This morning I finally finished Indigo Prophecy - a 3 year old game for the original XBOX which has been critically lauded and been the subject of a good amount of discussion recently due to the upcoming release of the developer Quantic Dream's new title, Heavy Rain.
Story
Being partial to a good story, I was immediately sucked in by the mysterious plot of what was originally known as Fahrenheit. The story revolves around the main character of Lucas Kane, who while under the control of unseen forces, murders a man in the bathroom of a New York City diner. While taking control of Lucas as well as the two police partners that are assigned the case, you slowly unravel the mystery of the heinous crime and realize just how deep the whole thing really goes.
Gameplay
I'd say the gameplay was a mixed bag. At it's heart this title really feels most like an adventure game where you freely control your character as he or she walks around the environment while you look for hotspots that you can interact with to further that particular scene. There are action sequences as well, but they are all handled using Quick Time Events, which in 2005 were just coming into style, but by 2008 have become jarring and somewhat annoying to me, especially when they involve two analog stick icons and are smack dab in the middle of the screen as is the case here.
Overall though, the story, characters, and music (composed by longtime David Lynch composer Angelo Badalamenti) are so good that the lack of one to one action really doesn't bring things down a whole lot. I still had a lot of fun playing it, and was anxiously devouring each small chunk of the story that was fed to me and ready to move onto the next course.
Conclusions and Dancing
I give Indigo Prophecy a solid B and look forward to playing the developer's next game, Heavy Rain. And now I must leave you with this bonus unlockable - a secret dance scene using all the various character models from the game. Absolutely hilarious!
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