Should have been Fahrenheit in the US too

Last week, I managed to finish Indigo Prophecy while waiting to get some time on my PS3 to play Assassin's Creed II. In short: it wasn't what I was expecting. Not quite a game and not quite a movie, Indigo Prophecy occupies an area somewhere in between. I think the interactive experience they were shooting for is a very novel and interesting idea, but I'm not sure they quite captured it here.

Warning for anybody who hasn't played the game yet: I'm going to talk HEAVY spoilers in here, especially considering the ending. If you haven't played and don't want it spoiled, stop reading now.

Loved

• Interactive movie. I really liked the idea of "playing" an interactive movie. It was a unique experience that I don't think I have ever had before. Instead of merely taking control of a single protagonist and working to "win" the game, you actually take control of both a murderer and the detectives tasked with catching him. I found myself very torn at times and not quite sure who to root for. The separate story lines did fully converge late in the game and it became clear who the villain was. The narrative was strong and interesting, and it made for a great experience.
  
  
• Game-like sections. Indigo Prophecy has two main gameplay areas: one plays more like a game with you controlling the character directly and one that is more of a cutscene with limited interaction. I very much enjoyed the areas focused on gameplay. For example, the start of the game is amazing. You witness one of the main characters murdering somebody in a public restroom and then are given control of him during which you frantically try to figure out how to clean up, hide the evidence, and get out of the restaurant. Soon after, you take control of the detectives and are tasked with investigating the murder scene your other character just left. Oddly enough, I even found myself enjoying the more mundane actions like taking a shower and getting dressed.
  

Hated

• The ending. The story in Indigo Prophecy is good up until a particular turning point (finding out the truth about Agatha). After that, the story takes a very strong turn directly into Crazytown. Everything after that feels rushed and most of it makes almost no sense at all. Furthermore, all three of the games various endings are wildly unfulfilling and left me filling pretty empty even when I got the "good" ending. It felt to me like they condensed what should have been three or so more hours of game into the last one. It just wasn't good. While reading a FAQ after I finished the game to learn about the endings/choices I didn't get/take, I found these glorious quotes very accurately describing how I felt about the latter part of the game.
  
  Concerning Jade/Agatha:
  
  

  Another major turning point! Give the child to Agatha if you want, it's your choice. Now for a friendly warning...If you enjoyed the plot up to this point, turn the game off after giving the kid to Agatha or keeping it to yourself. Quit the game, deinstall it, forget about it... You're still here? Alright, but don't say I didn't warn you... *spoilers* What. The. FUCK. is an Artificial FUCKING Intelligence doing in a game about the OCCULT and about MAYAN RELIGION?! Seriously, fuck you David Cage. Fuck you.

  Concerning the Carla/Lucas Relationship:
  
  

  Right, you thought that, at this point, you had seen all stupid plot twists, right? Well, guess what buddy, you're wrong. One kiss and...Aaahhhh, my eyes! Let's take two second to mourn the death of a potentially good story-line before we move on. See? Told ya you should have uninstalled the game while you could...

• Quick time events. While the half of the game that was more "game-like" was enjoyable, the other half wasn't. This section was basically nothing but cutscenes in which you much press keys at defined times following a Simon Says sort of pattern. The first 3 times I did these events I found them interesting, but they got very, very old long before the game was done. There were also plenty of them that were relatively unnecessary to the story such as the boxing match and the basketball game. While they were interesting in a way, at the end I think they were a failed game mechanic. There should have been variety and even times where they just didn't exist at all.
  
  

I liked Indigo Prophecy, even with the ridiculousness that was the last hour or so of the game. I think the interactive movie idea is one that is relatively unique in the saturated game market and playing this game made me want to play Quantic Dream's new game, Heavy Rain. I think there is plenty that could be improved upon here, but for the most part Indigo Prophecy accomplished what it was trying to.

Pick it up for cheap if you missed it, otherwise start getting excited for Heavy Rain like I am.