*Spoilers Ahead*
Indika intrigued me. It looked creepy, atmospheric and moody — it took me completely out of my comfort zone.
A story about a 19th-century Russian nun whose companion is the devil himself? It sounds incredible… Sadly, this was not the case.
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While there was some interesting storytelling and gameplay moments in this third-person adventure, overall, Odd Meter’s Indika was a bit of letdown.
i. Thou shalt tell the story of a Nun and the Devil
Indika is a young nun who is the outcast of her monastery. The other nuns treat her extremely poorly, making her complete painstaking chores around the grounds. As she quietly and slowly goes about her daily life, the voices in her head begin to tempt her. Over time, she learns to break the rules, eventually escaping the convent.
It’s only assumed throughout the game that the voice her head was the devil, only from reading the game’s description was that information disclosed. Early in the game, he distracts her during a service causing her to trip, fall and land in front of the priest. The head nun had enough, sending her out into the wintery Russian wilds to deliver a letter.
Tasked with trekking through the ice with only a small backpack on hand, Indika must solve puzzles, survive the voices in her head and find a way to deliver the mail.
Along the way, she meets a man with a rotting arm named Ilya. He is attempting to find the Kudets (a religious artefact), which can supposedly grant him the miracle of regrowing that disgusting arm of his.
Ilya is very ill, Indika agrees to team up with him to cross the barren and freezing lands. With the devil in her ear, a small love interest strikes up between the two. This is touched on throughout the game but isn’t fully resolved in the end and left me hanging. Do they or don’t they end up together?
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Memories from Indika’s past are interspersed throughout the story, played out as retro mini games, featuring similar mechanics to Frogger. In these pixel art sequences, you learn more about her childhood, past life and her relationships with men.
These were nice intermissions in between the often slow, meandering main story.
The rest of the story was plagued with huge plot holes, which left me quite unsure of what was actually happening. Indika is heavily story driven making it an integral part of this experience. With this confusing narrative, at times I felt it let the whole game down.
ii. Thou shalt move very slowly and not skip cutscenes
Indika attempts to be an edgy story driven game with adult themes, not too dissimilar to Hellblade. It’s almost all there, slow walking, lots of talking and cutscenes and a voice in your head that drives you absolutely crazy. I could feel the inspiration oozing from this game. Though any other inspiration used by Indika’s developers fell flat.
In Indika you do a lot of walking — and I mean a lot of walking. There’s some slight running, but expect a very slow paced experience. There is a run button but this does not work all the time and in all situations.
I found after a very slow walking level, you reach a major point only to be forced to listen to cutscene.
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When the world finally opened up I was excited to be free. But my annoyance only grew when I unfairly perished, had to replay puzzles and rewatch more unskippable cutscenes again (and again).
When the game begins you are asked to retrieve some water from a well for one of the nuns. This is fine, except when you have to get 5 buckets of water, slowly drop the bucket into the well all while walking at the slowest pace possible back and forth.
I mean this definitely set up the mundane routines and the sense of boredom Indika felt at the convent. However, I wasn’t expecting to play a nun chore simulator.
Some buildings throughout the world are explorable, inside you can find miscellaneous collectibles, light candles, or even tools to help you solve puzzles. Finding collectibles rewards you with “points”, which level Idika up and help grow her skill tree. RPG elements – sounds great. However, it was pointless! The skills were meaningless and in the end, you lose them anyway. The game could’ve done without this and just had the hidden objects and candles to find.
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The game has a good premise, not many games feature the Devil playing havoc in someone’s mind. I hoped this would lead to some potentially funny situations, and though the writers tried to make include some light hearted anecdotes, they were often random and didn’t hit. At one point there was a giant nun’s head on my screen just whistling for an entire minute — I could not skip this.
iii. Thou shalt solve puzzles with little direction
Throughout Indika’s voyage there are environmental puzzles to solve, pull this lever here, push this block here, etc. One cool (but underutilised) mechanic was the Devil causing the world to literally split apart, with Indika having to pray to join the world back together. Prayers restored the world to how it was, enabling players to reach new platforms and move forward.
Puzzles were either incredibly simple to solve or so directionless and it took me ages to figure out what to do. In one particular puzzle, I had to ride a magnetic forklift and use it to lift cans in a fish factory to try and climb my way to the top. No matter how hard I tried I couldn’t stack the cans high enough to get up, until I finally realised I could just use the forklift to climb up to the next level.
So why did I even need to use the magnet at all in this puzzle? Why give me the tools to use and then not use it for the puzzle solution? This was a constant frustration throughout the game. And to make matters worse your partner, Ilya, would be yelling at you to “hurry up” while he was already up on the correct ledge taunting you. Who is the true devil in this game?
When you do finally team up with Ilya you get to ride a very slow, old-fashioned motorcycle. Again, a nice idea to break up the gameplay but it was so slow and the section was long. If you died, you went back to the previous checkpoint. These were unusually spaced and therefore you would have to do whole sections again, listen to all the dialogue and cutscenes without skipping them.
There are no enemies in this game, however at one point you get chased by a very big, angry dog. This dog randomly comes at you during one part of the story and you run from it. It randomly keeps coming back until you finally kill it. However, one slight mistake in your jump or run and the dog would tear you to shreds. Surprise, surprise you had to start the whole scenario again.
Overall three words sum up the gameplay for me, slow, repetitive and frustrating. What a good premise and great setting for a story and game, yet it was let down by uninspiring puzzles, slow movement speeds and plot holes galore. I am disappointed I feel like this because there is so much promise here.
iv. Thou shalt look good and perform relatively well
The game’s beauty is immediately striking, with its intricate facial details and expressions, as well as impressive water effects. These elements combine to create an inviting atmospheric mood that beckons players to dive in.
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The game’s setting in the depths of a dark, cold Russian winter creates an atmospheric mood with a palette of white and grey, punctuated only occasionally by bursts of color.
While this complements the story’s deep, dark themes, the visual monotony can become tiresome over six hours, with the world feeling repetitive despite the developers’ attempt to maintain a consistent tone.
Animations were generally smooth and I was able to get the PC version to run at a relatively stable 1080p and 60fps on the highest graphics mode. However, when I tried to play Indika on my ROG Ally it would not run at more than 15fps, even on the lower settings. I feel the game needs a lot of resources to run, so make sure you have the specs for this.
The highlights of the whole experience were the retro inspired mini games. You played as a pixelated Indika in versions of an old school 2D platformer, racing game and even a rhythm game. These looked great, told me about Indika’s past and added some much needed colour and gameplay variety. A whole game with these graphics would have been incredibly fun. I would have loved these short moments to last even longer.
v. Thou shalt not be distracted by the voices in your head
Indika’s developers focused on crafting an immersive game, using sound as a key element. The sound effects, such as footsteps and breathing, were standout features that enhanced the atmosphere.
The voice acting was exceptional, bringing the characters to life and deepening the player’s immersion. The dynamic between Indika and Ilya was especially compelling, with their performances encouraging the player to invest in their relationship.
Indika had bountiful moments where the composers nailed it. Whether it was crossing a gap on a creaky board or being chased by a rabid dog – you definitely felt the tension. I would highly recommend wearing headphones while playing to get the full experience.
The game’s main music soundtrack was a disappointment. Although the opening’s atmospheric winds were promising, the rest of the music fell flat. At times, it felt random and out of place, detracting from the dark atmosphere I was hoping for. The tunes often veered towards a circus-like tone, breaking the immersion. In a game like this, the music needs to be spot-on.
vi. Thou shalt discuss the important issues… On a surface level
The themes of this game were immense and deep. From religion to Russia, to a nun sticking to her vows, mental health and the beginning of a revolution. There was clearly a story to tell, however, I was really hoping to leave this experience with a deeper understanding of this important time in history. I also wanted to form an opinion on Indika’s religion and how it forms part of our society.
With the devil constantly in my ear, I felt like the game never dove deep enough into any of the themes it tries to explore. It left me feeling empty, like I knew nothing more about any of the important themes it tried to teach me about. This is where I think Indika got lost, trying to tell a story and discuss such important issues without clear focus.
In Hellblade, I clearly knew our protagonist had mental health issues and it was spoken about enough that I wanted to play that game to learn more. Indika has a similar concept but I never felt like she was truly bothered by the devil inside her. She just told him to bugger off and that was that.
For a game that wanted to provoke thoughts and encourage players to consider delicate themes, it just didn’t nail it.
vi. Thou shalt consider all before playing Indika
The problem with Indika is it doesn’t quite know what it wants to be. Does it want to be a narrative-driven game with light puzzle elements or a deep commentary on social and religious issues?
Unfortunately, the game is stuck between both and I did not have a great experience overall.
Sure, the game definitely looks pretty, but I was stuck in the same snow covered environment for most of the game; the puzzles were either easy or infuriatingly frustrating, the story was confusing and the “comedic” sections felt odd and out of place.
The music also did not help to create the kind of atmosphere this story deserved. Dying was tedious because I had to replay whole sections again and I could not skip previously watched cutscenes. The walking was slow and at times would drag on for way too long.
Overall, I appreciate what the dev team tried to do but I have to play devil’s advocate here. Indika set lofty expectations for what it wanted to convey in its storytelling, unfortunately, it did not achieve what it set out to do.
Indika is out now on PC via Steam.
Quest Daily was supplied early access to Indika for this review.
