Indygo | Chilled Out Game Review [REUPLOAD]

Welcome to Chilled-Out Game Reviews, where I review my favourite games to unwind with. Indygo is a story based point-and-click game revolving around one man's experience of depression. By definition, this game deals with some pretty heavy themes, but I think it handles them in a very thoughtful way, and could be beneficial to anyone with a friend or family member who struggles with their mental health.

It could also be helpful to some people who are suffering themselves, though I wouldn’t recommend it to anyone who is currently in a dark place. The game takes place within one room, where Thomas has been unable to leave for months as his depression has escalated.

He has reached the stage where he is unable to work, lost interest in his art and his relationship is stretched to breaking point. You are given a short task each day which is completed by searching the room for the required items. How you go about each task and the decisions you make affect your progression through the game resulting in one of several possible endings.

You aren’t rushed or put under any time constraints to complete these tasks, so you are free to look around at your leisure. The game is very atmospheric. The art style is really in keeping with the game’s theme, as is the music. It helps to build this calm, yet oppressive atmosphere, really making you feel as though you are inside Tom’s head.

I found myself being drawn into the story very quickly, enjoying the journey but also eager to find out whether the path I was heading down ended well. The game isn’t too long, it takes about 1 hour to complete one run through the story. However, as there are multiple endings you will get much more play time out of it than that.

There are no save points at each decision so you must re-play the game each time but it’s much faster once you have played it through once so it’s not too tedious to do. The only negative point I can think to make is that I wasn’t completely enamoured with the voice acting for Tom.

The actor’s delivery is great, but there are just some American accents that I find a little annoying and apparently this is one of those. I started this game review series as a way of sharing the games I found were great at helping me on days when my anxiety was particularly bad.

So although this isn’t necessarily a relaxing game itself, I knew I had to cover it here as it definitely might help others who struggle with their mental health. I strongly recommend you check this game out, but I can’t give this a high Chill-Out Rating due to the subject it addresses.