The Complex Reviews
The Complex is neither a game bor a movie. It's actually a movie that you can change its course by your actions. The gameplay is very simple and there isn't really much going on, and if you are a fan of the genre you'll probably enjoy it.
Review in Persian | Read full review
The Complex offers commendable acting and writing and a genuine sense of excitement to go with its interactive movie experience. However, most of the endings are quite similar and unsatisfying, and player choices often don't have much effect on the overall narrative. Still, considering the game costs the same price as a weeknight movie theater ticket, but with the added benefit of some novel interactivity, The Complex could make for a refreshingly unique, albeit short, movie night.
Thanks to some poor performances and a serious lack of meaningful player choice, it's not a complex decision whether you should check this one out or not.
In terms of script, photography and art, The Complex dares little, with a direction that is sometimes confusing and problems in the construction of some ramifications that it proposes. However, it entertains and places itself as a good example of the so-called full motion videos, offering a sci-fi suspense that is very suitable for fans of the genre, a certain diversity of significant choices and an audiovisual quality in the average of other similar productions.
Review in Portuguese | Read full review
Lacks anything that really makes it glitter and at the same time isn’t awful enough to have a certain level of camp to it either.
There is fun to be had here, especially in some of the more ridiculous endings, but even those are examples of tonal whiplash in a title that plays it straight for the most part. More film than game, The Complex doesn't gain enough from the premise of being interactive - instead, it ends up as a strangely paced movie with a lack of focus and not enough tension to draw players in.
The Complex's potential gets lost amid weird subplots, throwaway characters, and a ton of plot holes. With so few meaningful choices, it's not an experience worth repeating more than once.
With a shadowy totalitarian state pulling the strings (thinly disguising North Korea) and a bio-terrorist threat in a major European city, The Complex could have much to say about politics, ethics, and other meaningful subjects. Instead, the game meanders in mediocrity to its meaningless climax, leaving with you little motivation to replay the game to explore alternative decisions.
Having played “interactive movie” style games since way back when CD-ROMs first allowed them to exist with the likes of classics like The 7th Guest and Phantasmagoria (among others) it has been interesting to see the genre progress...
My thoughts regarding The Complex are very similar to the ones I had regarding Late Shift. Although better than its predecessor when it comes to its production values, setting, and overall plot, it still suffers from its limited gameplay and replayability. It’s an interactive movie, not a full-fledged video game per se. It’s good for one, maybe two playthroughs.
The timing of the release of The Complex is questionable considering the pandemic that's currently sweeping the globe. Once you get over the similarities between reality and video game, the plot is a great if brief distraction for a lazy afternoon. It's another smooth blend of movie and video game, even if there is more movie footage than gameplay, but this formula seems to be working well for Wales Interactive.
The Complex is an interesting experiment that sometimes yields the fruits of its labor. More often, though, it reveals precisely why developers stopped using live-action video as a means to tell an interactive story. With a minuscule budget and equally small ambitions for its narrative and characters, The Complex just doesn’t replace the gaping whole that TellTale left behind.
It's your job to help two doctors – who are also ex-lovers – save an infected woman in this zeitgeist-y drama with eight possible endings
Mixing games and movies is hard, and The Complex still hasn't found the magic formula. At least, it doesn't take the matter so seriously as Until Dawn, but it just delivers what it promised: 6-8 hours of an interactive movie, set in a direct-to-video sci-fi context. Not a mastepiece, but stil better than the beginning of 2020.
Review in Italian | Read full review
The latest interactive film produced by Wales Interactive features both a chilling story and impressive acting talent. But does it innovate within the bounds of its genre, offering sufficient value for potential players? This is The Complex.
The Complex is a cleverly made interactive movie with an intriguing sci fi plot that eerily parallels the real world.
The Complex is a run-of-the-mill live action adventure game, in a genre that can't really afford to phone it in. The decent price tag makes it at least a bit endearing for the curious, but fans will find The Complex to be an underwhelming movie and a forgettable game.
A polished but disappointingly by-the-numbers FMV adventure that won't linger in your mind for long.
The Complex is a decent story that feels bigger than it could be. While some choices feel very weighty, they are few and far between, leaving a lot of inconsequential decisions in between. Honestly, it may have worked if the experience was a bit shorter - sure, a common complaint has been it is too short, but maybe it would actually benefit from being trimmed a bit. As it stands, it feels like whatever ending you got the first time through, everything else is just "what if" scenarios that don't really matter.
If you’re okay with having minimal interaction, enjoy making tough decisions, and love an interesting narrative, The Complex is certainly an experience to add to your list.