Indika Review (PS5) | Push Square

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Indika is a game of wild contradiction. It's compelling, thoughtful, and ambitious, but also tedious, rote, and derivative. It's the sort of video game that ruminates on the nature of devout faith, free will, guilt, shame, temptation, and morality, and then asks you to solve boring box puzzles. It's the sort of video game that asks you to solve boring box puzzles and then leaves you earnestly wondering whether the box puzzles were intentionally boring just to mess with you.

You play as a young nun at a convent in 19th century Russia — she's also named Indika — who doesn't seem to be popular among the other nuns, perhaps because she's awkward, fidgety, and odd. She's in regular communication with the devil, too, which we suppose doesn't help, although whether that's literal, a metaphor, or a sign of mental health problems remains up for debate.

The devil is an amusing presence, frequently challenging Indika on her faith and posing her ethical quandaries in an attempt to illustrate the inherent absurdity it sees in Christian fundamentalist teachings. The entity doesn't so much mock her or her faith, but rather pokes at loopholes and looks for contradictions, chipping away at the foundations of her beliefs with each barb.

At one point the devil asks Indika to rank sins. Surely, it posits, if after a confession a priest can assign a penance based on the severity of the transgressions confessed then there must be a hierarchy to sin. If the priest demands you say a 'Hail Mary' after confessing a theft, and ten after a murder, then are ten thefts equal to a murder in the eyes of God? Is a rapist better than a murderer, it asks? Wisely, the game never attempts to answer these questions.

Close to the beginning of the game, Indika is given a letter that must be hand-delivered to a monk in a far-off monastery, but she's instructed not to read it under any circumstances. She sets off on her journey across Russia with only the voices in her head for company, but she soon meets