Nuns.

Who would have thought a game about nuns would be so damn enjoyable? They’re reserved, pious and a fairly boring subject matter unless you’re making something in the horror genre. I can’t think of there being one other video game with a nun protagonist. Think about it and sound off in the comments if you can. 

But all that has changed with Indika.

Indika is a third-person puzzle adventure from Odd-Meter, the perfect name for the developer of this game. You play as the titular nun who is tasked to deliver a letter to a monastery in another town. Simple task, right?

Well, there is more to Indika than meets the eye. This is honestly one of the weirdest games I’ve ever played. In a freaking good way!

Story

Indika doesn’t fit in at her convent. None of the Sisters like her because, like Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer, there’s something different about her. She hears voices, and not from the big guy upstairs; it’s the basement dweller…

The big cheeses of the convent send Indika to deliver a letter, the first time she’s been out on her own in years. But, just like any fetch quest, things start to go awry. Meeting bad-boy Ilya, encountering the dangers of the Russian wilderness, and uncovering truths long forgotten while keeping the voices at bay, Indika has her work cut out for her.

Please, please, Ms. Postnun! Why’s it takin’ such a long time?!

This game is a study of Indika’s personal relationship with her religion, and not in a preachy or dull way. This central theme is what makes this game so enthralling, making you question why Indika does the things she does and how she can reconcile those choices with her God. 

But, you know, with comedy and chaos thrown into the mix.

Gameplay

Indika, for the majority of its playtime, is a puzzle game. It’s one big fetch-quest traversal game, but it is easier said than done, requiring some lateral thinking to progress the linear story. With the help of prayer (yes, there’s a praying mechanic here!), in some intense moments, you can travel between the real world and the hell world to achieve your goals. The demon voice takes over and can affect the world around you, transforming the landscape into a hellscape. Yes, some puzzles can be solved in the real world, but some can only be solved with the help of the voices. 

Then, we have the flashback sequences. Flashbacks have a completely different style to the rest of the game. These are pixel art minigames like platformers, races, and even a Pacman clone! They’re so out of place yet, in the context of this weird game, fit so well. The game opens in this style and quickly transitions to the main, more realistic gameplay, showing a close-up of Indika’s face like she’d been daydreaming. 

Indika has a religious point-scoring system. It’s ingenious. You can earn points by doing things like praying in front of religious paraphernalia, picking up relics, and doing various mundane tasks at the behest of your superiors. These points MEAN NOTHING. The game tells you this from the very beginning. But how can you not want a high score? It allows you to “level up”! It gives you boosters for your points! Yes, it means F*CK ALL, but I can’t not try to increase my piety meter. 

This is a perfect metaphor for doing good things just so you can gain entry into heaven and not just do good things! They gamify something that shouldn’t be a game in Indika or in real life!

Sound, Visuals and Performance

The music from composer Mike Sabadash is great, bringing a trippy accompaniment to the weird vibes of the gameplay. The performances (especially from Isabella Inchbald, who voiced the title character) were very emotional and moving, but the sound quality didn’t seem to match the environment in the game. It’s hard to put a finger on what it was exactly, but it was just a little off. 

Indika is a beautiful game, and don’t the developers know it! They even scatter a bunch of benches Indika can sit on while you take in the vistas of snow-caked cathedrals, dilapidated villages or frozen lakes. Pixel art flashbacks are where Odd-Meter really shows off, though. Having these two styles in the same game is utterly impressive. 

Unfortunately, it’s Indika’s technical performance that lets it down. I played this on PS5, and I noticed significant frame drops and slowdown a few times. Although I had no crashes, I did experience some weird sound glitches at times, either with voice synchronization or the music stopping altogether. These, however, were few and far between in my 6-ish hours of playtime (and I was a little slow because I’m a trophy fiend, exploring every nook and cranny I could find).

And none of these auditory or visual mishaps affected my enjoyment of the game.

Summary

What the absolute F*CK is this game?! That’s the question I kept asking myself. It’s one of the weirdest games I’ve ever played, and I loved every second (aside from one section with a balance beam that can go to Hell with Indika’s voices). 

The gameplay may be what some would call a walking sim with puzzle elements, but you shouldn’t buy Indika for its mechanics alone. The story and its twists, turns, and bonkers reveals are what you should play Indika for because I challenge you to not, at least once, sit open-mouthed staring at the screen for 15 straight seconds while you try to comprehend what just happened. 

Indika is an experience I cannot recommend enough. It’s available on PS5, Xbox Series S and X and PC right now! This is something you simply must play.

Or I can go to Hell like the voice in my head keeps telling me.