Indigo Prophecy

The first thing I noticed about Indigo Prophecy is that it was a very intimate project for the game's writer/director David Cage. The instruction manual starts with a foreword about the game's innovativeness (not in an egocentric way) from him, and there's a beginning tutorial narrated by Cage himself. It's clear that he had a goal for this game: to contribute, as he says in the foreword, "to the transformation of video games into a true form of expression that conveys emotion."

The ironic thing about Indigo Prophecy is that, as it goes about expanding what we (the player) think about how video games can affect us, it is by making itself more like traditional media - books and movies. This isn't an accident. The new game option on the main menu is titled "New Movie" for this precise reason. Yes, there are game-y elements, like a Simon-esque prompt sequence at particular plot points, but most of the "gameplay" is about making decisions that direct the narrative. Some of them work toward solving the mystery of the game's plot. Others are for survival purposes, e.g. preventing an early Game Over. Yet others can, apparently, change the content of the story itself - yeah, multiple endings.

To me, this game seems like what Beyond Good & Evil should have been, discarding schticky gameplay for the sake of writing that's actually compelling. In fact, I find the "game" parts of Indigo Prophecy to be aggravating because they distract me from the story, which I consider the game's real focus.

Unfortunately, I encountered a lock-up during an autosave sequence in chapter 6, which corrupted my save file and now I have to start all over again. But I'm looking forward to it. Actually, I'm really looking forward to making some different decisions and seeing how it turns out this time.

Progress: Gave Up -- Crashed in Chapter 6