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 do wonder if this would have been just as effective 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. I was also taken aback by how good the pixel art in this are (Yes, there are pixel art also). Both artstyles are punctuated by a ominous and sometimes kind of funny soundtrack that really plays with the way game presents itself.
The strong art design is also strongly supported by its narrative. I bet a lot of folks, in regard 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 (fumbling in some subject matters) but it does provide a good level of dark humor using the aforementioned surreal elements, music and gameplay.
Despite all the 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 that primarily involves moving boxes. The monotony is also sometimes broken up by minigames within the pixel art segments mentioned earlier. What also doesn't help is that this game has one of the worst Unreal Engine-related traversal 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.
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. I was also taken aback by how good the pixel art in this are (Yes, there are pixel art also). Both artstyles are punctuated by a ominous and sometimes kind of funny soundtrack that really plays with the way game presents itself.
The strong art design is also strongly supported by its narrative. I bet a lot of folks, in regard 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 (fumbling in some subject matters) but it does provide a good level of dark humor using the aforementioned surreal elements, music and gameplay.
Despite all the 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 that primarily involves moving boxes. The monotony is also sometimes broken up by minigames within the pixel art segments mentioned earlier. What also doesn't help is that this game has one of the worst Unreal Engine-related traversal 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.