Good day Gamers! The Indie title Indika was just released a few weeks ago and has been an interesting game to say the least. You play as Indika, an aspiring nun who is struggling finding her way while living in a monastery. Indika is a unique take on indie gaming with a primary focus on storytelling that dives deep into religious themes and asks heavy moral questions. I’ve mentioned this one in a previous post earlier this year, and I’ve had my eye out for it since then. This short game experience leaves you with with both deep thought and reflection, as well as many more questions about what is happening to the minds and morality of the main characters. Here is my review of Indika.
The Devil’s In The Details
Indika is a gorgeous looking game and at times looks like a AAA title rather than an indie game. It is layered in different shades of whites and grays and it visually carries a somber tone throughout. The whole experience feels weighted, sad, and occasionally downright creepy. The game takes place in an alternate version of 19th century Russia and is steeped with religious visuals, although I noticed none of them are actually accurate. All of the religious themes and artworks seem to have been altered from their original inspiration. As well, Indika’s animations are inaccurate, as she does the sign of the cross backwards throughout the game, and I’m not entirely sure why. All of these elements create the feeling of religious symbolism, but none of them are an exact replica. Perhaps this was done because its more about the storytelling experience, rather than being a direct copy of the source material, which can make sense as it is a video game but ultimately I’m not sure. I also noticed things like crosses having extra slanted planks which looks like they are crossed out. These strange crosses have also been used in COD as well to represent gravesites, but I’m not sure why they have an extra slanted plank on the bottom of each one. There was no description or reason I could find online when I searched them up.
Please Help There’s A Voice In My Head
After taking in the gorgeous visuals and slower pacing of the gameplay, Indika slowly puts the player through some deep moral reflection as you find out that Indika is hearing a voice in her head. The thing is this isn’t just her own personal voice. She actually hears the voice of the devil himself. Initially, these conversations are presented to the player through the narrator of the story who also jumps in and out of dialogue and later reveals himself as the devil. Through the dialogue between the two characters the developer Odd Meter runs the player through some ethical and morally weighted concepts as Indika finds herself questioning everything she believes on her journey as a nun. The Devil is a nuisance at best and he continues to poke and prod Indika at every chance he can. The duality here between a holy person and the devil is interesting and very relatable for people who believe and understand that there is good and evil. But the devil is persistent and raises questions to Indika about different sins (mainly sins of the flesh), and proceeds to ask if those same sins were committed under a different context, would they still be considered a sin?
The devil likes to toy with Indika, most especially when she meets Ilia, the man who is supposed to assist her in delivering her letter, which is the main task which begins her journey. The mental conflict and debating on these moral questions is a constant theme throughout, and at some point when things get quiet, you begin to expect the devil to come out and start bothering again. My understanding of this mental attack and reframing of something wrong to be seen as “acceptable” in alternate circumstances, is his greatest attempt to have her question her faith. It’s his strongest weapon against Indika, and because he uses scenarios and asks questions we don’t fully have the answer to, he uses the opportunity to reframe a situation to persuade her into thinking that an evil deed can be acceptable, or at least have her consider the option – even though she knows it’s not okay.
Gameplay and Mechanics
One of the coolest parts of the gameplay in Indika is when the conversations in her head begin to get very intense and chaotic during specific puzzles. As the conversations escalate, Indika begins to pray intensely, and as she does, she keeps the devil at bay and it brings her peace and quiet as well as brings her back into reality. This mechanic is used very well as it functions on two levels simultaneously. As the world warps around her, her prayers are used to bring the distortion back to normal and this allows you to open or distort the world in order to traverse the area to solve the puzzles. On the other hand its further showing her power as a nun as she uses her prayers to silence the noise the is experiencing. The combination of both layers really shows the genius of the game’s design and everything seems to be done with such great thought and detail. These are some of the most impressive parts of the game in my opinion.
Indika’s unique campaign clocks in at around 5-6 hours. Most of that time you are going through smaller semi-open areas searching for collectables (which you are told are useless). Each of these smaller areas are broken up with some kind of environmental puzzle. The game also takes short breaks from the main third person style during flashback scenes where the gameplay changes into a pixel art 2D styled world. These parts feature some side scroller action platforming and are polar opposite experiences from the rest of the game. During these parts, Indika’s origin story are revealed and these serve to fill in the blanks as she deals with her mental conflict in the present. This 2D past world also lends to the aesthetic of the only HUD element in the game; your score. This score seems to serve multiple purposes as it not only records your points, but it also acts as a part of the story as it stands as a reminder to the player that no matter how much you acquire extra points or collectables, your efforts will be wasted in the end. Perhaps this is another illusion from the dark one, but this mechanic plays a big role towards the ending of the game and only adds onto its mysterious conclusion.
Final Score: 7.5 out of 10
All things considered, Indika is a unique experience that plays more like a visual story or animated movie than a full on game. However, this story is not for everyone, and it definitely leaves more questions for the player than it answers. The way it is written and presented may leave some players feeling bored, confused, or disinterested because of its slower styled pacing and open ended conversations. Many of the events and dialogue are left open for interpretation and it leaves you with lingering questions and zero answers. Perhaps this is what Odd Meter was going for altogether, a different kind of gaming experience that really makes you think about how you see the world around you, especially if you’re a believer. At some point I got the sense the game was trying to have the devil become the victor, and have you the player accept it. Again, I am unsure about this being the true motive or direction, since the game never clarifies exactly what happens to Indika in the end. If this was the intent behind Indika as a whole, then Odd Meter has hit the nail on the head and made a truly brilliant mind boggling title. If you’re interested in a slower paced narrative driven creep house experience than Indika may be worth checking out.
As always Gamers, if you made it to the end of this post, thank you so very much for reading my work. Playing through Indika was a strange experience and it leaves you with the creeps many times. It sometimes feels like its trying to infiltrate your mind as the player and not just Indika the character. A weird and unique title for sure, but one I can’t recommend for everyone. Thanks again for reading and I hope you have an amazing week ahead!
