Review Discussions are an initiative to talk past or beyond a review or in place of a written/video review in a more timely manner. They’re an interview-style discussion hoping to discuss specific aspects of the game in question that may or may not be included in the written review. In some cases the discussion will be the only critical conversation we put out for a game, in others it may complement a review.
Hello and welcome to the Irrational Passions Review Discussion for Telling Lies. For this discussion, our editor and reviewer Jurge Cruz-Alvarez sits down with Ian Preschel of Ok Beast to critique and spoil, Telling Lies.
Listen to our discussion for our full review thoughts!
SPOILERS START AT 32:12 and END AT 58 MINUTES
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Jurge’s Thoughts in Summary:
Full motion video adventure game Telling Lies is the not too distant relative to Her Story. They both share the same framework and design, but their stories and the scope of what they hope to accomplish are very different.
Without going into spoilers, Telling Lies’ story is less of a short, mystery thriller, and more of a feature length drama about people and relationships. This isn’t inherently a negative thing, but knowing this gives you a better idea of what Telling Lies is setting out to do.
There are much more video clips to find and digest in Telling Lies, naturally making it longer. Most of the moments within the videos in Telling Lies focus on the natural mundanities of everyday life. Sure there are moments of excitement, sadness, or even shock, but sometimes a conversation between two people is just that. Because of that it gives the game a slow pace, and I found myself uninterested many a time, but the character moments that do stand out really elevate the game. There’s also not the same level of intrigue that there was in Her Story, but that’s because of the story it’s trying to tell. Still, it’s hard for me to honestly say that I was left fully satisfied at the end of my playthrough.
Telling Lies is a well executed and clever narrative adventure game with great performances, but I was never able to fully invest myself in its story. The game’s actors and writing do create some truly striking scenes, but if it wasn’t for those instances Telling Lies wouldn’t have left me with much of an impression.
This game was reviewed on a PC with code provided to Jurge by a PR representative of the game.
