Don’t ask questions! Just play this wild and weird nun game

Usually, when I recommend a game, I try to give as comprehensive an overview of it as I can. I know that it’s hard to get players to commit time and money to something sight unseen. But with Indika, I’m tempted to say nothing at all. It’s something you should experience for yourself. If that’s enough to intrigue you, you can stop reading here and head on over to Steam.

I am merciful, though, so here’s an explanation for those who aren’t so keen on spending $25 with no context. Launched on PC earlier this week, Indika is a new game by developer Odd Meter. It’s a 19th-century narrative adventure game that follows a lowly nun trying to fit in at a monastery. She’s tasked with delivering a letter across a cold Russian wasteland along with a male companion.

Oh, and the Devil is riding with her too.

As you can probably guess already, Indika grapples with some complex questions about religion. Throughout the sleek story, the titular nun engages in theological debates with her companions while navigating treacherous, and sometimes surreal, landscapes. In one sequence, the Devil tries to get her to abandon her quest. She refuses, arguing that it would be sinful not to deliver a letter. When she’s asked to quantify just how sinful that is, the Devil chips at her logic, asking how many letters a postman would have to lose to be as sinful as a murderer. By the end of it, you’ll wish you could strangle the little twerp.

Debates like that make for a thoughtful story about the struggle to pin down logic in religions built around the unexplainable. Indika gets at that idea even more in its downright antagonistic gameplay. In the story’s first major sequence, a nun tells Indika to fill up a bucket by trudging over water from a nearby well. Its a grueling sequence. She slowly walks back and forth, filling and emptying buckets for what feels like 20 minutes. All the while, the Devil questions why she has to do such menial labor — especially when there’s a much faster way of filling