Indygo, while certainly nothing groundbreaking with mechanics, is a frightfully accurate portrayal of what happens in the mind of someone suffering from depression. The narrative is clearly more important than the game’s mechanics, and that shows at times, but the combination of mechanics, dialogue choice and acting help to push the message about how devastating depression can be for an individual suffering from it.
Fat Dog Games is publishing some interesting IP as of late with the likes of Chronicles of Nyanya, a difficult JRPG experience that we reviewed last month, and another IP that we didn’t know about called Indygo and is the reason for this review.
While Pigmentum Game Studio’s Indygo doesn’t have the same cute and adorable appeal as Nyanya, it does something incredibly unique and important that some people will pass it by without noticing. It tackles the topic of depression and emulates, nearly perfectly, what it feels like going through the incurable mental state.
In the game, you play as a man named Tom, who is suffering from a terrible bout of depression, so much that he has isolated himself in his room and his wife only communicates with him via letters. The game and its narrative follow Tom’s thought process, as he jumps from moment to moment, trying to keep it together, by metaphorically and literally putting together important pieces of his life within his room, while trying to stay grounded and not fall too far. The player’s job is to make choices and help Tom out the best way they see fit, while trying to avoid making Tom fall into his mental valley. It’s not easy, folks. Not at all.
The mechanics of the game, as stated previously, jump from Tom’s thoughts to puzzle solving. For example, Tom will mention at the beginning that there is an empty picture frame where his wife’s picture used to be. The player, using point and click methods on a still background that is black/white/gray, must scour his room for the picture pieces in hopes of putting her picture back together to help him out. By choosing to do so, the efforts of the player translate to Tom’s response choice to the next step. Sometimes it’s a positive response, sometimes it’s a terrible dip — all of it still exists within the wrapper of depression.
The choose-your-own-adventure structure, which is incredibly appropriate for this game, gives way to a branched out design of choices; meaning that if you do something one way, then you’re presented with a path another. If you do something another way, then that path alters and goes a different route. Think of still-picture version of Knights of the Old Republic dialogue sequences and you get the idea. Whatever you do with Tom and whatever you do within his room will give way to certain dialogue responses to choose from when he writes letters back to his wife. How you perform prior dictates what response choices you get to move Tom’s story forward. Sometimes it’s on the upward swing, sometimes it is not. Regardless, it’s up to you to determine which way that goes.
Now, and not to spoil it for you, the narrative that is laid out doesn’t pretend to offer up a cure for Tom’s depression. This means that, like anyone else suffering from this disease, there is no cure. There is no winning and the best you can do is simply cope. The way that Pigmentum Game Studio presents this game creates an accurate representation of depression and how a person would suffer through it on a day-to-day, week-to-week basis. It’s a series of peaks and valleys, and the game does a regretfully fantastic job of re-creating those.
Having said all this, the only shortcoming the game suffers from is the search/click game mechanics, which sometimes are tough to get right. The backgrounds are so incredibly tough to see at times that it can be a little frustrating navigating for answers. Maybe that was a bad gameplay design, but also maybe that was intentional to get the player in the right frame of mind. Regardless, it can be difficult at times, but nonetheless rewarding.
As Indygo goes, though, it’s a courageous representation of bringing depression into focus and putting the player through a frightfully accurate portrayal of it. Pigmentum Game Studio did a helluva job with presenting some grounded and accurate. I give them all the credit in the world for replicating such a powerful and debilitating disease in game form. Those choices of design couldn’t have been easy, so bravo to them for getting right.
Overall, Indygo, while certainly nothing groundbreaking with mechanics, is a frightfully accurate portrayal of what happens in the mind of someone suffering from depression. The narrative is clearly more important than the game’s mechanics, and that shows at times, but the combination of mechanics, dialogue choice and acting help to push the message about how devastating depression can be for an individual suffering from it.
Go and get this, folks. It’s a helluva experience.
