Indigo Prophecy Preview

"The final countdown has begun"

I have to admit that the title first reminded me of Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451", but seeing the first several seconds of the trailer immediately disillusioned me. While Bradbury's work was something along the lines of Orwell's 1984, Indigo Prophecy is a game that deals with the supernatural and occult. The game has been described as a "spectacular psycho-thriller" and I must say the story and characters do become this description.

Freeze! I have this gun that doesn't have a hole for the bullet to come out of!

Being a fucking cheerleader sucks.

VU was initially pretty silent about this game, but they eventually started revealing more and more details, and what I had the opportunity to see really seems fantastic. The game takes place in New York in 2009, and the game follows the adventures of one Lucas Kane, a typical New Yorker, who murders a complete stranger in a public bathroom for no reason whatsoever. (Yep, that sounds like a typical New Yorker all right. - Ed.) He wakes up in the toilet, his hands and arms covered in blood, with his clothes and the bloodstained knife lying in a puddle nearby (and most likely thinking "So this is what happens when you mix vodka and Nyquil... I'm never doing that again!") Kane's case was only the beginning of a chain of ritual murders where typical, normal New Yorkers (oxymoron?) suddenly flip and ritually slay complete strangers. Anyway, Lucas decides to discover what dark power forced him to commit that horrible crime. This is not an easy task, with the police constantly nipping at his heels. He also suffers from constant nightmares in which he can see through the eyes of other murderers.

One of the best things about this game is the possibility to play four different characters. The player will find himself wearing the shoes of not only the murderer, but also the police inspector in charge of the case. Lucas Kane's role is extremely interesting because it puts the story in the perspective of the hunter and of the hunted simultaneously, as Lucas tries to avoid the police while seeking the truth. The course of the story will depend on the player's decisions.

Indigo Prophecy is a real-time 3D adventure game split into several parts or episodes, which stick to some golden rules of TV series - constantly introducing new moments with characters reappearing unexpectedly, increasingly complex plot development, etc. The in-game world obviously has some climate issues... you will see the whole of Manhattan blocked in due to snow. Everybody is surprised by the snow so early in the year, but soon it becomes apparent that this is a major problem - while the snow continuously falls, so does the temperature.

It wasn't me! The butler did it!

How has Indigo Prophecy provoked this much attention? What novelties can it offer? Well, in this game, it really matters what you do, and in-game progress is not a simple matter of Level Complete / Level Failed. For instance, as I already said, the player first finds himself in the shoes of the unfortunate Kane, realizing something terrible had happened (well, it could have been worse - at least HE is still alive). The player has certain time at disposal before the cops ransack his apartment. During that time, the player can decide to do whatever he wants, keeping in mind that whatever he does, casts a shadow on future events. If he for instance, leaves his bloodstained shirt in the basket, the police will find it there, if he washes his hands, he will become less conspicuous. Whatever he does, he has to leave the apartment, and at that moment, the player leaves Kane's shoes and becomes inspector Carla Valenti, whose mission it is to track down the killer and bring him to justice. Kane, being the main suspect, has to be visited first, and when you reach his apartment, you will find everything as Kane (you) left it. Now, will you bother to cover all your tracks if you know that you will soon be the inspector who has to solve the case? This game play system definitely introduces an interesting new point of view (regardless of how schizoid it may seem) and I sure liked it!

Quantic Dream decided to dub this storytelling method "Bungee Story". The game can end in multiple ways, but the game play will last (unless the player manages to screw things up badly; like going into the street, knife in hand, hoping that everybody knows that the main suspect never did it). The player can also make a wrong move without realizing he did it for the next several hours of game play.

The in-game interface is also quite original which is especially evident if you use an analog gamepad (Indigo Prophecy will be published on PC, Xbox and PS2). You can also use mouse and keyboard, which should also be enjoyable as the team claims that they ported the controls very well. One analog stick should be used for moving around and the other for interacting with items. You will even be able to turn the pages of the book the way you would do it in real life. The top of the screen lists items you can currently interact with, showing how exactly you can interact with them. The environment is highly interactive, but not all objects in it are relevant to the story. In contrast to this absolute liberty, once you added something to your inventory, it will remain invisible until you reach a location where you can use that item. The game uses MPAR (Motion Physical Action Reaction), which is a system controlling character behavior. It is used to make the game a far more personal experience. Indigo Prophecy has another feature that makes it drastically different from most adventures. It has no inventory in the classical sense. If you cannot put something in the pocket or carry it in your hands, it'll have to stay where you found it. There's a real tread for those of you hooked on toying with many trinkets.