I wasn’t exactly sure why I wanted to play a game like Indika.  At first, I thought it was some sort of FMV game, and if you know me, I love a good FMV game.  However, Indika, did not fall into that category.  As a matter of fact, after watching the trailer, I wasn’t sure what category the game fell into.  When the game finally went on sale, I decided to pick up Indika, and play it, and it took me for a really strange ride.

If you are unaware of what Indika is, you play as a nun by the name of Indika.  It seems that Indika is not exactly a nun that is well liked in the cloister.  As a matter of fact, it seems that the other nuns are constantly punishing her for just existing in their space.  So the nuns conspire to have her take a secret message to Father Herman at the Danilov Monastery.  Of course, things don’t go as planned and she befriends a prisoner, and somehow becomes known as a possible perpetrator of a crime.  Trust me, the story is worth the journey.

In many ways, it seems that the point of Indika is a challenge to her religious faith.  Throughout her journey, she is constantly put into situations that require her to start to compromise some of her beliefs.  When she makes these choices, she thinks she is being taunted by the devil.  The question we start to have as we play through the game, is whether she is really hearing these voices, or is it something she is making up.

The weirdness doesn’t stop there, as Indika never sticks to any one genre.  Sometimes, its a story driven adventure game.  Then the game will morph into a puzzle level game.  From there it will even turn into a side scrolling arcade game.  While I will say that the story portion of the game was really well done, and even the puzzle stuff fit well enough, the arcade style segments really took me out of the game.  Those segments did give some interesting story bits, but they were trapped behind the arcade segments.

While Indika comes together through all of its different mechanics, it is at its strongest when it tells its story.  The puzzle elements can be a slog at times and frustrating, but fighting through them will reward you with a fantastic story.  Even better, it has an ending that really pays off so well.  I would recommend you check it out if you have Xbox Game Pass right now, or if you can pick it up on a deal.