Indica Review – A Chilling Journey with the Devil Himself

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Yorgos Lanthimos, Ari Aster, Darren Aronofsky; Mikhail Bulgakov, Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoevsky, Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol. Personalities whose creations are named as the inspiration for the developers from the independent, originally Russian Odd Meter team, which moved to Kazakhstan due to the political situation. But during the game I heard names such as Lewis Carroll and Luis Buñuel. An interesting mix that certainly doesn’t slide into mere imitation, but rather develops its world and ideas, making Indika a completely unique experience, complemented by surprisingly tight gameplay.

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  • Platform: PC (review version), later in May PS5, Xbox Series
  • Publication date: 05/02/2024
  • Developer: Odd meter
  • Publisher: 11 Bit Studios
  • Genre: logic adventure game
  • Czech localization: No
  • Multiplayer: No
  • Download data: 50 GB
  • Game time: 7 o’clock
  • Price: to be announced later

One of my rather big concerns was whether Indica would drown in its abstraction and mystery and shut out most of the potential players. I’m happy to report that this is not the case. Some scenes and sequences bear the hallmarks of fantasy, and the narrative sometimes turns symbolic and even surreal. This definitely deviates from experienced reality. After all, Russia at the beginning of the 19th century is, admittedly, alternative here, and animals the size of buildings do not shock anyone. On the other hand, first of all, the plot of the game is quite accurate and there is no way to get lost in it.

It is the plot that is more a tool for expressing an idea than a carrier of greater meaning. Indica is a nun who is carried through life by the devil himself. The voice in her head tempts her and contradicts Christian teachings. When Indica is given the task of delivering a letter to another monastery, she learns about the possibility of her own participating narrator deprive However, her journey through icy Russia leaves her asking questions about the nature of good and evil and pondering the true nature of her obsession. What role does faith play in her life? And is there an answer to the reality of the world around her?

Moreover, Indica does not travel alone. She is accompanied by an escaped prisoner, Ilya, who shares a goal with the main girl. In his case, an artifact that will heal his wounded hand. The chemistry of both characters works great. This is due to the excellently written dialogue and impressive acting by Isabella Inchbald and Louis Boyer (the devil was voiced by Silas Carson and he is also excellent). Thanks to them, even unobtrusive black humor or, conversely, several very strong scenes sound good. The Russian dubbing certainly has its own qualities, especially since the main character’s voice in English is much more pleasant and “innocent”, which creates a pleasant contrast with the demonic help.

Everything is also supported by a very good audiovisual presentation. First of all, the sound system is, dare I say, perfect. So do the camera and editing. You’ll encounter some jagged edges, jumpy textures, or some graphical glitches here and there, but by the standards of the small team, this is a surprisingly good-looking game. Not to mention that minor flaws are successfully overcome by imaginative scenes or the choice of light and color.

A separate chapter is the music, ranging from protracted melancholic compositions to wild, tuneless creations. The first words of this text are the name of the director Yorgos Lanthimos, and it was his recent “Poor Girl” that reminded me very much of the musical accompaniment of “Indica”.

While Indica’s story and narrative are a departure from the video game norm, the gameplay is the epitome of puzzle-adventure. On your way you will encounter a series of environmental puzzles of pleasant complexity and variety. Overall, I would characterize the difficulty of the puzzles as fairly low, but that doesn’t mean I completed them without stumbling. I even managed to stay away from some of them. On the contrary, I only had one unloaded jam.

In the demo we moved the drawers and ladder. I was a little afraid that everything would be wrong during the seven hours that Indica took me. The opposite is true. In total, I moved the ladder twice, and the developers didn’t overdo it with the drawers either. Essentially, they serve a wide variety of puzzles based, for example, on impressive environmental transformations that you influence. On more than one occasion, you will also have to sit behind the wheel or lever of a forklift and several types of cranes. No puzzle is repeated unnecessarily.

Unlike the logic parts, I wasn’t as excited about one escape passage and the one that relies on deft movements and dodging. The game’s controls are good, but they’re not really made for these types of environments. Additionally, the aforementioned escape is a matter of trial and error finding your way. But these are places two and together they won’t take more than a few minutes.

You can then experience the arcade gameplay in several special pixel art sequences that serve as flashbacks to Indica’s past. They occupy such an important place in the narrative, while at the same time each being associated with unique gameplay. One time you’re racing, the next it’s a platformer. It’s a nice and unexpected addition to the gloomy mood. The pixel art is easily applied to the rest of the game. It shows a menu as well as a label for the experience points collected. I will keep their meaning to myself.

Finally, I should note that Indika is a very linear game. So much so that, as a fan of linear experiences, I was caught off guard every time an obvious turn turned out to be a dead end after a few steps. Exploration options are minimal and limited to one room or short corridor off the main road. This is a bit of a shame because the developers put a lot of collectibles into the game world. However, they have nowhere to hide them.

Indica is a completely unprecedented experience in terms of ideas and their transmission.

Overall, Indica is an absolutely unprecedented experience in terms of story, storytelling, ideas and their delivery. In terms of gameplay, it doesn’t show any groundbreaking news, but what it does does, it does with utmost honesty, attention to detail, the right balance of difficulty and lack of bugs.

Last but not least, according to the authors, it is a form of reflection on the Orthodox Church and the long-term social situation in Russia, and Polish publisher 11 Bit Studios donates a portion of the game’s proceeds to help children affected by the war. in Ukraine. Although I perceive the game’s connection to current events as rather subliminal and very distant, the slightest overlap between a video game and the real world is still quite exceptional and deserves to be pointed out at least like this, below the line.

Review

India

We like

  • Story, narration, thoughts
  • Nice heroine, interesting characters.
  • Acting, dialogues
  • Graphics, design
  • Various environmental puzzles
  • Pixel art parts
  • Music
  • Sound

This worries us

  • Path too linear
  • Occasional graphics imperfections.
  • Escape and bypass

Source :Indian TV

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