What color is your Prophesy?

I've been playing video games for a very very long time. It's only when I really sit down and think about it that I realize exactly how long that actually is. It's been going on for like 20 years now. I never owned one of the original Pong games that you actually hooked into your television without a master console system. I had a friend, who did but I didn't. I didn't have a Atari 2600 either. I had another friend who had one of those. My first actual system was the less popular, much heavier Atari 5200. It was big and black and mean as hell, like Shaft. I don't remember the exact year we got the '52' but I dimly remember playing E.T., Joust, and lots of other classic seriously pixelated games that pretty much had me hooked from the word go. I guess, I guess what I'm trying to say is: I've been playing video games for a long time.

The reason I stress this particular point is because up until very recently I assumed I'd played every kind of game possible. I certainly hadn't played every game but everything from RPGs, Shooters, Adventure games, platformers, fighting games, sports titles, etc. etc. I was sure I'd pretty much played them all. This, apparently, erroneous conclusion was debunked roughly 5 days ago when I finally got my hands on Indigo Prophesy. It's kind of this murder mystery, adventure game, with dash of donkey Konga. It pretty much defies description. The story opens with the main character Lucas Kane in the stall of a bathroom diner cutting his arms with a knife, pretty normal really. Also in the can is some poor schmuck whom we'll just call Dead. Given his descriptive name you can imagine his role in this drama. Essentially you're left with a man who commits a crime against his will and doesn't know why. Enter the funkified gameplay: throughout the game there are, like in all games, obstacles one must overcome. Sometimes they're physical altercations, sometimes it's things less anxious like finding a book. Anyhoo, the really cool thing about this game is that it is played via a series of mini-games which are really nothing more than button mashers and jumped versions of Simon. These mini-games cover everything from dodging cars that are trying to mow you down to playing basketball. In most "story driven" games they fall neatly into one of the genres I mentioned before: shooters, adventure games, etc. This is quite different and, might I add, refreshing. In only a few places did the mini-games actually interfere with my enjoyment of the story proper. One particularly lengthy sequence of mini-games seemed to stretch off into eternity, but I'm glad to say by drawing deep on my well of resolve (and by setting the difficulty to 'Easy'), I perservered and finished the game. (It is also worth noting that this particular sequence brought me closer to the brink of juvenile rage than I have been in a very long time. Luckily, no game controllers, furniture, or cats were thrown in my conniption; though a throw pillow or two might have been, shall we say, over-fluffed.)

Another big point to this game's credit is that it's sole reward system is further revelation of the plot. There are no bigger guns or magic swords to acquire, no levels to increase, not even a final boss to exact revenge upon. The only driving force behind why you keep playing this game is so you can find out what the bloody hell is going on with Lucas and his homicidal tendencies. To me, that's a truly story driven game.

Unfortunately I can't, or rather won't, divulge any major plot points because I think they should be experienced for themselves, preferably in the dark. Go out and rent this game, if you own an Xbox or PS2. If you don't, make friends with someone who does. You can also obtain it for your desktop PC, though I imagine the game is a bit of a resource hog. If you don't play games, fear not, you don't really need to be particularly good at games to play this, remember, it's all about the story. If you have one person on hand with decent hand-eye coordination and pretty good button-mashing skills, they will suffice. The great thing about this game is that it's not only fun to play but excellent when played "by committee" which is a term me and my friends coined oh so many aeons ago. That is, to have one person playing and a room full of people fulfilling the role of back-seat driver and offering insight about a given puzzle or problem. In truth, it plays and, I guess, 'watches' more like an interactive movie than a video game.

All in all I give Indigo Prophesy - 3 Noses?