My Thoughts on Indigo Park

(Dang it was good)

I've never played a horror game before in my life. I'm too much of a scaredy cat for that sort of thing. Seeing the trailer to Five Nights at Freddy's 4 as a kid, without ever even seeing gameplay of the game (or any other games in that series, for that matter, until about 2021 or so), was enough to give me nightmares for years. The few horror movies I've seen are generally tame and are lacking in the realm of gore, language, or violence (for the most part). Horror books and short stories are also something I've never dipped my toes into as of yet (despite being very tempted to read some horror novels due to them being, well, novels, and books are easily my favorite medium when it comes to storytelling.

All that to say, I am not experienced with horror in the slightest. So what made me change my mind? Honestly, I'm not entirely sure. Perhaps it was because I was so terrified of just about everything as a child (and, in many respects, I still am), but I eventually developed a fascination with the things that terrify me, even if they do still give me nightmares from time to time. Heck, when it comes to my original stories (and perhaps you'll see some of those soon), I've even taken to incorporating elements of horror when I find it appropriate, just to see if I can pull it off. However, even then, I still never felt the motivation to actually interact with horror stories beyond what I'd already done.

But something about Indigo Park stood out to me. I initially saw a video about it on YouTube, which talked about how good of a horror game it was and how fun it was to play. The only criticism it lobbied against the game was that it wasn't the scariest game in the world. Perhaps that, combined with the aesthetic and premise, were what led me to actually trying out the game for myself, making it the first horror game I've actually played in my life, and by extension the first horror game I've ever finished. It probably helped that the whole game was free.

In Indigo Park, you play as an urban explorer who decides to check out the titular abandoned amusement park to do a bit of urban exploration (even following a nice safety rule when it comes to urban exploring and letting someone know where you'll be going prior to actually leaving, though I doubt that'll factor into the game's plot going forward). You arrive to find it destroyed, looking as though it had both been partially demolished and like some major superhero movie level action scene had torn the place apart. After looking around for awhile, you meet up with the park's mascot, an AI buddy by the name of Rambley.

Rambley is absolutely adorable and the highlight of the game. All of his narration provides both useful exposition and fun bits of personality to the game that are much appreciated. The voice acting really sells him as this living cartoon character. He also gets a really fun vocal theme in the end credits which reminded me a lot of the Portal duology, though I doubt GLaDOS and Rambley would get along one bit. His design also does a great job at selling the cute mascot that he's meant to be. It's so successful, in fact, that I'd love to get a plushie of the character at some point if I could (though this is unlikely given I just spent a lot of money on a PC, which is what I'm typing on and what I played the game on). That honestly speaks to how successful the game is at selling this world and these characters, which is even more surprising with the knowledge that this is the first commercial product this studio has released.

The game's other characters certainly aren't as prevalent as Rambley, but I don't have much to say when it comes to them. The two characters we actually see in the flesh (or perhaps "in the fur" and "in the feathers," respectively, would be more appropriate) during the game are Lloyd (a lion who Rambley has a very clear distaste towards, as every line of dialogue he has about the ferocious feline is in some way negative) and Mollie (a bird who has a penchance for crashing her plane into objects, or so we're told). Beyond an introduction, which introduces us to two characters who seemingly will be more important in the following chapters, we see them in these odd organic costumes which seem too lifelike to bee robotic and too stiff to be human. Their movements and appearances sit firmly in the uncanny valley, and that only adds to the terror of seeing them, even briefly, during your stay in the park. Your confrontation with Lloyd is somewhat brief, though extremely memorable. Your confrontation with Mollie, on the other hand, takes up much more of the game's runtime and acts as the climax to the first chapter. Mollie stalks you throughout the entirety of your stay in the park and is even shown in silhouette form on the game's title screen. She teases and spooks you leading up to that overt confrontation, and actually seeing her meet her end is very satisfying, both due to the fact that it marks an end to a frankly terrifying threat and the change it makes to the status quo which satisfyingly sets up the subsequent chapter, should that ever release. I certainly hope it does, because if Mollie and Lloyd are any indication, the team at UniqueGeese knows how to handle a good, creepy monster, and I'd love to see how the rest of the cast is executed and where the story will go from here.

As this is a game, and not just a book or horror movie, there is, of course, the actual interactive part of this experience to take into consideration. Now, I've played first-person video games in the past, but those were limited to dual-stick controls on consoles (with either gyro or, in the case of my Steam Deck, trackpads). Actually getting to play a first-person game with a keyboard and mouse made me realize just how much more intuitive and immersive it is to use that control scheme compared to a keyboard and mouse. I had played through the first Portal briefly before delving into this game, so it certainly wasn't the first time I'd played a first-person adventure game with a keyboard and mouse, but playing through Indigo Park only solidified a love and appreciation towards this control scheme that I didn't have before. I didn't have any real problems with the control scheme or with the general movement of the game. In general, I had very few problems with the gameplay at all. The only real frustrations came in the form of a bug which made it so I lost a collectable after reloading a save and the fact that you can't revisit past areas (with a couple of exceptions) after you have left them. The game doesn't tell you this, so you are likely to not know it until you miss a collectible or wish to see something again, you'll likely have to start a new save from the beginning. This is something which I could see frustrating new players or those who may struggle to find any hidden items within the environment, but it's not something I particularly mind, as I loved the game so much that a second playthrough (which hopefully won't erase my collection of that item) doesn't sound too unappealing.

This game really terrified me, building up such a strong atmosphere which was only helped by my childhood love of theme parks and all sorts of fun facts related to them, especially during COVID, where DefunctLand became one of my favorite YouTube channels for a time and I frequently read articles from the Long Forgotten Haunted Mansion blog. I became so terrified, in fact, that I had to take brief breaks from the game just to recompose myself and, in a couple notable instances, had to ask a friend to sit next to me so I felt less scared, though in other instances, I asked him to leave so that I could feel less scared while alone. It was an odd feeling, but I felt more scared when alone at certain points and more scared when I had my friend with me at others. Perhaps some of this lack of fear came from the presence of Rambley in the game, but I'm not entirely sure. The character certainly feels like a friend by the end of the game, and I cerainly hope that he's not turned into a twist villain, as many fans seem to theorize. That seems all too overdone and basic. I hope the twist is something else, like that what we saw were some kind of advanced biological robotics separate from the Rambley AI and there's secretly a robot version of the lovable racoon. I think that would be a lot more interesting, at the very least. However, having played the game now, I think I could feel a little less scared, since I know when the monsters will show up and can better prepare myself for whatever lies ahead. I think it helps that the game is pretty easy, or at least was to me. I'm usually pretty darn terrible at video games, so the fact that I didn't die once in my entire playthrough probably speaks to this game's lack of difficulty. However, that made the experience more fun for me as a first-timer, and makes me feel more inclined to check out other horror games now that I've finished Indigo Park. I even downloaded the first Resident Evil to my PC and am half tempted to give it a shot down the line.

Overall, I'd recommend Indigo Park wholeheartedly, especially because of its fantastically free entry fee (or perhaps entry free would be more appropriate). Even if you just try it out for a few minutes, it was a fun experience that lasted me a little over two and a half hours.

And yes, to those of you reading at the time of publication, this is very much an indicator that I do not always write about whatever is in the "Currently Playing" box on my homepage.