid failing. This is NOT funny, and should've been abandoned in the NES-era already.

Also, in connection to the above mentioned hammering, you push left and right thumbsticks in directions as appears on the screen (fast, and in correct order to avoid failure and "gameover") - this makes you totally focused on the little diagramme to follow, to make sure you push right - and this in turn, makes you totally unaware of what happens in the background (the action). Talk about waste.

I wish the producer(s) of this game hadn't been tripping so much when they decided over the games mechanics. Because it could have been so much better.

Next time we want these issues fixed. And also, for being a game that brags about how you can "interact" with most things and people, and "open-ended" storyline... it's really not that open and interactable. It all follows a thread, you can just do things in different orders.

Quit boasting, and take the good parts from this game, and combine them with a new story, but leave the elements of dissapointment behind!

// Daniel, 23, Sweden

starts off strong then falters at the end

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 4 / 4
Date: July 04, 2006
Author: Amazon User

I actually just recently sold my copy when I got this invitation to review. Indigo Prophecy was a pretty fun and interesting game. The story was what sold me and the "choices that affect the game" approach. Much of the gameplay is similar in a way to Shenmue. There's a lot of exploring and minigame sequences for action scenes and forth. Most of these mini games are done like Simon Says and the ever so grueling L and R tappings. These give you somewhat of a sense of realism while playing the game but that doesn't make it too much fun. The fun really comes in having a variety of choices and seeing what happens when you do this or do that. The characters you play as have a mental state meter that goes up or down depending on what happens. Why yawning knocks off 20 points to this is beyond me but overall a neat feature. The story starts off intense and gripping at first but then starts to get strange and seems a bit rushed. I don't want to spoil it for you but you'll see what I mean once certain deaths occur. In any case I'd give this game a rental. It's fun for what it is but the L and R sequences and the storyline at the end doesn't make it a keeper. You should be able to finish it relatively quickly.

Great Concept but Needed More Testing

3 Rating: 3, Useful: 6 / 9
Date: September 13, 2007
Author: Amazon User

Indigo Prophecy deserves kudos for thinking outside of the box. This merges an adventure game, a thrilling crime drama and reflex action together. Unfortunately, the results are a bit sporatic.

First, the basics. You are an innocent man - but somehow you wake up standing over a dead body, knife in hand. Obviously you killed him - but why? You're not the only person asking this question. You can switch between three other characters in order to solve this crime.

The game is a "movie". The tutorial takes place in a green room situation where you learn how to move and interact. There are flashbacks, thought-overs, foreshadowing and many other movie gimmicks. If you love movies, this is great. It helps to immerse you in the feeling that you are interacting in an epic situation.

There is a lot of dialogue here, and you lead it along. You have a series of options you can choose from, and depending on what direction you choose to go in, the storyline follows you. In that sense, the game is really quite open and you can have a great impact on what happens.

All of these situations are great in theory. The practice is a bit different.

For starters, the game's graphics are really not that wonderful. I realize that in many games it doesn't matter - but this is supposed to be a gritty crime drama. With all the amazing XBox games out there, to then go "backwards" to this one is quite noticeable. It detracts from gameplay to have pixellated objects to interact with when you're talking about human lives on the line.

The game, for all of its freedom of choice, is very linear. It starts right from the beginning. You're in your apartment, evading the cops. You want to hide a bloody item of clothing and do up the bed. But wait - you can't pull out your blankets if you're holding something in your hand! You can't put that item down either. So you have to run across the room to the washing machine - put it in - then run back to the bed and pull that across. They have a set order they expect you to do things in. If you don't, you keep failing and restarting until you get it right.

The movement makes this doubly difficult. You enter a room and forward is up. Go into another room and forward is left. The cameras don't follow with you naturally. It adds extra frustration to the constant restart cycle.

The game design is very innovative. Again, I praise them for thinking outside the box and creating this rich, dramatic environment. However, they should have spent a few more months in testing and design, so that the rest of the game was brought up to those same standards.

Don't get me started on the left-left-right-up-right sequences required in order to do certain tasks ...

Note: this does play on the XBox 360.

Snakes and Trigger Keys

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 7 / 8
Date: December 23, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I bought the Xbox version of Indigo Prophecy simply because the machine doesn't get all that much use. I prefer adventure/rpg games and they are scarce for the Xbox, to say the least. Unfortunately, the game was clearly written for the PS2 and then ported to the Xbox with little thought about gameplay. This time Atari took a good game and definitely did not make it better.

Let's do the good parts first, since Indigo Prophecy really is a good game on many levels. The game's inner story is based on an actual legend associated with the change of Mayan eras. Into this new era is supposed to be born an 'indigo' child who will come with a prophecy that will grant great power to those who would listen. Add in a lot of human sacrifice and a dollop of paranoid plot to take over not just the world, but the universe, and you have Indigo Prophecy in a nutshell.

Oracles use randomly chosen instruments to carry out sacrifices, and this is the story of Lucas Kane, who suddenly finds himself a murderer and must elude both the police and assassins from a secret clan long enough to find out what happened to him and why he suddenly has strange powers. Pther key characters are Lucas' brother Marcus, and two police investigators, Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles. The player get's to control all of these characters, often in the same episode. The story is good, and the modern noir settings and sound are as well. Where this game runs into trouble is in the action game play and artwork.

Action is managed by to different operations, either following directional sequences displayed on the screen, or in rapid toggling of the two trigger keys. On any of the typical Xbox controllers these operations are more irritating than challenging. Accomplishing significant parts of this game involve being totally focus on the few square inches of screen where the progress of the challenge is displayed. So there you are in the middle of an action sequence and you can actually miss most of the action. It wasn't until I happened to look at my PS2 controller that I realized all this activity would have been much smoother if I had played the PS2 version of the game.

Artwork is low detail even for a PS2 based game, and looks even weaker on an Xbox. This is odd, considering that there isn't a lot of intricate action to eat up computer time that could have been dedicated to graphics. Atari chose to make this game on a slim budget, and the story, while strong, isn't enough to make this a real winner.

Overall, this is a three and a half star game on the Xbox, but a solid 4 on the PS2. Good entertainment, but not particularly memorable.

Addictive, Original but Short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 22, 2005
Author: Amazon User

Indigo Prophecy is a game like no other. It truly gives the feeling that you are playing a moving instead of a video game. Your decisions will alter the outcome of the game and often they can lead to your demise. The graphics of the game are excellent. The controls are simple to use but there's a tutorial to train you on the basic moves if needed. The storyline is original and engrossing, the voice work is about as good as you'll find in any game. This is more of a RPG than a standard action game. You won't get into battles head on, but rather you will play a series of "simon says" sequences that you can pass or fail depending on your dexterity. There is a flaw with this type of combat system in that the guide shows up on the screen and you are so focused on trying to master the moves that you miss what is actually going on in the game.

You'll play as different characters, the lead, a presumed murderer and the cops that are tracking you down. This adds interest to the game as you will diligently try to escape the cops one minute and the next you are desperately looking for clues to try to catch the character that you just played. Throughout the game, you'll have to make decisions: conversation topics, actions, etc. For the most part, each decision alters the game outcome so you have to think about what could happen in the long run but you will only have a limited amount of time to do so. The game plays like a movie and unlike most games, the cut scenes are not transitions into the next chapter but are actually the game itself. Indigo Prophecy is a bit short, however there is significant replay value as making different decisions can completely change the outcome of the game. It is obvious that there was a great deal of time and thought put into the development of this game and it clearly shows. This is one of the most original, clever games created for any platform. Give this one a try.

Fun but Short

4 Rating: 4, Useful: 3 / 3
Date: November 14, 2005
Author: Amazon User

I purchased this game because I had heard great things about it. The gameplay was great. Movement is a little odd, but once played for a bit it gets easier.
I like how you play the parts of the different people in the story line. It adds depth to the story playing both sides, thinking to myself, "if I do this with the cop...will I make the fugative get caught?"
I have only 2 problems with the game...
1. It doesn't seem that the choices you make really make that much difference in the game other than capture or death in that scene.
2. Much too short for the kind of gamer I am. I beat the game in approx. 8-9 hours of gameplay. I beat it the same day I bought it and a friend is already borrowing it because I told him don't waste the money on such a short game. I also unlocked ALL the extras (videos, pictures, etc.) the first time through, and don't plan on playing through again.

Over all, great game. I would like to see a sequal! But with longer gameplay and perhaps more consequences for your actions.

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