This story incorporates discussions of sexual violence.
A number of scenes from INDIKA are seared into my mind. A palm-sized particular person crawls out of a nun’s mouth and runs down her arm, frenzied, in the midst of a Catholic ritual. A person is suspended within the air, his torso impaled on a strip of curling rebar, whereas a guitarist gently encourages him to die. Dozens of bus-sized fish dangle on rotating spits above a blazing silo. The mangled head of a feral canine flops repeatedly in opposition to the gears of a mill, neck limp and tongue lolling. The sudden glimpse of a demon: grey pores and skin, too many arms and joints bent the improper manner, bug-like and hulking. After I transfer, it strikes.
Again at dwelling in entrance of my PC, my pores and skin prickles with goosebumps. INDIKA generates visceral reactions effortlessly and at all times with a tinge of shock. It’s a (principally) third-person narrative journey set in an alternate nineteenth century Russia, and it stars an ostracized nun, Indika, who has the satan’s voice in her head. From this basis, the sport affords a flurry of whimsical absurdity and uncooked human struggling, and whilst its visible and mechanical types shift from scene to scene, the whole lot comes collectively in a cohesive package deal. INDIKA is a masterful instance of maturity in video video games.
The satan is Indika’s fixed companion. As she travels from her convent to ship a letter in one other village, the voice in her head gleefully vocalizes her cruelest ideas and factors out the hypocrisies constructed into Catholicism, her chosen faith. The satan speaks like he’s narrating a kids’s e book, a Rumpelstiltskin glee dripping from each syllable as he tells Indika how weak, unloved and naive she is. Indika debates him and, at just a few factors, he splinters actuality round her, opening deep cracks within the surroundings, revealing new pathways and filling the world with a crimson glow. Gamers can maintain down a button to wish, protecting his machinations at bay. To progress in these scenes, Indika has to shift between the satan’s actuality and her personal, inviting him in at particular moments to utilize his hellish platforms. Indika turns into extra snug with the satan in her thoughts as the sport progresses, and the “press X to pray” moments are simply the primary examples of their uneasy alliance.
As a bit of spiritual criticism, INDIKA performs all of the hits. Its jokes in regards to the manipulation, hypocrisy and inflexible inhumanity of Catholicism are clear and sharp, although not significantly revelatory. The satan’s laughing tone makes each line sound like a lullaby, and to my ears — an atheist who grew up Catholic and was extraordinarily confused by the gaudy, culty exclusion being preached each Sunday — INDIKA is soul-soothing. The sport by no means totally explains whether or not Indika is experiencing a psychotic break or is actually possessed by the satan on this world; the whole lot exists within the grey space the place each of those states meet. Psychosis or Devil, it’s all extremely actual to Indika.
INDIKA is underpinned by a delirious pressure between levity and agony, and the builders at Odd Meter obtained the rhythm good. Indika’s actuality is a frozen hellscape stuffed with ache, betrayal and isolation, nevertheless it additionally has laugh-out-loud moments that really feel extra like a rom-com than a psychodrama a couple of unhappy nun. The sport additionally slips right into a lighter visible type because it delves into her previous, mining recollections out of pixelated platformers in sun-drenched environments. These distinction sharply in opposition to the 3D brutalism of the primary scenes, they usually’re extremely participating, providing clean jumps with tough timings.
It is a recreation that requires an escape every so often, and moments of reprieve are constructed into its development, completely positioned to ease the nervousness because it reaches a fever pitch.
A few quarter of the way in which via the sport, Indika encounters a blood-chilling scene: By means of the crack of a doorway, she sees and hears a person trying to rape a girl, scuffles and screams spilling into the hallway. Indika freezes, by accident makes a noise, after which hides in a closet because the assaulter turns his consideration towards the interruption. The satan taunts Indika — “Did you see the size of that thing?” and “Maybe you wanted to join them?” — as the person searches for her. The hazard of the scenario bursts via the display screen, heavy and white-hot.
That is horror.
Minutes later, Indika is driving a steampunk bike with a trailer stuffed with corpses down a winding path, an sudden buddy perched on the our bodies behind her, throwing out cheeky one-liners. All of a sudden, it appears like the start of a buddy-cop film. The shift in tone is a big reduction, and this steadiness of extremes is one thing that INDIKA does with unimaginable deftness, time and time once more. The (first) sexual assault scene is fast and highly effective, displaying sufficient to drive dwelling the depravity of the scenario with out changing into gratuitous. After I performed via it, I took a deep breath, collected myself, after which dove again into the sport, wanting to uncover extra of its commentary. The dealing with of this matter elevated my belief within the builders’ creative instincts and their skill to disclose the character of true terror; it made me extra invested in the remainder of the sport.
Of all of the memorable visuals in INDIKA, one stays significantly vibrant in my thoughts’s eye. Indika is kneeling in a jail cell and a guard enters alone, his intentions clear. He places his hand on the again of Indika’s head and actuality breaks prefer it typically does on this recreation — however this time it’s softer, slower and all-encompassing. The display screen turns into a crimson pool, and within the middle, Indika and the satan float round one another like amoebae in a petri dish, quietly discussing the injustices of human existence. Indika dissociates whereas her physique experiences violence, and the scene lingers on the crimson womb, offering area for gamers to soak up the scenario from a creative and philosophical distance. It’s genuine and highly effective. It’s oddly calming.
INDIKA stands out for these moments of sexual violence, every so delicately dealt with. The online game business particularly is constructed on a basis of bodily violence — weapons, conflict, blood and homicide — however there aren’t many video games that broach the topic of sexual abuse. That is largely for the very best, as sexual violence is a subject that we’re nonetheless studying how one can speak about on a cultural scale. It’s the ugliest facet of humanity, essentially the most uncomfortable to deal with, but it’s pervasive. Sexual abuse is as worthy of compassionate dialogue as gun violence, however for a mess of societal and particular person causes, it’s a lot tougher to have a look at straight.
Interactive media particularly could be a highly effective vessel for immersion and revelatory storytelling. Sexual violence calls for empathy if it’s going to be included in any piece of leisure media, and that is significantly true in video video games, the place gamers are performing out the occasions, putting themselves within the character’s footwear, getting misplaced of their second-to-second actions. There’s excessive danger in telling a narrative about sexual abuse in a online game, and it’s not solely about alienating or offending a portion of the viewers. The chance lies within the potential to actually retraumatize gamers. Mishandling a subject like rape might be damaging and perpetuate dangerous messages about energy, autonomy and self-worth in the true world.
The most effective consequence for creators who don’t know how one can method the subject is to depart it alone, and for essentially the most half, online game builders have. The choice — including sexual violence to a recreation with out understanding the cruelty of the act, utilizing it for shock worth or lazily turning it into a degree of motivation for a separate character — will at all times be far more upsetting.
For instance, Immortality. This is without doubt one of the few up to date video games that makes use of sexual violence as a plot level, and, to me, its lens feels lecherous moderately than poignant. Immortality employs real-life actors and places the abuse itself center-screen, utilizing the guise of edgy commentary to let the digicam linger on prolonged scenes of softly lit molestation, the lady’s physique in larger focus than her ache. The sexual abuse in Immortality appears like voyeuristic fantasy.
INDIKA, however, facilities the particular person receiving the violence and divulges the true horror of the act. INDIKA demonstrates how a online game can inform a wierd and exquisite story that entails sexual abuse, and proves it may be executed with out overwhelming the narrative or stream. These scenes add layers of perception and emotional heft to Indika’s journey, revealing truths about her psyche and her world. It’s encouraging to see these themes explored so deftly in a bit of interactive artwork.
INDIKA will not be solely about sexual violence. The majority of the sport is stuffed with puzzles, platforming and witty wordplay from the satan, and most of it performs out in participating and ridiculous methods. Loads of segments in INDIKA are downright jovial, with a warped humorousness that jogs my memory of Alice in Wonderland (or, extra appropriately, American McGee’s Alice). Nevertheless, it doesn’t draw back from the darkish realities of Indika’s world, the place rape is as pervasive as gun violence, conflict and non secular oppression. The assault scenes — offered alongside operating themes of demise, manipulation, isolation, disgrace, guilt and cruelty — solidify certainly one of INDIKA’s core messages: With a world like this, how a lot worse can Hell actually be?
