When you first start playing Indigo Prophecy it feels like something completely new. You start out as Lucas Kane, who has just killed a man in the bathroom of a diner while possessed by a trance-like state. Unlike many games, there is no quest to prove your innocence, you definitely did it. Instead, you are trying to figure out what made you do it.

The gameplay is really intricate and very engaging. The number of choices given to the player is incredible. Using this first scene as an example, Lucas is in a diner bathroom with a dead body. Now, if you want, you can panic. Lucas can burst out of the bathroom, covered in blood, leaving all the evidence behind, and then escape through the rear door, alerting the policeman at the counter that something is wrong. Or you can think things through. You can hide the body, mop the floor, wash your hands, hide the murder weapon, pay your check and leave, leaving no one in the diner any wiser. By the time the body is found in the bathroom, you're long gone.

All of these choices affect the next portion of the game where you play as Carla Valenti and Tyler Miles, the two police officers assigned to investigate the murder. The better you cleaned up as Lucas, the harder it will be to find clues as Carla and Tyler. I found this type of interaction to be the most intriguing part of the game. Do you do your best to help both groups equally, or do you let one side work sloppily to give an advantage to your favorite?

You can't let things get to far out of hand, though. Each of the three main characters has a mental state that you have to keep an eye on. If you take good care of them and have them do their job well, their mental state stays high. If they get caught doing a bad job and are reprimanded, their mental state drops. If their mental state drops too far then bad things can happen. They might give up hope or even commit suicide.

While these parts of the game felt really interesting, I started to get the odd feeling that I had done something like this before. It took me a while to figure it out but, much like a Magic Eye picture, once I did it was as clear as day. Indigo Prophecy is an old school, point and click adventure game. I used to spend hours playing these things on the computer, and I remember when it seemed like that was the only type of game that was getting made. I hadn't played one in forever, but here was a brand new one hidden behind a slick new interface.

Now, Indigo Prophecy does have quite a few advantages over old point and click games. It's not nearly as linear as they used to be. Rather than having to find a specific item and use it with another item in a specific place, you get much more choice in your interaction with the objects. For the most part, you can use or ignore items as you see fit. If you want to play with the stereo, you can. If you want to ignore it, you can. It doesn't really affect the game one way or the other. Every once in a while though, you will need to find a certain item to advance the storyline, and this is where things get frustrating. Not all of the items are obvious finds, and the camera can make things even more difficult. I spent a lot of time walking around and standing next to various items in the hope that one of them would pop up the interaction button and I could proceed with the story. It would get frustrating but, just like a Magic Eye picture, if you keep looking long enough eventually what you're looking for pops up.

Breaking away from the adventure game aspects, Indigo Prophecy takes a fairly unique look at the interactions you have with your fellow characters as well. When competing against a character (playing basketball, sparring) or fighting/escaping from enemies a brief minigame pops up. Using the two thumbsticks, you have to match the patterns appearing on the screen. The one problem I have with this is that it usually occurs during a very dramatic scene, one that I'd really like to focus on and get to watch. Fortunately, these scenes are also available as bonus materials that can be played or just watched. I think this is a nice little touch, and I'd like to see it included in more games. The other type of minigame that pops up is a fairly standard "running" type of game, just pull on the left and right triggers as fast as you can. It seemed a little too sensitive sometimes, and I would end up losing the minigame before I even really had a chance to try it.

Overall, I think Indigo Prophecy has a lot going for it. The cinematic way in which the game is presented, even going so far as to call it a "New Movie" on the startup screen. The story pulls you in and keeps you engrossed. I think video games as a whole can really benefit from some more attention to storylines, even if the gameplay is simplified somewhat. Even with its technical glitches, Indigo Prophecy provides an entertaining story, with a group of characters that you really care about and root for.

So take a look at Indigo Prophecy. The longer you look, the more you'll see.