Since we featured Iji as the #1 game in our September indie roundup video we thought it would be a good idea to post a full review here as well. Obviously if you’ve seen the video you know we really liked the game. Here’s why.

Iji is the creation of a mysterious underground game maker named “Daniel”. He has several of his older games available for download on his page here. Many of them are fun for quick play sessions, however, Iji is in a league entirely it’s own.

If you enjoyed games like Blackthorne, Flashback or Another World back in the 16-bit days, Iji will be right up your alley. In the game, the central character, Iji, wakes up in a strange room alone after having been physically enhanced in almost every way possible as well as fitted with a powerful nano-shield device (think Halo). She is more than a little surprised to find that the vast complex she is in has been taken over by aliens. Guided by the voice of her brother over the intercom she immediately sets to work ridding the complex of said alien menace. Her brother, barricaded in the control room of the center, seems to be the only other survivor.

It doesn’t take long before it becomes very clear that all is not what it seems. The aliens may not be quite the menace they appear to be and Iji’s brother may not be telling her the whole story. It’s not exactly Shakespeare, but it’s nice to see an indie dev. who put a little effort into the story for his game.

Playing Iji feels great. The controls are responsive, exploration never feels boring or repetitive and players are given the option to play the game however they want. I’ve been spending my time with the game more or less blasting everything in sight, but players who prefer a stealthy approach are welcome to sneak around if they like.

You’ll gain points as the game progresses which can be spent at stations around the complex to upgrade your nano-tech. The system is fairly simple at first, but as you progress through the game, the upgrades you choose will affect how Iji plays. The game will draw comparisons to the Metroid series and those comparisons aren’t completely groundless, but I feel as though Iji is actually a lot less linear than Metroid because of the upgrade system.

My only complaint about the gameplay is that the enemies you’ll be facing are absolutely brainless. They’ll pretty much just walk back and forth in a holding pattern until you casually stroll up and start shooting at them. Sometimes in the middle of a firefight they’ll forget what they’re doing and start walking the other way for some reason. It’s idiotic behavior like this that influenced my choice to focus on killing rather than stealth. These brainless dolts are just begging for a shotgun blast to the face.

Graphically Iji is very solid for a freeware game. The simple, clean, hand drawn graphics aren’t really eye catching, but they do their job nicely. The animation really stood out to me as one of the game’s stronger points as well. You’ll even see a few nice effects here and there. Unfortunately Iji is prone to slowdown at weird times, but this usually doesn’t last long.

Sound effects in Iji are a bit generic, but the game sports a nice musical score; another nice touch that I’m not used to seeing in these indie games.

Overall there’s really not much bad to say about Iji. That said, there nothing here that will completely blow your mind either. For the most part, the story is intriguing, the gameplay is great, it looks and sounds nice enough and best of all, it’s free. Don’t let that “indie games suck” attitude steer you away from this one. It’s better than some of the commercial games you’re likely to play this year.

Get It Here