Indika is a game that definitely isn’t for everyone, as I very quickly learned while stepping into the titular protagonist’s shoes. The story first starts in a Russian Orthodox monastery, where Indika - a nun who is hearing a devilish voice - is clearly scorned by her peers. As the others tire of her, she is expelled from the monastery and ends up on a philosophical journey of self-discovery and self-loathing, questioning everything that she has known up until now.
Who determines what acts are more sinful than others? And are the punishments for our sins fair? If humans are sinful, why aren’t animals? Is a soul needed to experience love? If so, is God capable of truly loving anyone? These are just a small handful of the increasingly analytical questions that Indika raises on her short, puzzling adventure; an adventure that forces you to conjure up your innermost thoughts on morality and religion, while experiencing what is a stoic criticism of the Russian Orthodox Church and institutional religion.
Indika, put in the simplest of terms, is a relatively serious game (with some offbeat, comedic moments) that has you traveling from place to place as a troubled nun in an attempt to deliver a letter, but of course, other priorities come to light. There’s platforming, clever environmental puzzles to solve (that aren’t too troubling), and a thought-provoking story which is heavily influenced by directors Ari Aster (Midsommar, Beau is Afraid) and Yorgos Lanthimos (The Lobster, Poor Things), as well as writers Nikolai Gogol and Mikhail Bulgakov.