I’ve never played a game like it Indicate. Yes, I am familiar with titles that explore their own nature as video games and others that touch on thorny topics such as faith and religion, but never that combined both aspects in this way. That makes this title from Russian-Kazakh independent studio Odd Meter one of the most interesting releases of the year.
The plot takes us to an alternate Russia at the beginning of the 20th century. Indika is a young nun who has difficulty adapting to life in the habit. Despite the rejection of her companions, she is tasked with a mission that will allow her to leave the walls of the convent. Along the way she is joined by a fugitive looking for a miracle, but he is not her only companion. The devil does not separate from her and is speaking in her ear all the time.
At first glance it is hard to believe that Indicate be an independent game. The visual quality of its hyperreal world is impressive and brings out the full potential of the Unreal engine. However, It is a relatively short game with limited gameplay options. All achievements can be completed in less than five hours and offer no direct replay incentives.. However, those who wish to delve deeper into its themes and messages will surely want to give this adventure one more spin..
Actions consecrated to Jesus
This is not an action adventure. Don’t expect the main nun to lift a Kalashnikov to slaughter demons. What we can do is run, pray and interact with objects like ladders and levers. We can also drive some vehicles and operate strange machinery with ‘steampunk’ touches.
The game consists of advancing through the stages by solving a few environmental puzzles and completing some platform sequences that consist only of climbing and running, apparently nuns don’t jump. There are some special “retro-flavored” sequences where we have to do something different, but more on that later.
The most interesting riddles are those in which the devil’s presence becomes so strong that it distorts reality. The protagonist can join her hands and pray to temporarily return things to “normal.”. Sadly, that happens very rarely. We also have to find the paths to follow, use elevators or other devices and, of course, push boxes. It wouldn’t be a “realistic” and modern game if it didn’t have some ‘puzzles’ in which we have to push boxes.
So far everything sounds pretty “normal”, even boring, but there is nothing normal or boring about Indicate. These traditional elements are present to reinforce the idea that this is a video game. Its juxtaposition with its serious plot and bizarre situations make the experience more interesting.
One of the first things we have to do in this game is travel to a well to fill a bucket with water and return to pour the water into a barrel. We must do this thankless, repetitive and tedious task several times and I would not be surprised if many decided to stop and do something else. That’s if you’re not curious that every time we fill the bucket we hear a sound effect characteristic of an 8-bit game and we see pixelated letters appear indicating the progress.
The contrast between the hyperrealistic graphics and the tone of the story with these elements typical of retro games is very abrupt, but it is here that the soul of Indicate.
Points and coins. Sins and indulgences.
By performing certain actions such as collecting religious objects, lighting candles before icons or praying in certain places, we obtain points in the form of coins that would not be out of place in the first games of Super Mario Bros. o Sonic The Hedgehog. There are also moments when Indika remembers her past and these take the form of mini-games with pixelated graphics that ask us to jump between platforms, collect coins and win races.
There are ‘chiptune’ melodies that accompany some of the most important moments of the game and the point counter is always present on the screen. If we enter the menu, we can see a kind of ‘skill tree’ that apparently gives us certain advantages and multipliers after reaching certain scores.
This is not a joke or a simple stylistic choice. It is the reason for the game.
He who sins and prays, empathizes
Dmitry Setlov, one of the main minds behind the game, explained years ago in an interview with RockPaperShotgun what Indicate It is a reflection of his loss of faith and his anger against the Russian Orthodox Church for its alliance with Vladimir Putin.. It’s not hard to see this in the game.
Indika’s conversations with Ilya – the fugitive who accompanies her on her journey – and with the demon that lives inside her are philosophical discussions about the nature of sin, criticisms against the way the church works and dissertations on the relationship between the human being and faith. For atheists like me—who went through the inevitable period of reading Nietzsche, Marx, and Camus—there is nothing new in the ideas she presents, but that doesn’t make them any less interesting or important.
The true genius of Indicate It’s in the way it combines those ideas with its nature as a video game, especially reflected in its ‘retro’ elements. Compare our understanding of sin, redemption, and the practice of religion to the act of scoring points in a video game.. He wonders how many are enough to achieve forgiveness, to earn heaven. There is much more reading and reflection on religion, faith and video games in Indicate —some of them linked to elements such as achievements or trophies— that can be quite personal. It’s a game worth experiencing if only to think about what it tells us, analyze it, and discover what our conclusion says about ourselves.
loss of faith
Due to its themes and bizarre playable elements, many will rate it Indicate like a pretentious work. The video game equivalent of those unbearable “art cinema” movies. If you are fans of films from distributors like A24 and Annapurna, this game is made for you. If you couldn’t last 20 minutes watching The lighthouse and they don’t understand why Dostoyevsky’s works are considered timeless classics, I don’t think they will enjoy the experience.
This is not meant to be a condescending comment, I just want you to understand that this is not the kind of art that everyone appreciates. Plus, it’s not a perfect game either. As I said, their philosophical discussions can be quite basic. At the gameplay level, there are sections in which it is not clear what we must do to continue and some scenarios are so dark that it can be difficult to discover the way.
The cuts between chapters are too abrupt and seem to be a technical problem. My experience on PS5 was not smooth either, since There were times when the console struggled to maintain the 60 frames of animation per second. This happened very rarely, but it definitely happened.
There is also a scene that alludes to a sexual assault and although it is not explicit, it can be disturbing and there is no appropriate trigger warning.
Amen
Indicate It is a game that I will never forget. I love that there are still developers willing to take a risk with a work as bizarre and unusual as this. It’s the kind of video games that I like to recommend to all kinds of people. They may not like it. They may even hate it or consider it an affront to their beliefs, but it will definitely not leave them indifferent.
There is no other game like Indicate. Its hyper-realistic graphics and critical concerns of faith and religion don’t seem to mix with the sudden ‘retro’ elements taken from 8-bit games, but it’s that mix that makes it so striking and makes its reflections work. It is a short experience in which some puzzles and platform challenges can hinder our path, but what is truly important are its dialogues, the protagonist’s relationship with the world and what she will leave us thinking when the credits begin.
Review made with a digital copy of Indika for PS5 provided by 11 bit Studios. The game is also available for PC and Xbox Series X|S.
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