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If A24 Made a Video Game, It Would Look a Lot Like Indika
Dreamy vibes? A protagonist wrestling with doubt? An almost feverish commitment to immersion? Check, check, check.
Across the roughly five hours of this third-person adventure, one that whisks us through a painterly yet uncannily photorealistic version of nineteenth-century Russia, we feel the youngster’s mind being cleaved apart as she clashes with the dogmatic rules of her Christian faith. This gives us time to soak up our dreamily impressionistic surroundings: the endless expanses of white snow; rickety wooden buildings that seem to rise unnaturally to the sky; a fish factory filled with cans so big they make Indika look the size of a tiny mouse. Toggling between them causes the sound and visuals to twist and writhe from reality itself, in which Indika incessantly murmurs prayers to herself, to a blood-red fantasy realm soundtracked by pounding electronic music and the torments of the devil.
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