Indika is a very short (~4hrs) walking game filled with puzzles and thought-provoking dialogue. Oh, the brilliant voice acting in this game... I loved the emotions that the 'narrator' put into his work. The ending leaves you hanging with questions in your mind. There are many scenes where you can't get what's happening because it's confusing or because it happens too fast.
I also want to state that I dissected the game and they animated every scene; characters are moving even when you don't see them in cutscenes or in the game. And the demon is also a part of some cutscenes, but you can't see it. They put real effort into this game. It's sad that it was short.
The downsides were pretty much the optimization and some less-polished parts of the game.

INDIKA: Self-described as a “subversive, self-endeavourus, multi-meta-layered, nun-perspective, conscience-driven, action answer seeker”, INDIKA is really just a very interesting and pretty walking simulator (which its trailer denies it is... but it is).

I suspect we have a bit of a Hideo Kojima situation on our hands with this one, where writer/director Dmitry Svetlov wanted to make a movie more than a video game. The world of INDIKA is beautiful and full of sights that you may have even seen before, but the world's tone makes everything feel uniquely dark. You've seen a giant fish, but in INDIKA, catfish the size of skyscrapers hang from hooks in a vast, grim, autonomous cannery. They're loaded into what looks like normal tuna cans, only these are the size of a small car and you'll use them for a stacking puzzle. How one begins to eat from these cans, you and Indika will never know.
The word “bleak” applies to almost everything you'll be seeing in INDIKA, from the vast, foggy, barren landscapes to the dismal, misshapen, near-empty cities.
However, Kojima games are beloved not just for their insane storytelling, but because the gameplay, while sometimes too infrequent, is usually very good or at the very least, interesting.

So it looks good and the atmosphere is perfect for a story, but is it a good “game”? I do not think so. Again, it's a walking sim, that's like automatically capping how good it can be. The occasional puzzle is barely even a speed bump and the switch to retro graphics when delving into Indika's past is interesting but always short-lived -- as is this entire adventure. Really, there's not much for you to “do”. If you try the demo, you've seen all you'll be doing (and some things, like its chase, you won't be doing again).

Were it to be a movie, I think they've already got an incredible director of photography. Even how the opening credits are shown is something I've never seen before. Almost every cutscene has a filmic touch with shots that feel inspired by an Aronofsky or Lanthimos picture. I enjoyed Indika's story and her crisis of faith; I was successfully hooked and wondered what would happen to her, her captor, and her personal demon. Indika starts asking some pretty important philosophical questions on her journey and I was quite proud of her for even considering it.
I liked the touches added to make her so meek and vulnerable: her gaze is always downward and dodgy and if you stand still, she picks or nibbles at her cuticles and nails. Left clicking will have her wipe away at her forehead, right clicking and she'll cross herself. Interestingly, there are moments where if you have Indika cross herself – like under a painting of Jesus – you're rewarded with experience (and you are not told this). Unfortunately, the game isn't lying when it tells you “Don't grieve over lost points, they're useless anyway”.

...but it was all too brief. This story can easily be completed in one sitting if you are unemployed and there's no replay value. While the ending is painfully relatable for anyone who has ever been in need of some serious introspection, it's also pretty abrupt and maybe a hair lackluster for a video game. There's also no skipping of cutscenes, so if a lengthy one plays and you quit? When you come back, you're watching all that again. Pretty frustrating stuff.

It's definitely interesting and I'm glad I gave it a shot, but I guess I'd be sure to say that when you go into this, you won't get too much of a “game” out of it. It's a bit of a ride but definitely feels like playing a movie, there's almost no “need” for players to interact. Some of the dark humor here reminded me of “The Crying of Lot 49”, too, not totally sure why.

I think I can sort of recommend it. Maybe get it on a good sale.

Артхаус во всем его проявлении. Это как если бы A24 выпустили игру :)
Сразу хочется обратить внимание, что геймплейно, игра ничего интересного не привносит. Но история, ее подача через очень кинематографические сцены, игра и озвучка актеров, заставляет тебя с интересом наблюдать за происходящим. Разработчикам нужно отдать должное, подход у ребят к проекту был серьезные, и видно что они сделали все возможно чтобы это выглядело дорого и круто. Я получил удовольствие от того как передана Россия конца 19 века. Геймплейно ничего серьезного, у меня всю игру проходила жена, аркадные моменты ее только заставили понервничать :) Мораль, история, ну тут уже думаю каждый для себя что-то выделит и поймет. В остальном интересный проект на 4-5 часов.

Os elementos mais interessantes do jogo, como a gamificação da religião (incluindo também os momentos iniciais lentos e desrespeitosos com a personagem principal, mas que garantem pelo menos um pontinho extra que vai gerar a salvação), a mecânica de mudança do cenário pela ação "orar" e a mudança clara de jogo ao resgatar as memórias da infância costumeiramente associadas a um período feliz (não atoa nessas memórias eles brincam com a percepção de algumas pessoas do que seria uma "era de ouro" para os jogos) são subutilizados para um jogo que joga muito mais na safezone do que parece querer admitir.

Bastante inofensivo.

Mas pelo menos sincero.

Really quite good, often stunningly gorgeous, and endlessly stylish. Indika peddles in the phantasmagoric in its exploration of trauma, faith, and the loss thereof. Stunning landscapes are interspersed amongst hyper-surrealist industrial explorations of pre-revolution Russia.

Surely this can't be God's plan?

Indika is not exploring ideas that haven't been touched before, but I haven't come across many games that examine a fall from grace/faith in the way that Indika does, and certainly not as stylishly. Flourishes of color and dream-like hyperbole work their way into nearly every pivotal moment of the game's plodding structure. While the themes explored may not be groundbreaking, the aesthetics of their exploration are inarguably mature, particularly for the medium, doubly so for the fidelity at which Indika is rendered.

It is not hard to imagine this same game conceived as a low-poly low-res walking sim, exploring the same concepts and plot points. It is genuinely delightful to see a game that would be seen as extremely niche a few years ago be given such a grand budget to beautifully render its story in.

I could not help but think of Playdead's Inside and Limbo while playing this – Indika seems heavily inspired by those games' focus on atmosphere and tone, above all else. As such, I think the same folks that were frustrated by the somewhat rote puzzle-solving in either of the aforementioned games will probably grind their teeth during the similar puzzle sections here.

All in all, Indika is well worth the price of admission in its beauty alone. Expertly crafted environments that are further buoyed by gorgeous cinematography (the wolf water-wheel shot in particular mwah!).

I saw some folks comparing Indika to an A24 film and I do agree that that description is probably the quickest way to get consumers to understand the type of vibe this game is going for. I've never quite played a game like this but I also do wonder if this would've been better as a film...

Starting off with the strong points, the art direction, set designs and voice acting are all superb. This was one of the best looking indie games from both technical and artistic point-of-view in some time for me. The atmosphere is also fantastic with good usage of surrealism to make the player go "Did I just see that?" as you play through this game.

The strong art design is also strongly supported by its narrative. I bet a lot of folks, in regards to a video game about a nun that can hear the devil, to be very particular about its point-of-view about religion. I found the themes to be thoughtful but also not stuffing ideologies down your thought. The narrative is pretty bleak for the most part but it does provide a good level of dark humor using the aforementioned surreal elements, music and gameplay.

Unfortunately this where I start to turn a corner on this game. Despite the all previously mentioned positives, the gameplay is just...so dull. While I do appreciate that the game plays with gamification as a way to drive some of its themes home, the majority of this game is spent walking and solving banal puzzles. What also doesn't help is that this game has one of the worst Unreal Engine stutters I've seen. Nothing quite ruins an atmosphere of a game when the game is stuttering so hard you're missing parts of cutscenes and or having trouble navigating the environment.

Overall, despite some technical gripes and dull gameplay, I'm glad I spent my time playing through Indika. I think I'd suggest to wait and see if the stuttering is improved. I genuinely think the narrative is interesting enough to make it worth the 5 hour runtime.

Agh. Fuck. How do I talk about this without ruining it? I'll do my best.

What I was most worried about going in was that this was going to be some Reddit atheist-tier shit. It is thankfully not! Indika is about one nun's journey, both literally and ideologically, and how her life experience has made her current situation untenable. If you're familiar with Christian doctrine and apologetics you'll have heard a good amount of it before, but they're communicated well and their visual interpretations are genuinely impressive. It ain't deep, mind, but it's well told.

The unexpected element is its tonal range. A lot of writing-forward games tend to have exactly one mood, one vibe, and feel shallow as a result even if what's there is well executed. I went through this with a few friends and the game, to its credit, had us in rapt silence at some moments and howling with laughter at others. The game is overall on the somber side, especially towards the end, which makes its occasional comedic bits knock the wind out of you in the best way. The bike scene is worth the price of admission alone.

The day I start seeing "INDIKA ENDING: EXPLAINED: GONE SEXUAL" recommended to me on YouTube is the day I give up on gamers becoming even baseline media literate.

Eu gostei do jogo, dura em média 2 horas e meia, o humor do jogo é muito bom, os quebra-cabeça não são difíceis e o jogo não é de terror, a narrativa é interessante e te prende até o final, quando eu terminei eu esperava mais do jogo no geral, parece que tava faltando algo mais, eu gostei muito da personagem INDIKA e do ILYA, queria ver muito mais desses 2 juntos durante o jogo, a ambientação e gráficos são excelentes, outra coisa que eu gostei bastante foram os ângulos da câmera que deram um toque especial ao jogo.

Indika é um jogo muito interessante mas que ao mesmo tempo eu não consigo recomendar para absolutamente ninguém, a ideia do jogo de trabalhar com o tédio e dissonância é maravilhosa quando funciona e trás um sentimento único ao desenrolar da trama e dos seus personagens, ao mesmo tempo que quando falha, fazem a vontade de largar o jogo completamente, e por mais absurdo que isso soe, são esses momentos que, quando superados, te trazem ainda mais para o mundo do jogo e o desenvolvimento dos personagens e as metáforas religiosas dentro dele porém... é um jogo MUITO curto, consegui finalizá-lo mesmo ficando preso em alguns puzzles, consegui finalizá-lo em pouco menos de quatro horas, que honestamente faz parecer que a história não foi concluída e optaram pelo final mais rápido possível, o que pelo menos pra mim foi bem incômodo, já que era o principal ponto que me mantinha interessado no jogo

A melhor forma de descrever INDIKA além de um jogo quase impossível de se dar uma nota é que ele é a definição de um Jogo A24, tendo visíveis inspirações em diretores como o Ari Aster e o Yorgos Lanthimos e principalmente com as frequentes subversões da sua forma midiática e dos temas que aborda, mesmo com a sua curta direção, não vou dizer que é um jogo ruim, mas é um jogo que apesar de toda a sua construção e a sua estranheza, tropeça no final e nos dá um final vazio, que faz com que todo o progresso que desenvolvemos junto com a protagonista seja mesmo que significativo, algo desinteressante ou que faça você sentir que valeu apena a jornada, parece muito mais um tempo gasto do que qualquer coisa apesar de suas integrações que parecem absurdas terem um enorme charme e adicionarem bastante para a experiência

Se colocado apenas de maneira formal, o jogo pode ser ovacionado como algo genial a vontade mas pessoalmente, não é algo que eu me vejo revisitando nem de longe, sendo mais um daqueles jogos que no conceito são geniais e um verdadeiro deleite para o publico correto, quando na realidade, são obras que acabam ficando maçantes devido a sua critica rasa e mesmo tendo elementos que o diferenciam a partir de sua própria estranheza e uma enorme coragem em incluir elementos dessa estranheza, acabam se perdendo no meio do caminho nela mesma, fazendo com que uma história muito bacana e com personagens interessantes irem pelo ralo

Indika is a tough game to flesh out. It’s surreal environments coupled with stylistic fervor for framing scenes makes so much of the game compelling. And its interrogation of religious ambiguities reaches some interesting boiling points. But I also think much of the narrative is bogged down by less than inspired game design, with too few resonant character beats in between too many arduous levels. Still, I appreciate the swing even though the game couldn’t resolve that tension.

(Also, I’ve seen comparisons made about Indika to an A24 movie, and, even though I don’t agree with that - that doesn’t mean anything - I DO think the game is more interested in leveraging film language for its narrative with gameplay secondary)

Indika is a masterful video game, though very frequently not-fun. I need to warn about Indika’s content as a religious horror game.

Towards the end, there’s a scene that addresses sexual coercion. Using the garish fade-to-red film technique to address the dehumanization without having to render the details, there’s a point where this game reaches peak narrative horror. This works with the core theme of a deep desire to crawl out your skin in fucked-up religious sort of prison that includes your own worldview. It’s just… forewarning / skip-ability would be good.

It reminds me of a lot of A24’s more recent horror films: the terror keeps things moving, puts us on the edge of our seat and makes is want for the ick to be defeated., The bad situation is the point. None of what’s happening is okay.

The more chill moments also have this air of discomfort. Yaking selfie screenshots of Indika feels a bit like an invasion of privacy. She looks briefly at the camera when you rotate around to see her face, then immediately looks away, trying to avoid the knowing fact that we’re watching her.

Taking selfies of Indika feels a bit like an invasion of privacy. She looks briefly at the camera when you rotate around to see her face, then immediately looks away, trying to avoid the knowing fact that we’re watching her.

The gameplay itself is mostly about trying to get out of your own personal hell. Indika frequently takes control of nightmarish Industrial Revolution era steam machines to seek out that one very-restrictive pathfinding exit. This makes exploration often feel as oppressive as Indika’s guilt-ridden alienation. The reprieve in all of this is a partnership with a man whose arm is infected with sepsis named Ilya. Their friendship book-ends the game and yields the most narrative surprises. I should go into it more, but for now I think I need to call it.

Is it a game for everyone? I'm not sure. Is it a unique experience? Definitely.

It doesn't say anything about faith that hasn't been said before, but as a narrative-driven game, it's a cinematic experience with good writing and good presentation with its humor. Most importantly, it's a game with character.

I'm not sure if that bit at the end was necessary though, I think it conflicts with the rest of the story.

Amazing narrative driven, walking simulator-esque, game with a few puzzles. It felt like playing Limbo/Inside at times, where there's more meaning to the environments and a greater emphasis on our understanding of the story being told. The titular character, Indika's story starts with a sort of tragedy and guilt, and nothing's felt the same for her ever since. A dark, surreal and thought-provoking experience; I loved playing this game. I really enjoyed the pixel art mini-games too.

P.S. I recommend using the Russian language for the dialogues.