Indika review

Our VerdictA bizarre, confronting and darkly funny descent into hell, Indika takes a lot of risks and mostly sticks the landing.

Our Verdict

A bizarre, confronting and darkly funny descent into hell, Indika takes a lot of risks and mostly sticks the landing.

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Indika is a misfit Russian Orthodox nun on a mission. She’s tasked with delivering a note to the Danilov monastery, which is a welcome reprieve, because the other nuns in her own monastery hate her guts. Little wonder, though: she’s not a very good nun.

Need to knowWhat is it?Third-person puzzle-centric adventuring starring a jilted Russian Orthodox nunExpect to pay:TBCDeveloper:Odd MeterPublisher:11 Bit StudiosReviewed on:RTX 3060 (laptop), Ryzen 5 5600H, 16GB RAMMultiplayer?NoSteam Deck:TBCLink:Official site

Need to know

What is it?Third-person puzzle-centric adventuring starring a jilted Russian Orthodox nunExpect to pay:TBCDeveloper:Odd MeterPublisher:11 Bit StudiosReviewed on:RTX 3060 (laptop), Ryzen 5 5600H, 16GB RAMMultiplayer?NoSteam Deck:TBCLink:Official site

The trip is fated to go spectacularly wrong, and that’s no spoiler, because the tone of Indika immediately warns us that we’ve entered a redemption-free zone. Across the six hours it took me to complete, our doomed hero moves through a succession of bleak, dehumanising environments, solves a bunch of puzzles, survives some utterly miserable encounters, fails to achieve anything she set out to do, and then must go on living. It didn’t make me feel good, but I loved it all the same.

Image1of3(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Image1of3

(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)

(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika

(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika

(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika

While its thematic concerns feel Dostoyevskian—see especially, the Grand Inquisitor section from The Brothers Karamazov—Indika’s presentation more closely resembles the kitchen sink postmodernism of ’90s film, that decade of showy contrasts when you could putbreakbeats in mediaeval capersand no one would bat an eyelid. For the Eastern Europe heads there’s also traces of Tarkovsky, and a hint of the dejected humour found inPathologic 2and the novels of Laszlo Krasznahorkai. In other words, Indika’s atmosphere draws from a variety of sources that are unusual for games to draw from, bolstering its disorientating weirdness to great effect.

Image1of3(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Image1of3

(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)(Image credit: Odd Meter)

(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika

(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika

(Image credit: Odd Meter)

Indika

So it’s a mesmeric narrative achievement, but does it cope as a game? For those looking for a Russian take onA Plague Tale: Innocenceor whatever, the brevity here, the linearity, and the inhospitably hopeless mood might be deal breakers. But I respect how Indika doesn’t linger on some of its more interesting puzzle ideas for the sake of fleshing out the runtime. A lot of the game’s confrontational power comes from the bracing abruptness of its finish.

Indika takes some wild tonal risks but mostly plays it safe when it comes to the stuff you do with your hands. And even if it’s not always successful—even if theye oldefaith-versus-reason debate does nothing for your big 21st century brain—the cumulative effect is a game that manages to mash together a bunch of familiar elements into a new form that’s disquieting and gratifyingly obtuse.

The Verdict79Read our review policyIndikaA bizarre, confronting and darkly funny descent into hell, Indika takes a lot of risks and mostly sticks the landing.

The Verdict

79Read our review policyIndikaA bizarre, confronting and darkly funny descent into hell, Indika takes a lot of risks and mostly sticks the landing.

79Read our review policy

IndikaA bizarre, confronting and darkly funny descent into hell, Indika takes a lot of risks and mostly sticks the landing.

Indika

A bizarre, confronting and darkly funny descent into hell, Indika takes a lot of risks and mostly sticks the landing.

More about indikaIndika publisher, Frostpunk dev to donate $50,000 to ‘support Ukrainian kids’ in wake of Russian missile strike on the country’s biggest children’s hospitalRussian nun simulator Indika, my most anticipated game this year, breaks out the dancing PVC fetish men to announce its May release dateLatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

More about indika

Indika publisher, Frostpunk dev to donate $50,000 to ‘support Ukrainian kids’ in wake of Russian missile strike on the country’s biggest children’s hospitalRussian nun simulator Indika, my most anticipated game this year, breaks out the dancing PVC fetish men to announce its May release date

TOPSHOT - Volunteers, including medics, help emergency and rescue personnel to clear the rubble of a destroyed building at Ohmatdyt Children’s Hospital following a Russian missile attack in the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv on July 8, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine.

Indika publisher, Frostpunk dev to donate $50,000 to ‘support Ukrainian kids’ in wake of Russian missile strike on the country’s biggest children’s hospital

A close-up of Indika’s face

Russian nun simulator Indika, my most anticipated game this year, breaks out the dancing PVC fetish men to announce its May release date

LatestToday’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11See more latest►

Latest

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

Wordle answers

Today’s Wordle answer for Saturday, January 11

See more latest►

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Our Verdict#

Our Verdict