Indigo Prophecy: What fails

Takes a deep breath*

…I’ve been waiting for this.

Last weekend I talked about everything I could think of that worked with Indigo Prophecy. I named several reasons why I stuck naming a certain number of things that it did right. This week, I’m going to tell everything that Indigo Prophecy perfected….if this had been a perfect world. But this isn’t a perfect world and this post is not about what they perfected, its about everything that they screwed up. I guess this is where Yahtzee stands out as a clear influence on my mine.

Influence.

My first complaint actually piggie banks on a compliment I gave the game last weekend. Last weekend I made a case for why IP should be honored for its use of nonlinear gameplay, then explained why this should not be compared to GTA IV which has many different paths one can choose to follow. This one follows an arch of a story where you simply have multiple plot lines that end up in the same place (kind of). Last weekend I made a case of why you shouldn’t compare this to GTAIV, now, here’s why you should and discover what GTA IV does a million times better.

As a sandbox game, you play as Nico and get to move around a freeroaming environment. Its part of the rules of its gaming world, the possibilities are presented as “endless”. Of course that’s not true, if it were endless I’d be able to have a disco in the middle of the park with a bunch of prostitutes and random minorities. I think what Rockstar describes as endless means you can drive anywhere you’d like, move around the world and KILL EVERYONE.

While IP is a nonlinear game plot-wise the game is the most linear rule wise game I have ever seen. You’re placed on a level where you have an objective to complete and you’re limited to only that objective. No moving around the world, exploring, nothing is allowed unless its pertinent to advancing the plot and the character. This would be fine except so much of the game takes place in open city streets where you can move in an out of buildings. Yet try to run down the street at some point you’ll find yourself running in place because the map has ended and the rest of the street is merely an illusion.

Maybe this is nitpicky or maybe its because we grew up in the GTA-sandbox generation of video games. And yes, you can also say, “What about all those video games where you go from point A to point B, like every shooter or action games?” And I would say yes, that’s all good and well provided that I’m aware that’s what I’m playing. While not directly stated, the presentation of New York City in IP makes the player feel as if they’re in a free roaming world. So when they run into the invisible wall, it only hurts that much more that we, the player, have been lied to.

Something else that made my list of complaints was the extent to which some of the “action sequences” are drawn out. Or as the rest of the world calls them, “quicktime events”. Quick time events for the most time are brief in video games, but all the action-packed moments of the game are based on quick-time events. I know on some level I compliment Quantic Dream as they attempt to make the game even more about story and offer new elements of action to the P&C club of gaming. However, ultimately this “mini game” leaves much to be desired, as the player wishes that they too, could take part in running from the angels trying to kill you, the death defying car crash escape, the matrix-style kung fu climax. And while all this is exhilarating to play and gives it an extra cinematic sense, I can’t help but also feel like my intelligence and my hand-eye coordination has been insulted as if they makers didn’t trust me to play the game right.

This scene is awesome. Too bad you play it as "Simon Says" in a quicktime event.

On a minor note, the audio often leaves more to be desired. And again, this is something where they did part of it perfect and somehow managed to screw up the rest. While the score and sound effects are often perfect, creating the perfect mood for the game, often the dialogue leaves me wondering why they didn’t get professionals to do it. Sure, I guess the voices were professional, but maybe the lack of emphasis or care is because at some points the dialogue writing is so bad that even the actors stumbled because they hadn’t expected to read the work of a third grader (perhaps this is being a little harsh, the dialogue is quite good as far as writing is concerned, there are just a couple of cringe-worthy “b-movie” lines that make you slap your forehead and call yourself Bruce Campbell.) However, most importantly the audio leaves me asking the question about how bad it is that a white actor played the white, cold, dark protagonist, as well as Tyler Miles. I mean, does it bother anything else when he goes from Lucas “I don’t know if I can handle the pain” Kane to Tyler “Ay yo, you ready to play some ball and get schooled?” Miles? I think it wouldn't bother me so much is Tyler didn't feel like a cliche with half the words that came out of his mouth. Hmm, maybe I just made this more racist. Anyway no matter, pressing on.

But you know what, there’s a chance I’m being too critical. Indigo Prophecy does so many things right. It has a unique story, and adds new elements and tries to breath life into the “Point and Click” genre. It’s characters seem more fitted for a novel than a video game. Its focus on story create a game that challenges the very point of a game, perhaps its not all about gameplay but perhaps experiencing a new form of story-telling. Yet as its treading new waters its impossible not to do things wrong. If it didn’t it would be the game that the gods play. Instead, they would rather play Portal and bond dearingly with a companion cube wondering if the cake actually exists.

Love :)

Indigo Prophecy: In conclusion, what sticks

When I originally created this blog I created it with the intent on judging games for both their good and bad qualities, mainly mentioning one good thing or two and then going on and on about why it SUCKED SO MUCH. My first three entries were primarily that, I looked at Mirror's Edge, Bioshock, and even did a review of Indigo Prophecy. Then the gods reminded me, "But Joe, this blog is for a class, you need to critique certain aspects of one game based on the different guidelines outlined in Jeannie Novak's Game Development book of whatever its called." And before I could tell the gods to shut it I realized they were right and I knew secretly as much as I liked reviewing every game and its mothers and I needed to get a good grade in the class. So I hung my head, bowed down to the gods, then they went off laughing and played a couple rounds of Hail to the Chimp.

What the gods play. I laugh.

However, my next two posts I get to do exactly what my original intent was: judge a game based on its qualities. The first entry (which, yes, you are reading, calm it) will be comprised mainly of what worked and what the game did well. Or, as I have been calling it getting back to my pasta/narcotics obsession, what makes the game stick.

My love. Both metaphorical and delicious.

So we have this game Indigo Prophecy. And its a game that arguably does a lot of things very well. Probably its two greatest stand out points is its use of story/narrative, and characters. I wouldn't go so far to call it Interactive Movie but creator David Cage and the rest of QuanticDream (who still won't return my phone calls, damn French) seem convinced to explore the ideas of character and plot with their video games. Its as if they realized that having a story was suddenly important, who would've thought.

"But Joey C," you say, "lots of video games have stories. Actually, almost all video games have stories." "Oh ho," I say back, "True that may be, but few video games exist out there solely for the pursuit of story. JRPG's like Final Fantasy may love their story but they still have character building and other elements like whining grown men who look like tiny twelve-year old girls. Adventure P&C are driven by story but still have all the puzzle solving to figure out. This game takes the ideas of plot from both of these and skims down on the other details. There's no advancing of abilities and the only thing one could consider a mini-game is the "action sequences" which work as continuously drawn out quicktime events.

One of things that I really liked was how realistic the characters were in the game. The game tried very hard to stay clear of stereotypes and archetypes. And even when it had archetypes it made sure that it followed the character arch, where the character continues to advance or develop of the course of the game. It wasn't simply about being "Master Chief" or "Marcus Fenix" where you're a shear amount of awesomeness the whole time. It was about being like "Niko" in GTA4, where you're character rises up and takes on the world. However, in Indigo Prophecy this works a little differently. Its more psychological and about taking a depressed and anxiety-stressed man who's just killed a person and making them realize their true purpose in the universe and "the grand scheme of things" in time to, literally, save the world. It's also about building relationships, saving relationships, and somehow becoming a better person in the process.

The ultimate hero.



The ultimate badass (but not without some character development first).

I want to take this time to acknowledge the power and interest of nonlinear games. I know they're all the rage with open-ended worlds and gameplay being at its finest. Everyone clamors around the "sandbox game" like its the hottest prostitute on some street corner. But however hot she may be doesn't mean she won't give you the clap. I think people should still try to admire games like Indigo Prophecy because they took a linear world where you have one specific story to follow and then gave you alternate paths on how to achieve the final goal. Its like those choose your own adventure books. You still have some sort of objective to achieve or fail in the end. If choose your own adventure books where like sandbox games you'd read the first page then you could read any of the following pages and that would be it. However with games like these your actions have consequences, and I think that's something that should still be admired today.

Anyway, those are just a couple of things that make Indigo Prophecy stick to the wall. However, soon next weekend comes, and I'll have plenty to say about it to let it fall.

Audio in Indio Prophecy

While reading Game Developments Essentials' section on Audio, I couldn't help but think about how mood and tension have worked in Indigo Prophecy. While it in no way is perfect and in some ways purportedly terrible, it is worth at least taking a brief look at.

As the chapter talks about, sounds and music are used throughout a game to create a mood, tension, or simply dictate how a player should react. Its with music and sound that the player learns to react with. Or put another way, score and sound dictates if the player should be happy, sad, nervous, on edge, terrified, etc. Emotions, stress, all of this is established with sound, and Indigo Prophecy is no different.

In action sequences, the music usual jumps and livens up, with chords ringing doom and despair for the protagonist. It also keeps similar themes for similar events. Action sequences always contain the same thing, premonitions also have the same intense string beat, and psychological moments where Lucas Kane questions his life and challenges himself feature a haunting violin in the background that creates a very eerie mood. As a result of all this, the player picks up and recognizes when certain scenes begin, they learn to associate.

Interestingly enough, as far as music is concerned, the game makes an interesting amount of use of actual music, aka songs you'd hear on the radio. The soundtrack features a wide variety of songs featuring several by Theory of a Deadman, Bobby Bird, Nina Simone and other artists less known. The turn, while different, is not so surprising as you remember they're trying to create movie game with Indigo Prophecy. Hence, you have both original score and recorded professional artists.

Voice actors are always amusing, and Indigo Prophecy marks no exception. Of course with voice actors you have a wide variety of people playing a lot of different roles. I always felt that when you get to this part of audio you sort of ruin the reality of the game. Like when you learn how they make all the different sounds, a gun is never a gun, etc. Or in Indigo Prophecy's case, when you learn that the stone cold Lucas Kane and the almost-a-cliche black Tyler Miles are voiced by the same white guy. I guess this is sort of me griping, but that really bothers me a bit. Or old women doing the voices for little boys, but that's not as surprising.

Level Design and Indigo Prophecy:

I dunno what can really say about the level design of Indigo Prophecy that hasn't already been said before. Perhaps the first word I could use to describe it would be "nonessential". While it follows the basic structure of how level design works, because the game is operating for the sake of the story there's isn't a whole lot to it.


Before I get into my rant on the level design of Indigo Prophecy, a couple of things that can be said: the structure is done right. Each level is broken up into three bits where you can choose whether you would like to progress as Lucas Kane, Carla, or Tyler. Not unlike in a racing game, after you complete said section, you go back to the selection screen and pick to follow another plot line. While the game may have a non-linear-esqe structure, in the end it is fairly linear as you want to get from one part of the story to the other before the games completion. And as the game is bound to the plot, you can't move past a level (or chapter if you will, oh HO yes he did get literally on you) until you complete what Novak calls the "goal" of the level. Most often, this often ends up being a relatively mundane task, such as locating a book, playing a game of basketball, working out, locating another book, create a sketch. As you're attempting to complete the "story", one doesn't always have the same sensation of victory when completing the task, as you would when playing, for example, Dragonforce on Guiterhero III on expert. Or a level of Halo. Or anything where there is a certain level (no pun intended) of challenge.

A goal to beat in Indigo. Hide the body, get out.


A goal to beat in Guitar Hero III. Beat Dragonforce. Rule the world.

That's not to complete too much as the duration of these levels is rather short. You complete the task, whoop!, on to the next level. No fighting through hordes of baddies to get to the climax, just one small objective then onward and upward. The idea of availability is interest, as you can follow whichever plot-lines you want within an order of your choice (however, to advance to the next set of story lines you must complete all three, thereby making sure you don't just play Lucas Kane's bad-ass Matrix-like ninja part, you also do grunt detective work and play a game of basketball (if you can't tell, I really did not enjoy it. It was essentially a quick time event. I played Simon Says while the screen played basketball).


As far as level design goes the game aimed to be relatively realistic. While ultimately the graphics are fairly for, even by 2005's standards, the actual world-environment, scale, and terrain and such is done in a fairly realistic manner. Humans are of varying heights, objects aren't cartoonish and the like.

Okay, now that I've covered quite a bit of what Novak talks about in the levels chapter, here's my frustration rant: the boundaries of the game are exceedingly aggravating. As the game is completely plot driven, when you play a level in an outdoor environment you're exceedingly limited to where you can go. It works not unlike a flight simulator, where you reach the edge and the world goes on forever. At some point will be on the snow-covered streets of new york, and the street goes on to the end of the earth...but then suddenly your character's legs move and you stand still like you're on the treadmill out of hell. As suppose because the point is the plot there really isn't anything else you can do, but it feels somewhat condemning to be limited so much.

Okay, thats it for my rant.

Indigo Prophecy and the Outer Limits of Interfacing

Something that struck me odd while playing Indigo Prophecy recently is how atypical, and typical the interface is. As I learned last week, when I tried explaining how Indigo Prophecy pushed and tested the limits of rules, I received a quick bitch slap from the God of Gaming who quickly waved a finger in my face, told me I wouldn't get into heaven and then went back to playing Katamari. Keeping that in mind, Indigo Prophecy does do a bit of things rather uniquely so instead of creating dodgingly (yes, I made that up) long paragraphs, I'm simply going to cover all the different uses of interface in a quick, almost "definition" format.

Manual Interfaces
No, that doesn't refer to your pool boy who has the ability to shapeshift, it refers to the hardware-based "input devices that players interact with physically to play the game." In the case of Indigo Prophecy, I was playing the PS2 version which meant I spent a great deal of time looking over the instructions to figure out how the game was played. As explained by Novak, your Ps2 controller has your triggers, your D-Pad, your two Analog sticks, your select and start button and your action buttons.

As explained in an early post, the game moves back and forth between two types of gameplay: adventure P&C and action sequences. For the dialogue parts of the game, the left analog stick controllers the players movement, and the right controls the camera (something that every game should learn and use). However, if you approach an interactive object or person, pushing the right analog stick up, down, right, or left, allows you to interact with these objects. During interrogation this becomes time based. Let's say your interviewing someone, you have ten seconds to pick a choice, and moving the analog stick in any of the four directions allows you to ask a specific question. When you go into an action sequence, the D-Pads become the primary use, as the "Simon Says" style game play takes over. For instance, if the left button on the left circle highlights, you move the left analog stick to the left. If the up button on the right circle highlights, you move the right analog stick up. This, in an awkward comparison, makes the game not unlike Guitar hero, as you press the corresponding buttons to complete the song, pressing the corresponding buttons completes an action sequence.


Active and Passive Interface
Unlike my own anger problem, games have both active and passive interfaces. As Novak explains, one type of "active interface includes a menue system, which is usually easy accessible throughout the game - even if it isn't always visible."

In Indigo Prophecy this interface is rather weird. When you first load up the game, it loads to the menu screen giving options not unlike a DVD menu, including "Play Movie", "Select Chapter", "Extras", "Settings", "Credits", etc. In Quantic Dream's attempt to convince the player that this is an interactive movie, they go even further. When you pause while in gameplay, it brings you to a screen that has three options "Play", "Stop", and "Exit". There really isn't a save button, which isn't crucial really since the game saves automatically for you, leaving off at whatever point you quit. Ironically enough, this also covers my subject of Start Screen Interface.

It's passive interface, which Novak describes as one the player cannot change or interact with, is not unlike any other game. The game is presented in widescreen, your mental health bar is in the right corner, which changes based on your interactions (think of it as your heath bar). Also, when your in action sequences, you have a series of glowing circles in the top left corner of the screen. If you fail a part of an action sequence, you lose on glowing circle, which puts you back at the beginning of that specific part of the sequence. If you lose all of the glowing circles, you fail the sequence. However, I'm not quite sure what happens there, as I've never completely failed. I'd assume that it resets you to the beginning of the sequence. Believe it or not, my next section was going to cover Life and Power Interfaces, but as you can see, I just did that, so moving onward!



Map
Like this is a freeroaming world game, there is no map!

Adventure Game Specific Interfacing
As Novak describes it, in the adventure game, the players goals are "moving through the world, communicating with other characters, and collecting objects in a way that will not interfere with the sense of immersion." Indigo Prophecy works just like this, as for the most part all you do is explore the world and try to uncover its hidden secrets.

Save-Game Options
For the most part, unless you are right in the middle of an action sequence, the game uses what Novak calls the "Auto Save" function. As she describes it, it allows "the most immersion" for the player. As you play the game, you play a series of three characters, and this each time you play as one, you have a specific task to complete before you can advance. As you progress through the chapters, each chapter lets you pick which character you want to play first, whether its Lucas, Carla, Tyler, or Lucas' brother Marcus. For instance, at one point when you pick Tyler you have to complete an action sequence playing basketball. Once that is completed, it returns to the selection screen, game saved. However, that's not to say that you can't go back and replay levels. On the menu screen there is the option to play previous levels.


Overall
Indigo Prophecy uses a very intuitive interface, very simplistic not leaving much thinking or understanding to the player. It's not like The Witcher where you have to read the thickest manual in the world or even as complex as the active interface in WOW where you have to pick which spells to apply, what outfits to wear, when to change your diaper, etc. Its simplicity works very well, and perhaps the most complicated part of the game is learning the control schematics, however even this only takes a moments time. Does the interface stick to the wall? Sure, its simple, it works, its everything an adventure gamer would want. However, there are complaints about the action sequences, considering you don't actually get to control your character, you just play Simon Says until your character has completed the action for you. A friend of mine was particularly disappointed when he was able to play basketball, but merely watch while the two characters played it out on screen. But hey, its different.

Indigo Prophecy and the Rule of Choice

While many video games may claim to be all free-roaming and unlimited in their potential, every game in existence still finds itself constrained by rules. And as it may be simple and trite for video games to claim they exist in a sandbox environment where anything is possible, they are lying, as by that very term they are limiting themselves to a certain kind of gameplay environment. In a sense, it is impossible to have a game where anything is possible, that would be called that game of life, and trust me, that's not very fun.

Rules are put in place for several reasons, and as Nielsen, Smith, and Tosca define it, all games have them to "determine what you can and cannot do, and which actions or events increase or decrease the player's score." While they assess that rules are there for constraint and to limit our actions, they are also to control our gameplay and generate expected outcomes. Essentially, rules decide and determine what game we play.

Rules exist in two solid types: we have "Ludus" rules, which are the conditions to how the player wins, and the "paidia" rules, which are procedural stuff, meaning that they're the rules we don't really think about but are always present.

For example, if we were playing, say Indigo Prophecy, we would expect there to be certain "Paidia" rules, as we are playing a point and click game. We would expect that to advance the game we would need to engage nonplayers in dialogue of our choosing. We would also expect to play puzzles to advance.

Also with this game they challenge the realm of point and click as they incorporate elements of "action sequences", where the player plays virtually "Simon Says" by tapping corresponding buttons with sections on the screen. If they tap these in the correct order, the action sequence continues, if they do not, they fail and the sequence is reset and one life point is lost.


What's interesting is that with Indigo Prophecy the idea of "Ludus" rules becomes a blurred subject, like trying to see a polar bear eating ice cream in the snow (and if anyone knows what cartoon show that references they get a free cookie, good luck Kim). While not all game theorists call this "ludus" rules, are games have rules that determine how a player wins. However, the very concept of Indigo prophecy underlies this idea, as the game tries to turn itself into an "interactive movie". There is no correct way to play the game, as your actions and choices determine how the game concludes (there are several different story paths to follow, each which lead back to one of three very different endings).

Also, it's a very controlled world, you only go where the game wants you to go. Oh? You wanna go get a burger at McDonalds? Too bad, the game designers want you to go visit the crazy lady who can read minds. You want to go flirt and party? Too bad, your character's being hunted by the police and he's trying to mend things up with his ex-girlfriend. You want to fight people with crazy martial arts outta a John Woo movie? Oh yeah, I guess you can do that, the game does want you to do that one eventually.


I guess one way to think about the "winning" or "losing" elements is that if you fail to complete an action sequence correctly, you're forced to redo it until you fail entirely. You lose the action sequence, yet the game continues. Also, there is the fact that by asking certain questions in dialogue sequences you reveal new information that enables you to go deeper into the game. However, that's not to say this is a "losing point", as its kind of fun to have your characters play dumb and have no clue what their doing or what's going on.

Or there is the fact that you have a "mental health" you have to keep track of. If you let your character to get "depressed" or "stressed" it causes them to go insane, which causes you to go back to a point and redo a level. So in that sense there is a winning-losing degree to the game. Basically, keep your player sane is the lesser here.

I guess the lesson learned here is that even this game is controlled. There's no such thing as a uncontrolled rule-less game. That would be Calvinball, and we all know how fun that was (if you've never read Calvin and Hobbes, its a terrible time, and if you have not Calvin and Hobbes, you're a pathetic lowlife who needs to get out of his mom's basement).


Games are fun and possible because of rules, by controlling gameplay and options you dictate the environment the player is to expect. Indigo Prophecy is a perfect example of this, as its a clear cut case of mashing a P&C adventure and an interactive movie. We want games to tell us how to have fun, we want games to tell us that we're winning or losing. Without this drive or control, games cannot be successful. Besides, as much as you may want that burger, you'd much rather go see the old crazy lady.

Indigo Prophecy: Or How Killing A Stranger can Reveal your Inner-Neo

Somewhere sometime after Myst was released and everyone realized that fps' were the way to go with gameplay the "Point and Click" Adventure genre started to slowly die. It wasn't to say the entire genre had was gone, there were still several valid entry's into the genre, including Funcom's The Longest Journey, LucasArt's Monkey Island Series, and The Adventure Company's Syberia. However, for the most part, the games were all very similar, with similar gameplay, similar puzzles, and ultimately they left the player feeling more insulted than satisfied.
While I won't go so far to say that Quantic Dream's Indigo Prophecy (known as Fahrenheit to you European folk) saved the P&C Adventure genre. Not by a long shot. However, it came closer to doing something different with it and seeing what happens when you morph the P&C and the longdead Interactive Movie genre.

The game, Quantic Dream's second entry into the business (their third, Heavy Rain: The Origami Killer, is hopefully hitting the PS3 this 4th quarter) and they played around a lot with both narrative and character. The game was far from perfect, especially considering its graphics were on par with a PS1 console when it was released for the PS2. Not that I'm complaining, as the game did a lot of things right, and what it does in particular that leaves the pasta sticking to the wall is its use of character.

Now I know there are those out there that will say, "but Joey C, what about Final Fantasy Eternal Sonata, and Legacy of Kain?" Well yes, fellow amateur, of course those did a lot for plot and character (and kudos to FF8 for actually having a dance sequence in the game), but there was something about playing Indigo Prophecy that felt that you were more playing a movie than playing a game.

What's perhaps the most interesting factor about Indigo Prophecy is its lack of archetypes. With the exception of antagonist and protagonist, and the occasional guardian, the game is almost completely devoid of them. Instead, the people at Quantic Dream decided to focus on creating realistic characters. Even after one of the games protagonists, Lucas Kane, assumes the role of the hero, he retains several qualities that make him realistic. While he may be the hero, he's not as cliched as superman and has many flaws and has a constant inner struggle as the world behind him falls apart.


The game opens with a cinematic with its protagonist, Lucas Kane, in a trance in a shady bathroom. Moments later, while still in this trance, he attacks another man in the bathroom and brutally murders him. After he snaps out of the trance, the game begins with you covered in blood, a body on the floor, and a cop approaching the bathroom. After your escape, you suddenly change roles and you find yourself in the positions of Carla and Tyler, two homicide detectives assigned to the case. This in it of itself is awkward, as the game continues with you trading protagonists, leading you into a cat and mouse game where your hunting yourself. This gets even more uncomfortable when you interrogate yourself in one scene. What's interesting is that you'd think these cops would slip into stereotype. However, they remain as human as Lucas. They may not be tortured by inner demons and discover they have certain inhuman abilities such as Lucas, but they are in a constant struggle to both work the case and deal with their personal troubles at home.

What's powerful about this is Quantic Dream creates an interesting character triangle. While the player is attached to Lucas Kane, sympathizing with him and wanting to help, they also bond with Carla and Tyler, as they are troubled as well. The question soon becomes, who will you help more?

That's not to say the game is not without its character types: the antagonist, the all power "Oracle", who for most of the game remains hidden in a black cloak, manipulating all around him as if he were some sort of puppet master. The trickster, played by an old woman who can read the future. However, the guardians, those who might simply play the guys you kill in a fps are almost completely devoid of this exception for a couple instances. For the most part you play the guardians, as you are the cops hot on Lucas' feet.

Something which I haven't found terribly common in video games is physical character development. One really outlandish example (from a movie) is Die Hard, by the end of every movie there is always physical development as John McClane goes from clean-shaven and well groomed to torn-up open shirt, somewhat grizzled, and covered in blood. While that's not necessarily character development, you'd think the guy who develop some how from that sort of physical transformation. What's different about Indigo Prophecy is the appearance of Lucas Kane, as he begins to understand his role in the world as well as discover the powers he possesses, his body under goes a physical transformation. He develops quicker reflexives, he appears to be more fit. Even his face; it appears longer, more gaunt, he's covered in facial hair and he almost resembles that of Neo at the end of the first Matrix movie. Furthermore, the game's interactions cause his "mental health" meter to change.

In the beginning he is depressed and cannot control himself. At the end, depending on the choices that you make, he may be more confident, more defiant, and more interested in protecting others than saving his own skin. It's a difficult task to illustrate character development in a video game. Marcus Fenix, as much as he's powerful and awesome, he does not follow the character arch and develop. Neither does Master Chief for that matter. He merely exists and is in constant "hero" mode. Something that should be remembered, most often in video games, if character development occurs, it happens during cutscenes. With Indigo Prophecy, the decisions you make cause your characters to change.

So does it stick? Hell yes, as far as character is concerned the game sticks to the wall for a solid amount of time. Now if I throw in graphics and some aspect of gameplay, it may slide a little bit. However, as far as the story and character is concerned, Indigo Prophecy can stick to the wall as long as it likes, and decide for itself when it wants to come down. games,