Cheap PS2 Indigo Prophecy (Video Games) (PlayStation2) Price

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Customer Reviews of PS2 Indigo Prophecy

Do and say what you want!
Indigo Prophecy is in some ways a very innovative adventure game, and in other ways, extremely old fashioned with regards to the devices it puts you up against to get you through the story. Luckily, the game as a whole survives the weird amalgam of new and old school, and makes for an intrigueing and exciting experience. <
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>The story is what makes the game stand out the most, though. You play as the hero Lucas Kane, who suddenly finds himslef commiting a brutal murder while seemingly under some kind of possession. It's up to you to figure out what made you (him?) do it, which involves evading the police and gaining the trust of people who can provide clues to unlocking the mystery. Gameplay is different to most 3rd person adventures I have played. You can control your character movements, but all actions other than moving around can only be performed when you see an icon on your screen that relates to a certain "hotspot" you have found. Opening a door, using the bathroom and pouring a drink are probably not the most exciting things you can do in a videogame, but they all have to be done in this one, and you do need to get comfortable with the quick response controls because when the tension rises, you have to start making some pretty sharp decisions. The best parts of the game are the bits where you have a crisis situation suddenly develop, such as suspicious police knocking at your door, or a pitch-dark basement crawling with escaped lunatics to escape from, and you need to think fast as well as control what your character does, often with an onscreen timer counting down on the time you have left. I enjoyed these sequences a lot, and you really do get the outcome you deserve based on the decisions you make in those vital seconds. This time-attack approach is also applied to many question and answer conversations with other characters...to get the most out of some encounters you must think quickly and choose appropriate questions (or responses ) from a limited choice before a timer runs out. This can be fun too, and as you can imagine, outcomes vary considerable based on your judgement. <
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> At other times, a different control scheme comes into play. At certain critical moments, the screen will present you with pictoral representations of directional commands that you must apply with both the left and right analogue sticks, to ensure the best outcome to a sequence. This could be Lucas taking flight from mysterious apparitions, or just playing his guitar tunefully enough to win back his estranged girlfriend. The on screen prompts can be quite punishing, as they invariably get faster and more complex as an action sequence nears its conclusion. Sometimes you are even told to repeatedly mash two buttons as fast as you can to perform some strenuous task such as lifting something very heavy - see what I mean about old school? All good finger-aching fun, though. <
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>The look of the game is fairly polished, although the graphics are not incredibly detailed, but the atmoshphere is quite impressive. The characters are particularly well rounded, with good looking and well animated faces. Lucas makes an effective and realistic hero, and he's not the only playable character. You also get equal playing time with two police officers, Carla and Tyler. All three of these main characters have subtle personality traits and distinct emotions that make them really come alive. The voiceover work in the game is excellent, and there is a lot of it, as all conversations are spoken in full by the voice actors, and they do really good jobs. <
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>I've enjoyed the experience of Indigo Prophecy so much I don't really want to draw attention to any flaws, but I think it would be positive to point them out as the game overall is so effective. Firstly the movement control for the characters is problematic. This is because the in-game camera is totally fluid, so it's constantly swooping around and changing viewpoint, which means your control over the direction you want to head in is continually and repeatedly undermined. In timed sequences (such as a flashback where the young Lucas must quickly find three boys hiding in a dangerous building before it explodes), this movement handicap is a hazard that can potentially ruin the mission for you. Secondly, the action sequences where you must move both analogue sticks in the directions flashing up on screen are some of the most exciting sections of the story...but you can't possibly watch the drama unfolding as your concentration has to stay glued firmly to the on-screen prompts so as not to muck up the sequence you have to follow. I only have a vague recollection of a very striking sequence in which Lucas' apartment literally disintegrates around him, because I was staring at coloured dots and trying to keep him alive, and I could not afford to blink and miss a single one. For the record, game designers, please don't show the best visuals in the game at a time when the players attention will be totally wrapped up in watching something else! A better idea would have been to run a "wait for it" visual sequence under the button pressing promtps, and then show the unfolding visuals as a reward. <
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>My last point is rather more of a niggle - throughout the game, you switch between playing as Lucas, and the two police officers Carla and Tyler - yet your motivations for playing them are in direct opposotion to each other! As Lucas you must evade the police, and as Carla or Tyler you must track Lucas down and catch him. Yet whenever you play as either party, you are expected to play your hardest to make that character succeed. This seems most nonsensical in one sequence when, playing as Lucas, you must hide in an apartment as Tyler searches it. If you are found it's game over - yet from Tyler's point of view this would count as a victory. I found this very odd. I suppose the idea is to keep both parties heading forwards, but on a parallel course, so that the mystery can be fully unravelled before Lucas is wrongfully incarcerated by the law. I guess it doesn't ruin the game, and as the characters were all so well crafted, I did want them ALL to succeed, so I always appreciated victories on both sides. Even the rather salacious ones like helping Tyler's attempts to get some lovin' with his girlfriend, which shows the lighter side of the developers intentions. <
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>I think Indigo Prophecy is a success, most obviously because I found it very hard to switch off every time I started playing, and if the few control issues are fixed, I would really relish playing a sequel. The storyline does take increasingly bizarre turns towards then end, and the pay-off is not as epic or rewarding as the mystery-filled early stages might have promised. Even so, with a "choose your own adventure" game like this, there's always replay value if you think you could have made better choices along the way, and I'm definitely glad I tried it. <
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I felt misled...
Just for the record, I thought this game was really good the first time I played it through. As is said in many other reviews, it is pretty cool to be making a movie through your interactions and the such. And in this way, the game makes an astounding move in the right direction. <
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>But it isn't there yet. <
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>The first time I played it through I thought wow, the choices you make really affect things. There were a very few parts in which I thought wait, it seems like no matter what I did I would end up here doing this and so forth. And upon replay I figured out that I was wrong: the entire game is like that. <
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>Making a movie, you are not. Rather, you play through a movie. Minor details come and go at your whim, but still you are herded through the main plotline no matter what you do. It is not quite a Make-Your-Own Adventure as I thought it would be, which saddens me the most. <
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>That said it was a very interesting game with the most original gameplay I've seen in a long time. The button sequences for the PS2 version at times get in the way of the visuals, and don't always seem to follow what the character is doing at times. This isn't so bad for the most part, but in anticipating a sequel I hope they can find a better way to incorporate this. <
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>Overall, a very interesting game and worth a good play-through. But if you're expecting something non-linear like I did, don't.