When you spend so much time covering video games, it’s rare to get a true “fresh” experience even in a new title. Press releases and trailer showcases often make it hard to stay ignorant of details entirely. However, INDIKA had such a strong first impression on me that I committed to not looking into it at all until I played the game for myself. Having now beaten the game, I can say that going in “blind” is the best way to experience INDIKA and although my review will be spoiler-free, I will be talking about themes and areas that you are better off discovering for yourself. If you are simply here to see if I recommend the game or not, yes, I do. Come back and read this after you’re done playing it.
INDIKA is a third-person narrative-driven adventure game set in a surreal world that is a thematic caricature of our own. You play as the titular nun, a shunned woman who goes on a journey of self-discovery, alongside an unexpected companion, when her monastery sends her out to deliver a letter. Throughout the game’s roughly four-and-a-half-hour adventure, you will wander through striking areas like a gloomy monastery, a rundown village, and a few more that I won’t ruin here.
The game wears its arthouse sensibilities on its chest and as someone who has dabbled in the genre before, I have to commend the game on its execution. Experimental storytelling can be memorable and effective if the guiding hand is confident and, in INDIKA, it certainly feels like it. This is a result of several different aspects of the game, such as design, writing, lensing, and acting, working together to build toward a unique experience.
Let’s start with the design. Although a majority of the game is in 3D, there are brief 2D mini-games that give you a glimpse into Indika’s past. Much like any good narrative, there’s a satisfying (or horrifying) way in which it all comes together in the end, but I am not just talking about structural design here. The game starts, rather abruptly, with a mini-game where Indika has to collect coins as she falls from the sky. These points are an ever-present factor in your adventure. A lot of the actions you do in the story award you with a jingle and some points that the game itself emphasizes are meaningless.
That may seem like an odd choice but when you take it in with the context of Indika’s journey, and her struggles with faith, the points become a sort of meta-commentary. Much like the points in the game, are all our life’s deeds inconsequential in the end? Or perhaps they matter a lot because they satisfy and motivate you on your journey? This is just one of the many deep and thought-provoking questions the game attempts to start and conversations like the one regarding a dog and its body kept rolling around in my head long after I put down the controller.
Of course, good writing needs good performances to bring it to life and it’s done really well here. Most of the game is a conversation between two characters, with others being thrown in along the way. Those three core performances, for Indika, Ilya, and the narrator, are all well delivered. With so much pontificating going on in this game, it’s a fine line between making the dialogue sound authentic and heavy-handed. For me, it totally worked and I was often quite content on listening to characters talk for as long as they wanted.
A key part of INDIKA‘s strong sense of style are the bold camera and music choices. The purposeful lensing, framing, rigging, and staging of the game’s cinematics make for some really memorable moments. Scenes where the camera placement takes an already interesting scene and adds a dreamlike quality to it. And through cool level design, a part of that dreaminess is reflected in the gameplay where certain sections of the game play with perspective in interesting ways. The soundtrack, which is composed by Mike Sabadash, is a complimentary mix of dreamy soundscapes and glitchy chiptune. I would liken it to the score of Annihilation, in a good way!
There are some sections that are a perfect amalgamation of all these aspects of INDIKA. There are a few sequences when the screen goes red, and the voice in Indika’s head, who naggingly narrates the game, begins shouting disparaging thoughts while Indika has to navigate a level-based puzzle. The only way to stop his rambling is to hold the “Pray” button and focus, during which the world snaps back into place, and the only words you hear are Indika’s own prayers. From the dark writing and convincingly menacing delivery to cool level design and fitting aesthetics, it is an easy spot to point to when trying to show INDIKA at its most cohesive.
I do want to take a second to say that INDIKA is not without its flaws. I played the game on the PlayStation 5 and there were some hiccups here and there. Make no mistake, what the small team at Odd Meter has done to make this game look as good as it does is impressive but it won’t compare 1:1 with a AAA game either. If you use subtitles, you can find the occasional spelling/grammar mistakes and I also found a few of the puzzles to be a little too obtuse. In other words, it’s a puzzle game where the puzzles are often the least interesting about it. Though I suppose that’s always subjective in these sorts of titles.
Last year, Russia attempted an unprovoked invasion of Ukraine. If you’re wondering why I took that abrupt left turn, among the millions of people impacted by the conflict, developer Odd Meter was one of them. As the founder of Odd Meter, Dmitry Svetlow, said following the announcement of the game, the developers were already walking a fine line by working with topics (like the Russian Orthodox Church) that can get someone criminally prosecuted in Russia. After the invasion began, ten out of fourteen members of Odd Meter fled Russia to set up a base in Kazakhstan and continue the development of the game.
The reason I bring all this up is that this team felt like what it had to say was worth saying and that these conversations were worth starting. To be clear, the game isn’t that interested in providing answers to the questions it poses and if that’s something you need in your games, you will be disappointed. But it’s still worth the playthrough; if only to hear it out. See what it has to say and whether it goes in one ear and out the other or worms a thought in your brain, know that it was done with intent. INDIKA is available now on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC. A review code was provided by the publisher.
