The Indigo Parallel – A Surreal Experience in the Depths of the Mind

Introduction

The Indigo Parallel is a surreal adventure experience by Chris Danelon, inspired by the PS1 cult classic LSD: Dream Emulator and the multi-choice hi-jinks of The Stanley Parable. In this game, you assume the role of a troubled Thomas Hellsworth, tripping through nonsensical dreamscapes and detailed nightmares, in hopes of uncovering more about yourself.

Status: Reviewing the Gameplay

The main attraction of The Indigo Parallel is its illogical environments, so most of the gameplay revolves around exploring these areas and taking in the sights and their implications rather than active gameplay. Although mostly a very effective walking sim, it is broken up by the occasional minigame or puzzle, ensuring that you’re doing much more than just sightseeing. You could be chased by some unsavory entity, maybe gunning down enemies, perhaps blowing things up on a retrowave road, or searching for keys.

Most of the areas you’ll visit may be devoid of meaning, or have something to do with Thomas’s personal life, or simply be outright creepy if not frightening. There’s no telling what would happen next, and even if you returned to a familiar area, there’s always the chance it’s slightly different to the last time. As well, the game encourages exploration and experimentation, maybe something will happen if you turn off the computers, or press some buttons, maybe that bright cloud could make things easier or harder – and in all these cases, there’s only one way to find out what might happen next. Maybe you can even figure out how the game’s language of strange hieroglyphics works.

The Indigo Parallel is very effective at not holding your hands through a set path. It’s a dream that you just let it happen. Maybe you’ll end up exploring New Tokyo, or trying not to get caught in the backrooms. Or if you know some level of Japanese, you can read literal walls covered in the language’s scripts – perhaps they could be a waste of time, or reveal some tips about who Thomas is.

Status: The Part Where We Talk About Other Things

Aesthetically speaking, The Indigo Parallel is definitely not meant to be a normal game. While the environments themselves are already surreal, elements like the frequent texture changes or weird objects really sell the point. Not to mention the combination of these elements along with things like ever-expanding and contracting fog really gives the game its liminal space vibes.

Additionally, the game’s lore is not served to you on a platter of gold. Thanks to the game’s dream/nightmare-like nature, you can only put together bits and pieces of what was going on with Thomas’s life and his relationship with Daisy and her family. Their life story is what gives context to a lot of the game, but the challenge and the fun is to figure out the meaning behind it all.

Although they may be tacky in a way, the game uses text-to-speech frequently for any spoken parts. Counterintuitively, they only add to the strange, unhinged atmosphere of the game, in a way that feels it’s not afraid of it, wearing it as a badge of honor. All of these factors and more give it a unique atmosphere, one that’s dreamy but also creepy – an art in of itself.

In Conclusion

If you were a fan of LSD: Dream Emulator, or just happen to like a weird walking simulator with a twist, then The Indigo Parallel is the perfect way to scratch that itch. The game has got it all, liminal spaces, weird entities, lore that needs to be pieced together, Japanese influence, and to top it all off, having no idea where you’re going. It’s just the experience if all you want is to let it happen like a dream.

Looking for other games with a similar, surreal vibe? Why not check out Afterlife Odyssey‘s frozen purgatory? Or the strange, alien structures Inside the Void?

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