Indika is unlike anything I’ve played. Alternating between photo-realism and 8-bit graphics, it features one of the most miserable, intellectually deep stories I’ve ever played. This is a tale of a Nun set in an alt-history early 20th-century Russia. It’s a narrative-focused third-person puzzler featuring equal parts arthouse stylings and absurdity, it is unique and I think I loved it?
Indika
You start out as Indika, a Nun living in a convent where everyone hates her. The game is primarily narrated by the voice inside her head. She believes it to be a demon, one that haunts her every waking moment and routinely causes her to lash out in reality. Indika is sent to a neighboring town to deliver a letter during a war-torn period of alt-Russian history. It is seemingly set between the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with towering architecture that mimics our own though on a vastly larger scale.
Indika is coming first to PC on May 2nd, with a release later in the month on consoles. I played on PC and for roughly 5 hours I walked, biked, climbed, and ran my way through a frozen Russian countryside as dogs chased me, nightmares hounded me, fish smacked me, and of course, my clothes came off. There’s nothing really “happy” here, instead, you’ll find a well-written and voice-acted affair focused on faith and filled with absurdity. There is a scene later in the game that I found disturbing, though it was handled as tactfully as one could hope.
Indika is smart, disturbed, and light of frame. You’ll never be a hero in this game, which is a linear tale focused on Indika and a traveling companion’s faith. Answers aren’t given, only hinted at and when the credits suddenly started rolling I felt surprised at first before realizing the story was properly finished.
Gameplay and Graphics
The majority of Indika takes place from a 3rd person perspective. Whenever the game shifts to past events in Indika’s life things go full on Celeste with heavily pixelated graphics on a 2D plane. Gameplay during the 3D segments is “fine”. You’ll mostly walk forward or hold the right bumper to run A climbs, and X interacts with objects. There is a decent variety of puzzles, some are platforming while others are moving objects around in various ways.
The 2D sections feature some light jumping puzzles, one where you ride around steam-powered motorbikes, and are a fun change of pace. In them you’ll learn about Indika’s life and why she ended up in the convent. Everything is so bright, colorful, and happy in those scenes. Going back into the 3D, photo-realistic world is a smack in the face, reminding you of the terrible life she now lives.
I’m not sure if the game has alternate endings, as there is a point system for leveling. The points and levels do nothing, and the game constantly tells you that. I am curious if things go differently if you max out said points, however, and I’m tempted to find out. There is a gameplay mechanic that sees Indika pulled into demonic realms and you can hold the left trigger to pray and pull yourself out temporarily. This barely gets used and I wish it had been more of a thing because it was a cool way to set up puzzles.
The face models in the game are so good that my wife thought it was a full-motion video when I showed her the trailer. The animations are good, though they did bug out a lot as characters got stuck on things in the environment. NPC pathing can be broken if you get in their way and I had to restart a section two times to fix it. The environments are mostly frozen exteriors or industrial interiors. When you enter a town things up in the imagination with gigantic bells towering hundreds of feet or fish the size of blue whales lined up by the hundreds as you walk around a gigantic cannery.
Writing and Sound
Indika’s greatest strength is in its writing and voice performances. Games of this scope often suffer from the “I AM ACTING, HELLO” style of English translations. Indika has some of the best, most natural voice acting I can remember in any game, let alone one with a smaller budget like this. The writing feels natural, with people coming to grips with how the reality of their situations. It’s a lot of talking, and not the type you can or would want to skip. The gameplay is mostly mediocre, it is the talking that made me fall in deep like with this one right away.
There are scenes of absurdity with goofy music and a camera that loves to look directly at people’s faces in an unsettling way. They turned me off in the trailer but made sense in context. The game’s story is never happy it’s downright miserable most of the time. Don’t let that turn you off though, though the focus on being an Arthouse-style production may. It never felt up its butt though, and despite it tackling an extremely serious subject in one of its final scenes I think they pulled it off.
There isn’t a lot of music in the game, but what is there are mostly more modern-sounding synths and a mix of old-timey videogame chiptunes. The game is set in an alt-history that imitates 130 years ago made those choices feel a bit odd. Like with most of their choices though I ended up digging it. Bug-wise I had the two times where NPC pathing broke and one crash while playing on PC. Console versions are set to hit in May of 2024, shortly after PC so make sure you look into the port quality.
Wrapping Things Up
Indika is an odd, wonderful title. Mixing 3D photo-realistic art with 2D-pixel graphics makes some bold choices. Excellent writing and voice acting help carry mediocre gameplay and created an experience I will never forget.
Indika
Played on
PC
PROS
- Looks Great
- Bold Design Choices
- Decent Puzzles
- Excellent Writing and Voice Acting
CONS
- NPC Pathing Bugs
- Some frustrating insta-death sequences
I’m in the minority where I found it damned entertaining with how insane it is, as well as deep and philosophical. As a game it’s a 6, as an experience it’s an 8. Great writing/acting.
Looks kinda cool actually. Might have to try this.
Weird ill check it out