Game review 01 May 2024, 07:00

author: Christopher Mysiak

Indika Review: More State of Mind Than a Game, Just Like Russia It Depicts

Indika is more than a game. It’s a fascinating, one-of-a-kind experience, playing with conventions and instilling disturbing thoughts in our heads. If only developers didn’t desperately try to avoid sticking a “walking sim” label to their work…

The review is based on the PC version. It's also relevant to PS5, XSX version(s).

We have cyberpunk, steampunk, dieselpunk… And how about Russia-punk? After playing Indika I think this could be a genuine genre. Every time we have a game that tries to immerse us in living in Russia, it feels like a travel to another dimension. We did it before in titles like Pathologic or Know by Heart (both created by the acclaimed Ice-Pick Lodge studios). Alright, Pathologic wasn’t set literally in Russia but its world had immensely strong Russia vibes.

It's not safe to think of Russia too deeply

Anyway, today we’re going to talk about Indika. While this game isn’t set in any specific real region, developers from the Odd Meter studios inform us that the action takes place in Russia in the 19th century. And speaking of developers, they’re naturally Russians (just like Ice-Pick Lodge – it’s an essential factor when creating works in the “Russia-punk” genre), albeit they decided to leave their homeland for Kazakhstan when Putin’s army attacked Ukraine. Otherwise, they risked going to jail for creating a game like Indika.

No, it doesn’t revolve around war. Not even around politics (or at least not directly). Indika simply explores questions like “what do Russians have in their heads?”, “why people of Russia are like this?”, and “what religion has to do with Russia being called a state of mind?”. And while no straight answers are given by the game, the way it asks those questions could be enough to upset someone who might decide to give a warrant of arrest for gals and girls from the Odd Meter studios for spreading defeatism or some other nonsense.

Meaningful and visionary

As you can see already, Indika is something more than just a game, i.e. a product meant to entertain us. We should rather call it an experience. Or a work of art. It’s deeply disturbing, thought-provoking, shocking at times, and genre-defying.

On a surface level, this is a third-person adventure game. However, Odd Meter constantly questions this label and surprises us with new mechanics or perspectives at every step (maybe even too often for its own sake, but I’ll get to that a bit later).

All this is put together by a captivating narrative and ingenious game direction, with delicious camera shots and well-written dialogue read by talented voice actors. I don’t want to spoil even a tiny bit of this intriguing story so let me just say this: Indika’s self-reflective journey across monumental (purposefully exaggerated) Russian landscape is one of the most memorable gaming experiences I had in recent years. I wish it lasted for longer than 4 hours, and didn’t end so abruptly.

Not a walking sim, for better or worse

Sadly, despite so many praising words, I cannot give Indika a 100% recommendation. Paradoxically, varied gameplay mechanics is the game’s virtue and flaw at the same time. As often happens with small studios making the first steps in making games, an overabundance of interactivity creates the risk of causing developers a massive headache, putting them in a position where they are unable to adequately polish everything. That’s what happened to Indika.

My theory is that Odd Meter was trying to avoid sticking a “walking sim” label to their game at all costs. As indicated by recent examples, such as The Invincible (also published by 11 bit studios, by the way), this genre is no longer as interesting for players as it used to be, so someone probably decided that Indika must include as much gameplay as it can get.

Therefore don’t expect this journey to be a walk in the park (pun intended). There are not only environmental puzzles that stand between you and the ending, you also need to show some solid reflexes when dealing with several platforming or action sequences. Unfortunately, their design is far from perfect and you can’t skip them or lower difficulty so be ready for moments of frustration when dealing with clunky controls and confusing level design. At least checkpoints are aplenty.

What’s worse, puzzles can be confusing too. I’ve lost too much time trying to figure out where to go and what to do on several occasions, walking around, climbing on too many obstacles (with poor animation), and interacting with machines without a clue about their purpose. And unlike with many well-crafted adventure games, finally finding a solution was giving me a sense of disharmonized pace of the story rather than satisfaction.

Wait a bit and witness it

However, despite the flawed gameplay, Indika is still a must-play. Or, since it’s more than just a game, is it a “must-experience”? Anyway, you definitely should buy it… but perhaps not immediately after release. Thankfully, Indika’s issues are of the kind that could be removed with updates. I believe Odd Meter will be able to improve controls and level design or at least introduce options to skip the most frustrating parts of the game that don’t really add anything of importance to the story. And when the game is finally patched out, you’re up for an unforgettable cultural roller-coaster.