INDIKA — Crime and Platforming

Review

May 16, 2024

INDIKA had my attention since the first time I saw it on Terminals a few months ago. In over thirty years of gaming, I had never played as a nun—that was unacceptable. If there was something missing in my life, this was it. I had to get a key to review this game. And I did. Then there was a fire in my building, and I was displaced for about two weeks. I was finally able to return home recently to finalize my review.

The developers seem to have released only one previous game: a VR action-adventure called Sacralith: The Archer’s Tale, which I’d never heard of. If I was not already sold on INDIKA, their “review commandments” convinced me: they are influenced by Yorgos Lanthimos, Ari Aster, and Darren Aronofsky for the cinematic storytelling, which explains the “disorienting threads” and “offbeat laughs,” in line with all the jarring, bizarre moments that punctuate the narrative.

8-bit Hyperrealism

There is no combat; just a few segments where the player has to use their gaming skills to advance the storyline. For the most part, you walk around and follow the level design where it leads. Along the way, there are a few puzzles to solve in order to progress between the levels, but there was only one that had me stumped for an hour. For the most part, this is an accessible cinematic game that most players should be able to complete with no issues.

The cinematic segments are intercut with short 2D vignettes that show Indika’s early life, and they all happen with a classic pixel art aesthetic and platforming mechanics. These vignettes would be in keeping with several Nintendo games in the 90s. It’s also an interesting way to reflect on gaming as a medium: from those bits of 8-bit graphics to the excellent photorealistic rendering of fabric physics in Indika’s headdress.

A screenshot of the game INDIKA, showing the titular character holding her headdress in a close-up. — She’s not the one saying ‘fuck’, but she should.

Cinematic Design

The level design is mesmerizing at times, but for some parts it is just serviceable. Usually, I get bored quickly playing games with on-rails design, where the game will not progress without following a specific path designed by the developers. But INDIKA maintained my interest consistently, even through some moments of exasperation at not knowing what to do or where to go. Maybe the disorientation made the experience more immersive as a whole; Indika herself being at a loss.

I also tried the game on my Steam Deck, and it had a great performance. There is not much to comment on the design other than that it is functional and serviceable. There were some moments where I thought the game had a cutting-edge quality in general, and some moments where the design felt almost invisible. The experience was closer to a long film, which can be said of many cinematic games.

A screenshot of the game INDIKA, showing the titular character talking to men standing on top of a train about to be submerged. — I still don’t know what this was about, but points for the weirdness.

Russian Weird Wave

At one point, I described INDIKA online as a Dostoevsky novel adapted by Hideo Kojima trying to channel the energy of Yorgos Lanthimos. By that, I mean that the themes of Christian Orthodox sin and redemption, crime and punishment, and so on, are indistinguishable from the offbeat style and non-sequiturs in Kojima’s games. The developers did not name Kojima as an influence, but all living game designers have been influenced by MGS.

The review package included an explicit acknowledgement of influence from the Greek Weird Wave godfather, Lanthimos, and that is the part that interested me the most in the narrative. Lanthimos and his frequent collaborator, Tony McNamara, are known for their unique and compelling heroines, as well as unsettling conclusions and generally puzzling storytelling pace and style. INDIKA benefits from this influence, though most gamers probably have never seen a Lanthimos film.

A screenshot of the game INDIKA, showing one of the retro segments with intricate pixel art. — The pixel art in the retro segments is delightful.

Super Indika Sis.

It has taken me longer than usual to conceive this review, not only due to the circumstances I mentioned earlier, but because INDIKA feels like an important game. The gaming industry and audiences have sorely needed better written protagonists who happen to be women for the past decades. We don’t care about ‘strong’ characters so much as rounded, fleshed-out, developed characters. And Indika is as rounded as it gets in the circumstances that surround her in the game.

It so happens that rather than staying in the present to find such characters, developers might need to go back in history more often. Even if it might deal with themes and settings, such as Christianity, which do not have a mass appeal. This can be said of other games and genres, but I look forward to the day when Russian nuns can be more emblematic of adventure puzzle-platformers than Italian plumbers. Down with Nintendo and Mario; in with Odd Meter and INDIKA.

A screenshot of the game INDIKA, showing the titular character from behind in a medium shot, overlooking a church and some building against misty sunlight. — Who wouldn’t?

Disclosure: INDIKA was reviewed on PC with a Steam key provided by the publisher over the course of over 10 hours of play time. All screenshots attached were captured during the review process.

Rating: 9.0 / Essential.

The Good