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- Annapurna Interactive
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- Annapurna Interactive
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- Annapurna Interactive
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- Annapurna Interactive
Telling Lies
Released On: Aug 23, 2019
84
5.9
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 40 Critic Reviews
84
68% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
18% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 40 Critic Reviews
84
68% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
18% Mixed
7 Reviews
7 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Telling Lies requires a deliberateness from its players that turns us from viewers to active plot participants. It’s a game that doesn’t hold your hand, and ultimately it’s down to you to decide the truth – another secret of a good mystery done well.
Telling Lies is an absolute masterpiece. It offers some brilliant writing and acting that drive us to passionately discover all of its secrets through its very simple but effective mechanics.
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 83 User Ratings
5.9
37% Positive
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
31% Mixed
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
31% Negative
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
User Score
Mixed or Average
Based on 83 User Ratings
5.9
37% Positive
31 Ratings
31 Ratings
31% Mixed
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
31% Negative
26 Ratings
26 Ratings
Telling Lies feels like it's about four times as big as Sam Barlow's previous game Her Story, and it shows. You feel it not just in the four characters you're sifting through footage of, but in the variety of its videos too: from FaceTime calls to hidden cameras capturing secretive meetings. In Her Story, it was famously easy to go down a rabbit hole of sorts on your own intuition; in Telling Lies, that tendency is mechanized in smart, intuitive ways. When it comes to good interactive mysteries, Telling Lies is among the best you can get.
Telling Lies feels more like a jigsaw puzzle, with you hunting among scattered pieces. But while it can have its moments of exasperation, there are few things as satisfying as revealing the full picture.
Telling Lies may borrow its core mechanic from Her Story, but shifting from monologues to two-sided conversations brilliantly expands the investigative gameplay, and a pivot from murder mystery to political thriller gives director Sam Barlow a much richer set of ideas to explore. A few storytelling hiccups and awkward edges do little to detract from a thought-provoking look at the modern surveillance state—delivered not through soapbox lecture but by forcing you, unsettlingly, to participate.
Telling Lies makes great innovative tweaks to its gameplay formula, and offers a high-quality live-action adventure, but it completely fumbles merging these two elements together. A word of advice would be to try your hand at the puzzle and discovery for a while, and then eventually just watch the clips outside the game to enjoy the narrative.
Her Story is a tough act to follow, and unfortunately, Telling Lies does not hit the same emotional highs that Barlow’s previous game did. Opting to use the same barebones video player both does not make sense for this storyline and introduces an annoyance that players are forced to deal with. The story is still intriguing, but not to a binge-worthy degree. Telling Lies is worth playing for Her Story fans, but can’t quite hit those same high notes despite its best efforts.
Amazing experience ****. Finished it a week ago and cant stop thinking about how emotionally involved it got me and what a genius idea the one sided convos are to immerse you far deeper than watching two people talking would. Less **** more of an experience I will surely never forget
Report
PC
More accomplished than “Her story”, but with an identical concept: type key words to see video sequences. The story is broader than that of its predecessor and there are more actors. We discover the story of David, a man with many faces through computer webcams. It's original, but very quick to see the end. And it's still so frustrating not to have a goal. I kept wondering why I was watching this footage.
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PC
Same system as "Her story" : good story but the interface is awful :
- why am I forced to rewind videos while stop, start buttons could have prevented me from rewinding a 7 min video ?
- only 5 results from a search even if there are more occurences with the chosen keyword !
- impossible to watch 2 videos in the same time, very useful to link 2 conversations.
Really, if NSA analysts use such outdated tools, rogues and terrorists don't need to worry ! These amateurish errors spoil the gameplay.
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PC
Too expensive for what you get, and if you're expecting "Her Story 2," this isn't it, it isn't even close. Part of what made Her Story work was the micro-viewing sessions, which are replaced with longer, more tedious one-sided delivery that seems to be basically ignorant of what makes a game fun - this is more a slog than fun. Don't recommend.
Report
PC
Summary Four private lives. One big lie. Search through secretly recorded video conversations to discover the truth. The successor to the acclaimed Her Story.
Rated M
for Mature
Platforms:
- PC
- iOS (iPhone/iPad)
- PlayStation 4
- Nintendo Switch
- Xbox One
Initial Release Date: Aug 23, 2019
Developer:
- Sam Barlow
- Furious Bee
Publisher: Annapurna Interactive
Genres:
