Basic Information

Indigo Prophecy is an adventure game developed by Quantic Dream and published by Atari. It was released on the Xbox, Playstation 2, and the PC. It was written and directed by David Cage. It's a dark, cinematic thriller that will be extremely difficult to put down.

Indigo Prophecy is the American version of the game. It is called Fahrenheit elsewhere. It was released in Europe on September 14, 2005, and in America on September 20th, 2005. However, a shipping problem caused the game to not reach stores until a few days later.

The Story

Indigo Prophecy starts out in the bathroom of a small diner in New York City. You are put in the shoes of Lucas Kane, who has just unwillingly murdered an innocent man. The game takes you along an interactive adventure in which you search for the truth. Why did you kill that man? Why are you having visions? Why have you noticed that you are becoming stronger? You must find the answers to all these questions, all the while avoiding the police, who are hot on your trail.

This game puts you in the unique position of letting you play as both Lucas Kane and two police detectives: Tyler Miles and Carla Valenti. So you are running from yourself while simultaneously trying to hunt yourself down.

The game's cinematic elements work perfectly. The music will set the mood so well, you may find yourself jumping in surprise or fear a few times early in the game. The game will go into splitscreen at some points, letting you follow the actions of two or more different characters. And you will find yourself deeply attached to the characters. So much so, that when you find the characters you control clashing directly, you are genuinely unsure of who to root for.

If there is one problem with this game, it is that some of the plot twists in the second half will leave you scratching your head. But this is by far made up for by the many excellent moments that leave you stunned. I was worried and nervous when the police showed up at my apartment and wanted to look around.

Gameplay

The main idea was to make Indigo Prophecy a kind of interactive movie. It uses a Simon Says style mini-game to progress through the interactive cut-scenes. These mini-games are very similar to those in Shenmue.

It was a sleeper hit, selling extremely well in Europe and less so in America. There was a large controversy about the censoring of several sex scenes in the game for the American version, to avoid an Adults only rating. It managed to keep the Mature rating for Blood, Partial Nudity, Sexual Themes, Strong Language, Violence, and Use of Drugs and Alcohol.

Many would agree that the soundtrack and excellent voice acting are the best things about the game. The game also included a large number of unlockable sequences, artwork, movies, music, and more.

Conclusion

While this may not be the longest game ever(it can be completed in about 10 hours), it is well worth its price tag of $40. The graphics aren't amazing, but they're good enough to get the job done, and the audio is probably the best in any game I've ever played. So, even though you may never have heard of it before, it'd be a mistake to let this one slip by unnoticed.