- Tested on PC with RTX 4070 TI in 3440 X 1440 ultra wide screen.
- Code provided by 11 bit studios.
- Screenshots and home gameplay captures.
- Finished in four hours shows in hand. Short but intense.
Indika, last production of the Russian studio Odd Meter and edited by 11 bit studiosDon't miss boldness. In this narrative game in the heart of a Uchronic Russia of the late XIXnd century, a young nun is embodied drawn between repentance and sin, faith and desire. Embarked on an improvised initiatory journey with a soldier rescued with a gangrene arm, Indika Puts his beliefs to the test.
Don't do this. Don't do this.
When you see the macaroon 11 bit studio, you're not sure you don't play games like the others. Between autocratic survival simulation Frostpunk whose second episode is expected this summer and This War Of Mine which showed war from the perspective of civilian survival, the Polish publisher stands out in the videoludic landscape by its dystopic universes that systematically question the player about the opportunity and ethics of his choices. In the meantime The Alters which is just as barred, it's with curiosity that we launched Indika.
So it is to the third person that we begin our adventure in a convent where the other austere (and hypocritical) nuns entrust you with the most ungrateful stains. Like games like The Stanley Parable which highlighted the aberrations of gameplay of the medium and injunctions to follow to the letter the scriptual device imposed by the narrator, we follow the indications suggested by our inner voice. While we bring water from the well, bucket after bucket, Indika wonders why he is asked to carry out this ungrateful task, when there is water directly accessible to the source. This critical thought is in a way the seed that will cause the other doubts to germinate by a domino effect.
Very inspired in its staging as its artistic direction, the game oscillates between Kafkaian puzzles and strange, if not oppressive, kinematics, as if we were watched at every corner of the screen. The perspective sometimes takes one side fish-eye and do not hesitate to accentuate this feeling of discomfort generated by a counter-dive and a moving camera way Blair Witch. As with Atomic Heart (read our critical), it would be sinful not to play in Russian version to benefit from the original experience.
After meeting a fugitive soldier, Indika already sees its first mission of importance upset. The handing over of a letter to the secret content is shuddered by the invasion of this tormented man, former prisoner on the run. Their discussions reveal everything that separates them and paradoxically unites them. By crossing obstacles together, this unlikely duo questions our choices, even though the linear scenario does not offer any other script branching. Throughout the adventure, we can also collect good points, a metaphor barely veiled from the quest for purity to go to paradise considered in its most trivial form: the positive differential between our good and bad actions. Here too, the game's diet reminds us that this quest is as vain as it is useless by alerting us during the rare loading screens. « It's no use. » the machine.
The Devil in the Body
Rare in the middle of video game as movie, Indika has chosen a theme that limits to heresy. This young nun converses with the devil who does not hesitate to show the aberrations of religion, its dogmas and forbidden. Odd Meter Do not hesitate to multiply the parallels with Bible verses, which can be seen as fantasized echoes to the image. Visually Indika is allowed all fantasies by representing this psychic capharnaum in which this young girl sent to the convent before even being an adult. She also confesses to us how heavy this bra is to wear every day. The abbess ensures that the girls never take her away, not even at night.
When she prays, the world is billed on the screen. This flaw in which our inner voice is heard to hold blasphemous words in loop, even outright dirty, refers to our past sins and our present desires. Totally freed from the realistic carcan, this Russian work also opts for cute 2D sequences to tell flashbacks before Indika takes the path of God. A clever narrative process that highlights its questions about free will and those of the soul tortured by passions, even if it shakes up the impregnable citadel of faith.
Indika likes to turn us around. The linear level design, however, removes the distance-guided path of narration thanks to a labyrinthic progression and a tendency to target the skies. Focused on the quest for physical as well as spiritual elevation, the game of Odd meter succeeds in symbolically representing the tears that go through Indika. The latter embarks on an introspection which, mechanically, encounters the conceptual limits of any dogma. His monastery is compared to a prison, while Indika never chose, minor, to become a religious. The free will that God would have bestowed on his creatures, Indika disassembles him piece by piece:
« I don't even understand what all this rhymes about, that "freedom" with which God has "blessed us." Why would God need this so-called freedom if, in the end, it is satisfied only when we make specific choices? He could have created me in a way he liked. »
A message that is all the more promising as the title turns us in a hurry in this long corridor where any attempt to fork against a wall. When the music derails and borrows retro midi tints or frogs participate in the OST by their creases, the game takes on a baffled and upuesque coloration. We're out of line with these litanyes disconnected from the real. Like this putrefaction arm of the soldier who gives us the replica, the faith of Indika inevitably rots and only a miracle could reverse the steam.
TrailerIndika
An anti-religious blushing or deep reflection on the vanity of the faith, this is the question that cogulates in the player's head in search of meaning in the face of a world in decrepitude. One thing is certain, it is not the patriarch of the Orthodox Church who will give the holy anointing to the developers of Odd Meter. Faithful of the Kremlin and the voice of its crusade against so-called Western values (so satanic), the Russian Church has already chosen its side. Writing correctly, Indika is a brilliant proposition that one would cruelly want to put into the hands of a blessed ass to see it liquefy in the face of the religious impasse. An express experience that ends in four hours, the adventure is short but mastered from end to end. In the register of real good deeds, they, the developers of the Indika propose to give part of the funds to Ukrainian children victims of the famous « Special military operation » who doesn't say his name. Overtaken by the conflict, it was from Kazakhstan that the developers were able to complete their work. Hide this war that I could not see and whose indelible traces are read behind Indika's desolate landscapes and mutilated characters. Odd Meter's game shows with panache that belief is only about a thread and that religion exists only when you give up asking yourself the right questions. Mass is said and we hope to see other Russian productions also engaged in the coming years.
For
- An anti-religious blushing or deep reflection on the vanity of the faith, this is the question that cogulates in the player's head in search of meaning in the face of a world in decrepitude. One thing is certain, it is not the patriarch of the Orthodox Church who will give the holy anointing to the developers of Odd Meter. Faithful of the Kremlin and the voice of its crusade against so-called Western values (so satanic), the Russian Church has already chosen its side. Writing correctly, Indika is a brilliant proposition that one would cruelly want to put into the hands of a blessed ass to see it liquefy in the face of the religious impasse. An express experience that ends in four hours, the adventure is short but mastered from end to end. In the register of real good deeds, they, the developers of the Indika propose to give part of the funds to Ukrainian children victims of the famous « Special military operation » who doesn't say his name. Overtaken by the conflict, it was from Kazakhstan that the developers were able to complete their work. Hide this war that I could not see and whose indelible traces are read behind Indika's desolate landscapes and mutilated characters. Odd Meter's game shows with panache that belief is only about a thread and that religion exists only when you give up asking yourself the right questions. Mass is said and we hope to see other Russian productions also engaged in the coming years.
- Intoxicating artistic direction
- Ingenious narrative device
- The noise of the steps in the snow
- Indika Expressions
- Full dubbing in Russian
- Incongruous side of progression
- The mixture 2D / 3D
- Smells of eyes
- Prayer system
Against
- Funds will go in part to Ukraine
- Ephemeral life
- Crane puzzles with little inspiration
Fracture of underexploited prayers?
What did I like this game, and what originality. You really had to dare to make a title that talks about such a subject, it's so rare in the video game. He's really full of religion, but with finesse and subtlety.
It's punk-minded works like this one that the narrative video game needs, no EU5 showcases at pompous dialogues like Hellblade 2.
I just downloaded Hellblade, we'll see what it's like, I'll go a little backwards but everything will depend on the story in a walking simulator.
Well, I'm the one who's playing practically no, this game is damn intrigue! Thanks for sharing 😉