our bad-to-the-bone monster killing cop protagonist enters an abandoned warehouse, posing as the base of operations where we suspect to find the vampirian culprits. this is our only lead. sparks shoot out of the ceiling and rusted pipes constrict the decrepit hallways. we come out into a doctor’s laboratory of sorts. dismembered human body parts, covered in blood might i add, wrap the floor and distract from the problem at hand. our flashlight blinks as it pans over to an operating table. there’s a tarp forming a body-like shape. a limp pair of feet emerge from this tarp. Mr. hero, who we would assume to be distraught after having seen the horrors presented before us, defiantly calls out.

“I guess that’s what happens when you don’t pay your insurance.”

By trying too hard to be clever, Indika left me completely out of the game. I felt like the game refused to be immersive. Several elements always kept me outside of this story which, on paper, should appeal to me. Indika is the product of a team of Russian developers exiled in Kazakhstan who want to denounce the Moscow Patriarchy through a politically critical game, part of whose profits go to a charity helping Ukrainian children.

The project is promising: going back in time (late 19th century?) and showing that Tsarist Russia (pre-communist) is strongly marked by the Orthodox religion. This church supposedly dictates to the Russian people the codes of conduct whose backbone is unquestionable obedience. As a churchwoman, Indika is therefore largely subject to these codes, and the game tells her "philosophical crisis of faith" through a pilgrimage between her convent and a city where a religious event is taking place. There is also a second, internal journey between Indika and a talkative narrator who keeps questioning the nun's certainties. From a literary point of view, it is situated between Dostoevsky (for the despair), Tolstoy (for the theological questions), the Enlightenment (for the aspect of dialogue and questioning reason), and André Breton (for the distortion of reality). There are also cinematographic references such as Yórgos Lánthimos and A24 productions.

Of course, there is a critical and political charge against the current Russian government. However, the criticism remains cautious: it keeps a safe distance from direct confrontation with the Putin regime. I am in no position to judge this because I believe there is surely a real danger in criticizing such a regime, even if one is in exile.

But despite all these good intentions, I must admit that the game slipped out of my hands several times. There is a real problem with immersion: I did not believe in this story at all. Maybe it's pure snobbery, but I would have needed dialogues in the original languages. Ilya almost has a "cockney accent" and Indika speaks like any character on Netflix.

This imagined and hallucinated Russia is still interesting. Some settings are really well done, especially the city scenes. I would have liked to explore them more but...

More than a problem of distance with the narration, I also feel that the developers were constantly mocking the players (and thus me). The game does not embrace its backbone, which is purely and simply a walking sim. Instead of working on this genre (which is far from being an established and definitive form), Indika (the game) constantly puts on a show: a few puzzles (with horrible controls), 2D platforming scenes (with hitboxes as faulty as those in Wizard of OZ on SNES), 3D isometric racing game segments, a "rhythm platformer" segment, and more. As a result, instead of being constantly surprised, we are constantly disappointed, even though I recognize some interesting moments here and there (the moments where Indika is torn between the devil and prayers and that changes the environment, honestly not bad at all).

This baroque mix of genres, not to say failed, adds to the fact that we are constantly pulled away from the game's story until we no longer care about it. The narrator's outbursts also become annoying, especially when this supposed internal voice is a male voice (for a female character) that sometimes has totally lewd aspects. Additionally, there is a rape scene that adds nothing to the story except wanting to remain "edgy".

Maybe there are some among you who really liked that the point system and skill tree serve no purpose (wow, how subversive!), but I rather felt that I was being mocked, not only as a "visual novel" enthusiast but also as a gamer. For the record, the first gameplay moment = "Fetch water from the well 5 times. I spill the water on the ground. Hahahahaha actually it's useless xD". In short, this annoys me, I need to calm down.

One scene particularly struck me. Crossing a huge sturgeon factory, you have to make your way by navigating circular platforms while avoiding fish. I had to retry several times due to the poor controls. After this forgettable scene, you enter a second similar room. At that moment, Indika exclaims: 'Oh no, not again.' I was thinking exactly the same thing as Indika: 'oh no, not again.'

I really respect what Wadjet Eye tried to do with Unavowed, and a lot of it worked really well for me. However, ultimately I think it was perhaps a little too ambitious in scope for the resources that they have available.

By having so many choices in the game, it means that a huge chunk of the game is not seen in a single playthrough, with many optional pieces of dialog and character building. I think the development resources were stretched a bit too thin in order to achieve this and I felt this most keenly in the puzzle design - almost every puzzle has a very simple solution, there are very few items in the game and much of it is progressed simply by exhausting all dialog options. Many of the encounters feel quite shallow as different characters need to be able to slot in and out of the situations depending on your choices.

I do like the characters and the world, some more than others, and I really liked the idea of having companion characters along for the ride with lots of idle chitchat and colouring the world for you. The "silent protagonist" style makes sense and they do some cool stuff with it, but I still didn't really like it. Your main character is incredibly dull in almost every way and it doesn't really make sense that you have as much control over events as you do.

Still I would be interested in a tighter, more focused sequel. Personally I would prefer if each mission just had set companions that insist they come a long for whatever reason and the entire sequence was structured with those characters in mind.

The achievements were also very annoying, requiring you to play through the pretty much the whole game with every possible combination of characters in order to get them all.