Telling Lies

Telling Lies is another game by Sam Barlow focused on non-linear exploration of the story. The creator of Her Story and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories this time gives players the opportunity to see a glimpse of the four heroes' lives.

Plot

In Telling Lies players sit in front of a mysterious laptop containing access to a secret intelligence base. It turns out that it holds recordings of four unrelated characters. But only seemingly, because going into the history of each of them is the key to knowing an incident in which everyone was involved.

In order to find the answers to the questions posed by the game, players search the database and get access to intimate recordings from the lives of these four heroes by entering the appropriate keywords. Players' task is to put it all together in a coherent story and understand all the connections.

Mechanics

The gameplay in Telling Lies is about watching video sequences showing scenes from the private lives of four characters. As in Her Story, this is done by typing in proper keywords, which are somehow related to the case or one of the heroes. Thanks to this procedure, the story in the game is non-linear, because it depends on player's decisions, when they watch a fragment of the recording containing valuable information.

Recordings represent fragments usually recorded using a laptop or a phone. All the time players have the impression that the characters are speaking directly to them, which gives the impression of acquaintance with them. Sooner or later players will discover access to fragments that are so private and not intended for the stranger's eye that the impression will be even deeper.

Immersion of the game world is also related to the game interface showing the desktop of a laptop, from which players have access to various applications. Including, for example, the above mentioned recordings, computer settings, bin, and solitaire.

Technical aspects

Players can associate actors playing the characters in the game with the big screen. Logan Marshall-Green starred in film Prometheus, Alexandra Shipp in X-Men: Apocalypse, Kerry Bishé in the TV series Halt and Catch Fire`s, and Angela Sarafyan is known from the HBO series Westworld.

Last updated on 21 April 2020