Telling Lies Reviews

Telling Lies expands on the concept Sam Barlow created for Her Story, with an intriguing web of characters and mysteries, but some of the more wayward elements of its plot pull you away from the intimate drama.

I had the benefit of going into Telling Lies almost completely blind. I’d never played Sam Barlow’s previous game, Her Story, and missed Telling Lies when it was released on PC and iOS last year. All I knew is that Telling Lies was an FMV game featuring real videos of live actors, but different from the typical “choose your own adventure” style choice-based affairs like Late Shift or The Complex. Let me say now that if you’re curious about the game, dive into it unknown. Telling Lies is a journey of investigation and discovery, and not having much of an initial foundation to know what you are looking for helps elevate each moment you connect the dots. This review does include some very mild foundational spoilers to touch on themes, but these were still elements I was happy to put together myself rather than know ahead of time.

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.

As the video game industry begins to accommodate more and more unique experiences, what we define as interactive entertainment expands. This is largely thanks to the boom in independent development over the past two generations, which as a result, has given rise to select genres once assumed dead. Full-motion video is just one example, and Telling Lies feels like a premium take on that experience. The result is a captivating narrative held back by some clunky interaction.

For those who love to immerse themselves in a good yarn, Telling Lies is a game you should totally give a go. There's so much depth as you search for even the smallest clues in some excellently captured performances, digging ever deeper into this twisting interactive thriller.

Telling Lies has an interesting story but is let down by a lack of direction and a clunky UI design. Even interesting characters can't save the game, and a watered-down epilogue which is supposed to entice repeated playthroughs just leaves a sour taste in the mouth.

I’d love for Sam Barlow to add some kind of “movie” mode to Telling Lies, allowing us to see conversations happen in real time, with videos playing out in chronological order. It’s unlikely that’ll ever happen, though. 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.

Sam Barlow again lets you search through video to uncover mysteries and secrets, but you'll have to make your own fun.

Separate fact from fiction in this investigative thriller.

When everything is a lie, how can you discern the truth? Telling Lies asks you this compelling question as you scour through video clips of dishonest people, and the answers can only be found with your own intuition.

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Barlow told Brendy he doesn't think the game is voyeuristic, and is instead intimate and personal, but I don't buy that. It doesn't feel literally voyeuristic, because the plot ends up being so John le Carré by way of Tom Clancy that you never get tricked into thinking you're watching real lives unfold (aside from the one video I found that was just several minutes of a sleeping child's face, which I found a bit creepy, tbh). But still. In Her Story, everyone involved knew the conversation was being recorded. This time you're picking through an illegally acquired NSA file dump! That's your starting point! Even when people know they're on camera (which they often don't) they probably don't know they're being recorded! Indeed, the cam girl explicitly says "no recording the show"! Vidbud Matthew described two videos where the main character appears to be having a wank off screen! Which I didn't stumble on and haven't looked for yet! Because I don't want to search for "jerking off", or imagine the sort of things that dude might say out loud while honking his pud!

Telling Lies is a rich, deep story that keeps on giving, even after you’ve finished your first playthrough. Every one of its short video clips is packed with meaning, and working out where you should go next is rewarding because each subplot is gripping: once I’d started following a thread it was hard to stop, and the more you do the more you’ll find connections to the main plot. I sometimes felt like I was battling the UI, but it was worth it to watch this talented cast bring a complex story to life.