Telling Lies Reviews
An atmospheric, brilliantly written and acted detective thriller that tells a compelling story in a unique way.
Sharp writing, believable acting and a twisting plot make Telling Lies an essential detective game.
Telling Lies, by contrast, is but a second baby step into uncharted territory: a little wobbly, a little naive. But definitely courageous and exciting.
Telling Lies is a paragon for storytelling, for character arcs that surprise you and linger on long after the credits – and videos – have ended.
Excellent acting from actors like Angela Sarafyan (Westworld) and Logan Marshall-Green (The Invitation) brings depth and realism to the characters and their stories
It's crucial to slow down, take a breath, and watch everything, even when I want to rush through to find another clue. On the other hand, Telling Lies provides subtle reminders of the dangerous reality of rifling through stolen, encrypted files, and the level of secrecy required by that act. That tension helps the game crackle with life and urgency.
Telling Lies expands on the core ideas of Her Story with more expansive, nuance voyeurism, but it runs out of energy before the end.
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.
I can't stress enough how much Telling Lies might not be for you. Most of it is literally spent watching people talk to a screen, to the point where the puzzle angle, no matter how impressive it might be, might wear down its welcome in minutes. For everyone else, especially avid followers of character-driven art forms, these are performances you can really sink your teeth into while you try to make sense of it all.
Telling Lies is like the best parts of an adventure game, a mystery novel, and an art nouveau movie all rolled up into one.
Everything is well-written with strong performances to match.
I won't tell any lies here, Telling Lies is another excellent piece of narrative game design from Sam Barlow and I sincerely hope there's more to come
Telling Lies expands on the concept Sam Barlow created with Her Story, with a web of intriguing characters and mysteries, but the more overblown aspects of its plot detract from the personal drama.
And while I can appreciate this new art form, this story wasn't quite as dramatic as I had hoped for, or at least the sequence in which I saw the events wasn't as satisfying. It's not as long as I thought it might be. With the pluses and minuses here, I see this as an evolving new medium but not one that has yet reached its highest form.
The question of whether Telling Lies is voyeuristic or not doesn’t necessarily have a bearing on the quality of the game — I do, in fact, think it’s good and enjoyed it. But the idea that it isn’t voyeuristic is some laugh.
While untangling a web of lies players are tantalisingly close to the characters in this believable world created by Sam Barlow
Sam Barlow's BAFTA-snaffling Her Story was a fabulously tight and taut whodunwhat as you pieced together the tale of a mysterious young woman from a jumbled collection of police interview clips.
In sum, Telling Lies represents a niche genre that explores interactive storytelling in a very unique way.
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.
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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.