Telling Lies Reviews
An excellent follow up to Her Story if a bit flawed. Telling Lies tries to tackle a larger and more intricate story than the predecessor, and accomplishes quite a bit. However a critical missing feature, and a story that feels like a closed loops is a noticeable step back for Sam Barlow.
Definitely a unique gaming experience, as it takes you in an exciting investigation journey with only a search bar and breath-taking acting skills leaving you on-edge for more evidence.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
Telling Lies on the Nintendo Switch brings a new life to the world of story-based games that make use of an FMV presentation. With its compelling plot and simple but capturing gameplay, a very good performance by its actors and a sharp use of the Nintendo Switch touch screen, Telling Lies will be more than enjoyed by players who will gladly keep a close focus on long video scenes to follow the story and make necessary choices based on what they just watched and heard.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
When compared to other games, Telling Lies is a massive accomplishment, bringing unheard of levels of talent.
You’re going to want a pen and a pad nearby to keep track of your characters, the threads and the keywords you’ll want to search for, and some questionable design decisions hold the game back from being an all-out classic of the genre – with the shocks and twists of Her Story towering over Telling Lies’ endgame – but it’s still well worth exploring if you’re looking for an interactive mystery to untangle.
Everything is well-written with strong performances to match.
It's a compelling mechanic that leads to easy immersion. Anyone who's used a simple video editor will feel at home scrubbing back and forth through digital videos, and jumping between clips. The Switch's touch screen makes this even more intuitive than it would be using a mouse.
Telling Lies is a brave endeavor at attempting to redefine interactive entertainment and remains a recommended title if you’re looking for something experimental focused on an intriguing narrative.
At the end of the day, Telling Lies is good concept that stumbles a bit in its execution. It would have worked better if there was an actual mystery to solve like in Her Story. Instead of piecing together an elaborate puzzle, we’re left sifting through the drama of a few people.
Telling Lies is almost the perfect metaphor for real-life: inane bollocks for the most part, with some really interesting things happening every so often to stop you from falling asleep.
Thankfully, the in-depth and engrossing story, the strong execution of the actors, and the sheer uniqueness outweigh these negatives. It appears that the genre has much more to offer, and Telling Lies exemplifies it greatly.
Sam Barlow is pioneering new ways to bring interactivity to FMV media, blending film, games, and the human experience in ways that shouldn’t be missed.
On paper, searching a large database of phone-filmed video clips doesn't sound too exciting, but Telling Lies offers an exhilarating few hours of detective work thanks to clever construction, strong performances and exceptional polish. Given that the game takes place almost entirely in windows on a virtual desktop computer screen (and would therefore seem 'at home' on PC), it survives the transition to Switch entirely intact. While there's not much incentive to reopen the investigation once it reaches its climax, uncovering Telling Lies' web of relationships and intrigue is a case definitely worth taking on.
Some people will absolutely love Telling Lies. The type of person who can watch five minutes of a movie and then has to watch the entire thing will surely be absorbed into this game's mystifying world. However, for other people, sifting through hours of footage and being forced to jigsaw a narrative out of it will just feel like a chore, even if the characters are well depicted. It's up to you to decide which category you're most likely to fall under.
Telling Lies is one of the best experiences to make use of FMV on PS4, telling a fascinating narrative that'll have you guessing what revelation will come your way next. What's more, the star-studded cast of characters does an excellent job of bringing the script to life, but it is held back by a perplexing rewind function. Had it been implemented better, the game would be on the cusp of greatness. Although, in its current state, Telling Lies is still a very safe recommendation for fans of the genre.
Telling Lies is a flawless piece of work. This is Sam Barlow perfecting what he was able to achieve with Her Story and bolstering it with a bigger story and being supported by four powerhouse performances. Telling Lies offered me five incredible hours and everyone should experience this masterpiece with their own eyes.
Telling Lies is a weak interactive film in screencast format that tries to become relevant at the expense of the left-wing agenda. The keyword search system still looks fresh and together with the player's imagination should have created the magic of immersion, but the lack of convenient rewind system, ability to conduct an investigation and match several videos finished off an interesting concept.
Review in Russian | Read full review
In sum, Telling Lies represents a niche genre that explores interactive storytelling in a very unique way.
Telling Lies has an interesting story but is let down by a lack of direction and a clunky UI design. Even interesting characters can save the game, and a watered-down epilogue which is supposed to entice repeated playthroughs just leaves a sour taste in the mouth.
Whether you call it an interactive movie game or desktop thriller, Telling Lies is a gratifying and authentic-feeling fly-on-the-wall experience. For the most part. Exceptional performances and an intriguing, topical story are undercut by a jarring gameplay choice that forces you out of the game when you least want it.