Prophetic Preview

The adventure genre has been steadily shrinking over the past few years. Fewer titles are being developed that stress quality storytelling and complex problem solving over twitchy action-oriented game play. It's a wonder that a title like Atari's Indigo Prophecy™ is seeing the light of day against such dismal odds.

"My God! What have I done!?!?"

Xbox® owners who've cut their teeth on the likes of Syberia II and Myst IV® Revelation need look no further for their next adventure fix than Indigo Prophecy. The game blends a unique dual-thumbstick control scheme with tense situations and a gripping story into a compelling journey.

A New Twist on an Old Theme
Longtime gamers are familiar with classic Windows PC adventure games like Grim Fandango, Sam & Max, and The Longest Journey. Exploration mechanics in the "olden days" were simple—you chose a spot on a static background to investigate and used your mouse pointer (or the arrow keys) to move your onscreen character where you wanted to go. Combat was a non-issue as you were forced to use your noggin to solve a series of linear puzzles instead.

Indigo Prophecy shares some common ground with the classics by requiring you to manually move your currently selected character around the environment, though this time the playground is fully rendered in 3-D. When you near items of interest, you are given the option to interact with them via a flick of the right thumbstick. It takes a moment to get used to the unorthodox control scheme, but within the first 30 minutes of game play navigation becomes second nature.

Indigo Prophecy plays like a
video game version of an interactive novel.

Unlike most adventure games, Indigo Prophecy lets you play the story out multiple ways. Besides featuring alternate endings, you can pass or fail certain segments of the action which will later impact your available options down the line. Because you play the part of the protagonist, as well as his pursuers, you see each situation from multiple angles. Not only does the unconventional storytelling mechanic add a new dimension to the overall experience, but it also provides added replay value.

Choose Your Own Adventure
Indigo Prophecy plays like a videogame version of an interactive novel. Within each story "pod" you must complete a set number of goals before moving on to the next segment of the story. Depending on your actions, you might open up a new branch of the story, uncover a clue that will affect the difficulty of your next objective, or cause your character to gain or lose confidence.

See the action from multiple angles.

Small victories and minor failures affect your current character's mental health. Stressful moments like getting rejected by an ex-lover or succumbing to claustrophobia will chip away at your confidence, whereas saving a drowning boy will give you an inflated feeling of self-worth. As your mental health swings to either end of the spectrum, the game might throw an unexpected event at you, so it pays to monitor your character's mood.

A Little Bit of Action
You periodically encounter action minigames in Indigo Prophecy. During these tense moments, you match the onscreen prompts by tilting either or both of the thumbsticks in a certain order before time runs out. Each "Simon says" event is a test of reflexes and memory recall. You are allowed some minor slip-ups, but if you make too many errors you'll fail the test.

The result could be nothing more than a hit to your mental health, or you could end the game right there. Luckily, Indigo Prophecy is forgiving and lets you pick up from where you left off, so you can simply try an event multiple times until you pass it. Indigo Prophecy injects some much-needed innovation into the stagnant adventure genre.

Article by Franklin Beans