Indigo Prophecy Review - Mobile Edition

Game Reviews
Indigo Prophecy Review
By Jonathan Mills
March 8, 2006 - 14:03

Studios: Quantic Dream
Atari
Platform: Playstation 2, Xbox

Indigo prophecy is a very unique adventure game, more so in the sense of classic PC adventure games then anything else, but even that doesn't explain it well enough. The fact that the game is hard to classify should tell you right off the bat that it's pretty original, which very much it is. But, if I had to classify it in some sense, I would say that it is an evolution of the classic PC Adventure game (as mentioned above). Cinematic is also a very good description of this game, It's very movie like, presented in letterboxed widescreen with an attractively unique style.

The game begin's with you in the restroom at a diner, you stab a man to death, all of a sudden regaining your senses and realizing what you've done, you hide the body and escape before anyone notices. The game's story has you playing both the killer, Lucas Kane, and two NYPD detective's, Carla Valenti and her partner Tyler Miles. The story and atmosphere this game project's are it's biggest draws, their both fantastic. From start to finish the game's grip on you never loosins. It's one of those games where a few hours after you've completed it, you feel sad that it's over.

Playing both the killer and the 2 detectives, you advance though scenarioes of both, sometimes even choosing which one to play first. These scenarios, or I guess you could call them mission's (though they never feel like that) can consist of a variety of different things, many time's even everyday normal things, like going to the kitchen to get a glass, pouring a drink, answering the phone, etc. Or interrogation's where you have to keep your cool and answer the questions correctly as to not cause suspicion. These thing's may or may not sound exciting to you, but I assure you, they can cause for some very tense moments.

Being a very cinematic game, you'll be going though cutscene after cutscene, but, some of these sequences, such as fighting or being chased, etc. Also have timed button pressing sequences, sequences where you must move the right and left analog sticks in a certain direction or alternate pushing L1 and R1, getting these wrong usualy end's up in you getting killed, arrested or any number of things.

The story is told in a very unique, Cinematic style

When talking or interacting with the environment, icon's at the top of the screen will appear, showing a response and the correct analog stick movement to execute it. Sometimes, when asking questions or answering them, you'll be given multiple choices and a limited amount of time to answer them. Garnering different reaction's based on what you choose.

I know i've said this many times before in my reviews but this is as good as it's going to get on the PS2 graphically, i'd go so far as to say that it's among the best looking PS2 game's ever released. Though, it does come at a slight cost as the framerate can be shaky at times.

Carla Valenti

Sound and music is wonderful, and the voice acting is top notch.

Their are a few negatives, more so then normal actually. The first and most notably is the camera, it seems like it's never where you want it to be and it changes angle's quite frequently. As the angles change and your running in one direction, you continue in that direction, having to manually reset by stopping altogether and then moving again. Another negative is the framerate as mentioned above, is sometimes a little shaky, going from a smooth 60fps in tightly enclosed area's, to far below 30fps in bigger, open ended area's. The final negative are the time button pressing moments. The actions themselves aren't the problem, the problem is that as your moving the analong sticks and pressing the buttons, it's hard to pay attention to the cutscene that's playing, you are able to unlock these cutscenes as extra's, but it's not the same, in keeping with the atmosphere and flow of the game.

Desperately, I want to paint a more clear picture of this game for you, but I find it quite hard to do. I had so much fun with this game, it was a great experience. I think I liked it so much simply because it was so different from what we've been playing these last few years. If you must have action in your games, then this one i'snt for you, but if you value story and atmosphere or just original games, I can't recommend Indigo Prophecy enough.

Final score is not based on an average