Indika is a game I wish I could have given a higher rating, because the things it does well it excels at. Indika's graphics are truly beautiful, and there were multiple times at the beginning of the game I paused just to take a look at the pretty vistas. Indika's graphics look fantastic due to both powerful technology, but also a really fantastic choice of setting. The 19th century Russian countryside makes for a great setting, with dark, shadow infested interiors, and blindingly bright snowy exteriors, and the moments where the game switches from one of these types of environment to the other are some of my favorite. With these exceptional graphics, however, comes a cost. I regularly had moments where my 1% lows dipped into the 10-20 range, particularly when loading new areas or cutscenes, and this made the game experience occasionally feel horrible. I'm sure I could have tuned my graphics settings to get better performance, but having to make those kinds of sacrifices takes away from one of the best aspects of the game. The voice acting and performances of each of the characters were very well done, and the two main characters have quite a lot of chemistry. I have relatively mixed feelings on the story. Indika tells the story of a nun cast away from her convent in order to deliver a letter, and much of the game is about Indika's own doubts and insecurities. Indika is one of the first games I've played in my backlog journey where I've felt like it could have been longer. The ending feels somewhat abrupt, and it didn't feel super satisfying, because many important ideas that were set up earlier in the story didn't feel like they were really resolved in a satisfying way. Indika is interesting and worth talking about, but is also undeniably flawed. (7/10)

Indika is a game I wish I could have given a higher rating, because the things it does well it excels at. Indika's graphics are truly beautiful, and there were multiple times at the beginning of the game I paused just to take a look at the pretty vistas. Indika's graphics look fantastic due to both powerful technology, but also a really fantastic choice of setting. The 19th century Russian countryside makes for a great setting, with dark, shadow infested interiors, and blindingly bright snowy exteriors, and the moments where the game switches from one of these types of environment to the other are some of my favorite. With these exceptional graphics, however, comes a cost. I regularly had moments where my 1% lows dipped into the 10-20 range, particularly when loading new areas or cutscenes, and this made the game experience occasionally feel horrible. I'm sure I could have tuned my graphics settings to get better performance, but having to make those kinds of sacrifices takes away from one of the best aspects of the game. The voice acting and performances of each of the characters were very well done, and the two main characters have quite a lot of chemistry. I have relatively mixed feelings on the story. Indika tells the story of a nun cast away from her convent in order to deliver a letter, and much of the game is about Indika's own doubts and insecurities. Indika is one of the first games I've played in my backlog journey where I've felt like it could have been longer. The ending feels somewhat abrupt, and it didn't feel super satisfying, because many important ideas that were set up earlier in the story didn't feel like they were really resolved in a satisfying way. Indika is interesting and worth talking about, but is also undeniably flawed. (7/10)