As a fan of games that subvert expectations, deliver on weirdness, and are generally unpredictable in some way, the indie game space has been a source of quite a lot of fun in this last generation. Even with as many of them as I’ve played, including some that have used pretty out there visuals and concepts to try to make some sort of point about the world, I can’t say I’ve encountered any like Indika before. Essentially playing out as a journey of a young woman having a serious crisis of faith, a mental breakdown, or some combination of both, there can at least be no question that it will be memorable, for good or bad.

Trying to nail down precisely what sort of game it is based on its gameplay is a challenge, since it’s truly a title with many modes and moods. Shifting between environmental puzzles, mild action sequences, periodic trippy-as-hell cutscenes, and sometimes tasks purely intended to waste your time (with a point, I suppose, but wasted nonetheless), it can be a bit of a wild ride conceptually. 

The first problem is whether or not the gameplay is sufficiently engaging to keep you hooked to see where it all ends up. I would imagine that people will either be fascinated by the strangeness of it all, and the journey being full of discovery, while others could justifiably simply find it all dull. This definitely feels like a case where artistic expression and philosophical concepts are driving, with gameplay acting more to serve the narrative than to necessarily be compelling in its own right. 

If that were the only issue, it could still come through as being worthwhile, if a bit niche, but the more crippling problem is the game’s overall performance. Whether on the Switch or the Switch 2, this just feels like a clumsy port, featuring issues with stability, strange periodic visual glitches, and generally murky visuals that can make picking out key details or following what you’re supposed to be doing more challenging than it should be. Even as someone who’s usually pretty lenient on performance, this feels like it needs more time and some patching to better optimize the experience. If you’re sucked in by the idea, and have access to another platform, it would behoove you to consider playing it elsewhere in that case.