Telling Lies Reviews
As it is, Telling Lies’ compelling narrative and phenomenal acting will be enough to spur you on. Searching and scrubbing through videos can be a chore, but it’s worth it, if just for that one tiny piece of information you’ve been waiting to find.
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.
Quotation Forthcoming
Review in Italian | Read full review
Telling Lies is a rich drama told in an inventive and fun way, enabling the player to learn what happened in a personal and unique way.
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
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.
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.
The Telling Lies video game is engaging yet not without flaws.
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.
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.
Everything is well-written with strong performances to match.
Telling Lies won’t be for everyone and you get out of the game what you are willing to put into it. Having said that, it may just be the most original game you’ll play this year and the performances alone are worth sticking around for.
In sum, Telling Lies represents a niche genre that explores interactive storytelling in a very unique way.
An atmospheric, brilliantly written and acted detective thriller that tells a compelling story in a unique way.
Telling Lies is a game defined by the individual's own terms and parameters, rewarding the wide spectrum of curiosity of anyone willing to put the time and thought into its mysteries.
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.
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.
Review in French | Read full review
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 is like the best parts of an adventure game, a mystery novel, and an art nouveau movie all rolled up into one.
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.