Indigo Prophecy -- SPOILER FREE

Wait a second...are you saying that knowing what to do at all times is a bad thing?

And who cares about puzzles? Go play Myst!

Mmm, as long as it's a fun experience all the way through, i'll consider it a success.

Steering the topic a bit, that'd be my main beef with adventure games. They're my favourite genre but man, there's nothing worse than getting horribly stuck on a fiendish puzzle and having the game come to a grinding halt.

Case in point, 6 months since i last touched Riven. ^^

I don't mean to say that there should be a plethora of mind-numbingly hard puzzles, I'm just saying that I felt like IP was way too...simplistic in direction.

I enjoyed in Tex games, for instance, when I was at a point where I could go and talk to different people about different things and not be forced to do 1 thing in particular. Yes there are times when you are forced to accomplish a specific goal before you can proceed, but I felt like IP left it to the digital equivalent of dangling the proverbial carrot in front of you, letting you know exactly what action to perform and in which direction to do it.

The few instances where you were left to your own devices (e.g. clearing out of a location stealth-fully) were some of the best in the game, for me.

As for Myst, it's probably my most hated adventure game, as it is just a series of still photos and dial moving, in my opinion. I need more interaction and freedom.

I just thought I'd revive this thread a bit seeing as how this game is by far one of the best adventure games this year in my opinion. I'm currently playing through Fahrenheit (the European version of Indigo Prophecy) on my PS2 and I must say that I'm totally hooked to it all. There are so many great things about this game that I don't even know where to begin

Warning: There might be spoilers in this message but if so it's not my intention to reveal them as I find it fair for you all to play through the game without knowing all that much about what happens.

- First of all I love the way it all plays almost as if I'm watching a movie on TV. The fact that I can play with multiple characters and both be in the shoes of the "villain" and the police really sets it all up like a movie where we get to see the crime being committed, help the villain to escape and afterwards help the police to catch him.

- I think it's great that certain "puzzles" require a limited amount of time in order to succeed. That way I will always be hooked and sometimes panic a little bit when I'm too slow and that's a good thing because the game will still keep my interest even if I have to restart from the latest point where the game was saved (which happens automatically on the PS2).

- In most of the cutscenes I've witnessed so far you get to know the inner most feelings of the character you play so that way you really get a good inside look at who the character is and how he/she is like. The dialogue is always superbly done. I really feel sad for the characters sometimes when I hear what they've suffered throughout their lives (or throughout the game) and that's what makes a great game as well.

- The action sequences are also quite entertaining and fairly easy to learn although it can be tough to succeed all the time. With the PS2 both analog sticks are required which doesn't take a lot of practice to learn but it is still very entertaining to see what the sequences can do to the characters

- Every action you make in the game has a consequence for the story - now that is interesting I think. The first time I played the first scene I tried to hurry out of the café but was stopped because I didn't pay the bill - after quickly doing so and disappearing into the New York nightlife I played the police coming to interrogate the witnesses, and what do you know - the waitress mentioned the unpaid bill. That would not have happened if the villain knew he had to pay the bill and remembered to pay it before running away - it would then have been harder for the police to get information out of the waitress.

Anyway - I have yet to find out more aspects of the game as I'm only about 20% through the game, but it all seems VERY promising for me so I'm always looking forward to play it when time allows it

Screenshots of the game can be found at http://www.fahrenheitgame.com

/// netroam

Atomicvegetable wrote:Mmm, as long as it's a fun experience all the way through, i'll consider it a success.

Steering the topic a bit, that'd be my main beef with adventure games. They're my favourite genre but man, there's nothing worse than getting horribly stuck on a fiendish puzzle and having the game come to a grinding halt.

Case in point, 6 months since i last touched Riven. ^^

ugh.. disk 5 of "ripper"... havnt been back to that in over a year. someday Ill get back to it, when I want to get angry at something, lol

Atomicvegetable wrote:
Case in point, 6 months since i last touched Riven. ^^

To your defense; Riven is the hardest of the series... and probably one of the most mind-bending games I ever played!

It's just so damn.... HUGE!

-Cub. =o)

I finally got around to buying Indigo Prophecy. So far, I'm amazed at it's cinematic qualities. It's games like this that show me that a Tex Murphy game in CGI can be done properly. Sure some of the control issues were corny, and you don't get nearly enough dialouge options to tool around with, but I have to say the best adventure game I've picked up in a while. I like playing as the killer, and then the detectives to try and piece together the crime. So far, I haven't gotten too far, but I've had sex with two different women, with two different characters. That gives the game an A+ in my book. (Believe me the censored scenes doesn't bother me, for the US version. I *know* what they did, and that's good enough for me. )

Right now, I believe I have a ways to go. I just made it to the part where the two detectives start to have a little practice boxing match, and so far, this game rocks socks.

I'd say if you haven't played it, get it. The storyline makes it so worth it.

So far, I haven't gotten too far, but I've had sex with two different women, with two different characters.

That just shows me how different the game can be. At that point, i didn't bang anyone. ^^

I am reluctant to call it an adventure game though because of the lack of puzzles. That's why i've thrown around the term "interactive movie" for this game. I guess maybe you could call it an arcade/adventure because of the action sequences playing like a twitch arcade game, reminding me a little of Dragon's Lair.

Of course, that's if you want to start classifying the game into a specific genre. Ignore what i just wrote, play and enjoy the game.

Also, Thomas, i'd be very interested to hear your thoughts once you beat it. Seeing as you're playing the game quite diferently to how i did. ^^

Thomas: I've also gotten to banging the 2 women but I guess I got to see and hear a bit more than the censored version seeing as how I have Fahrenheit and not Indigo Prophecy. Also - later on in the game I got to see the female detective get out of the shower and have a little glimpse of some nice attributes

Anyway - I'm a bit further into the game than you are. The police are indeed on my trail and I've managed to escape from them and also sneak my way around them in order to go a certain place.

I just love this game and I can't wait to continue with the game as soon as I've got the time for it. Perhaps tonight - who knows

Btw ... AV ... You're right - the action sequences does remind me a bit of Dragon's Lair as well, and you're also right that one could rightfully call this game an "interactive movie". I mean, there must be a reason why David Cage (the producer) make a tutorial where he stands "on the set" and guides us through the aspects of the game + the menu also says "new movie" when we want to start a new game. That just shows that David Cage's intentions with the game is to make the gamer feel like a part of a movie, and I have to agree with him. I indeed feel like I'm watching a movie when I'm playing and it's really great to catch the gamer's interest in that way. I'm hooked and I've been hooked ever since the very first mission in the game

/// netroam

***Warning*** Some Spoilers for the plot may exsist below. Not too much, just little bits.



Well I finished the game the other night, and all the hoopla, and fun I had associated with it has kind of died out. The ending sort of just slammed to a halt for me. I had the good ending, but still, I was expecting a little more. There was no reason for the detective and the main character to have a relationship. That seemed slapped together. Couple that, with the fact that the boss battles at the end of the game are the arcade like things you've been doing all game long, except they seemed easier this time around. Disappointing.

Having the sex with the two women at the beginning seemed to have no effect in the game other than just getting laid. One of the girls died, the other I sent packing to Florida with the "This is my job, and I have to do it, go by yourself" line. I was a bit thrown off by the A.I. thing too. A.I.!?! In this kind of game?!? It was like it was added at the last moment to make another plot twist. I mean, I bet the Mayans never had to deal with A.I. ... I swear, the end of the game, and the beginning of the game are so different. In the beginning you're thinking "This is revolutionary, man, wow, I'm so amazed at the amount of detail, and the things you can manipulate." I mean, seriously, I replayed the beginning part about 6 or 7 times just to see how many different ways I could manipulate things to not get caught. (Including, after killing the guy, washing up, leaving everything as it is, and going out and finishing my dinner like nothing happened. Try that Just make sure that when the cop gets up, you pay your bill and flee! )

Then the game gets towards the end, and all the options seem to dwindle. The worlds have less interaction, and you don't have a lot of things to mess with. At this point, you're kind of ushered along into a preset storyline, and you have like maybe three different points where you can majorly change the storyline, and a whole bunch of arcade sequences. That's it. Which is what I said at the ending of the game ... That's it!?!

I still give it a C+ though. I loved it at first. It was on track for an A till the game started to wind down.

Yeah, i read somewhere that if you enjoy this game, you can do yourself a favour by not playing it past the point when you have to decide whether to hand the indigo child over.

And yes, the A.I. bit really annoyed me. I kept on wondering if there was leadup to it and i missed it. I guess i'll find out when i play the game through a second time.

Nothing like writing a story of epic proportions and only giving you a slice of the whole pie. Perhaps a part two can explain the opposing factions better?

But yeah, the whole Carla-Lucas sex scene was rather silly. Very Hollywood. It's never a bad time to have sex when the whole world is on the brink of destruction.

I agree totally that the beginning of the game was definitely better than the ending. The Carla/Lucas thing seemed to come out of nowhere, but whatever. It setup IP2.

What has surprised me most from this thread is the extent to which the US version appears to be censored. Why, oh why must they do this?!

Because us Americans are fragile! Our fragile minds would crumble at the sight of extensive nudity!