Sam Barlow He has earned a place in the sector as one of those designers who knows tell stories in a very special way. To what he has already demonstrated with extensive titles such as Her Story, he adds a skill and a feeling of perfecting his formula with Telling Lies, title that reaches Nintendo Switch by the hand of Annapurna Interactive, to offer us an immersive experience very different from what we are used to playing, in the form of FMV with touches of point and click. Do we uncover its great truth? Go for it!
You, a computer and the feeling of wanting to discover everything
The beginning of Telling Lies is already really promising: we see a woman walking down a hallway to enter an apartment, where she sits at a table, turns on a computer and … we're already playing!
Little or nothing is said about what we should do or about who is that woman whom, from what we have been able to verify, we embody within the title. We have a screen where we are shown a video search engine based on a powerful tracking network called Retina. These videos belong to different recordings and video calls of a group of characters that seem to have some kind of connection with each other.
Some files within the team explain the search method, based on keywords that we can use to access new videos where these words are pronounced. To do this, we can pause the video and click on that word in the subtitles to search automatically. Sometimes they can be code names and sometimes words that may seem very banal can give us a new key.
To better organize these videos, We have some tools, which allow us to annotate labels, review the history of viewed videos and put bookmarks in those that we consider of great relevance.
Little more I am going to tell you about the story of Telling Lies, because I do not want to incur any kind of spoiler. Further, its plot and the way of playing with the narrative is the strong point of a very special FMV, where we do not play so much with specific decisions or concrete answers, but with the exploration of a history that can be uncovered in hundreds of ways and they end up rounding off a global idea capable of keeping us hooked.
As we discover new videos we will want to advance more and more, sometimes confusing us with new names that will lead us to rethink our searches, tie up dots, get new names … etc.
Telling Lies is a great narrative piece that plays very well with the intrigue and whose biggest but resides, from my experience, in its end. We have several alternative endings, however, the effect that can leave us after being so hooked on its plot, is somewhat cold. And is that The way in which the game gets us fully into the story and the way to investigate new avenues can make us think that we will find a bombastic ending that will leave us with our mouths open … and in this case, it has not been so. With this I do not mean that the experience is ruined, far from it, but that we can come up with too high expectations to an end that makes us come down from the top.
Of course, Sam Barlow's piece leaves a great narrative sensation at a global level that I consider that It should be experienced by all lovers of good stories.
Luxury squad, scenes that catch
In an FMV game we are not going to talk about graphics or designs, but about actors, shots, lighting and the ability to transmit. And at this point, we should give Telling Lies a more than deserved note.
Among the main actors, it is very likely that they will ring a bell Logan Marshall-Green (The O.C, 24
Within the arrangement, we find a large number of fixed shots that allow us to see how we would do if we were witnessing a web cam or a smartphone camera, although sometimes they have slight movements (it is a recording with a hidden camera, the character shows his surroundings … etc.).
Furthermore, the sound perfectly meets the environment you want to convey. To the basic sounds of the clicks on our computer and the opening of files, we find some clean and well executed dialogues that we enjoy in their original language (English) with subtitles in Spanish (something that we will appreciate when looking for new files based on them). From my point of view, it is quite a success to keep the original voices of the work, being able to enter even more fully in to everything that you want to transmit from its origin.
At the controls of a great movie
Playable, Telling Movies is well suited to the controls of the Switch. We can control playback at all times, pause, rewind and fast forward with the ZR and ZR. We can also do it with the right stick. Thus, we can see complete videos, get to the section that interests us or anticipate those moments of silence that we have already seen previously.
We also have the possibility of using the touch screen to click on the videos and even write the terms you want to search for. Therefore, you can manage your search as it is most comfortable for you.
The truth is that being at the controls of a movie like Telling Lies is an experience, at least, enjoyable. Regarding its duration, reaching the end for the first time can take us between three and four hours. It is important to emphasize that it is the game itself that sets the pace for us a little based on the videos we have seen, since it has its own clock that indicates the day and time. At a certain point, we will perceive that the plot is about to show us its end (again, I will not say anything, so as not to uncover possible clues).
At the end of the title, we can always launch into cComplete it again with an emphasis on watching other videos that we can find or trying to investigate further the plot according to certain characters and words, to find the different endings.
It should also be noted that, when finishing the title for the first time, we can access a report that explains the plot and the thread that we have followed the most. In addition, we can see the videos of our completed history again in case we have any doubts or even take a game with the well-known Solitaire (yes, we will have it installed on our computer). Seeing all the videos can increase the duration of the videos a few more hours.
conclusion
Telling Lies knows play very well with the narrative, putting ourselves at the controls of a video game capable of absorb us and create intrigue from the first second. While its end may end up leaving us somewhat cold, his general experience leaves a very good taste in the mouth. We are before one of the Nintendo Switch FMVs that must be tested by lovers of good stories. You can find it in the Nintendo Switch eShop at the price of € 16.99 and you will need a total of 7.4 GB on your console to install it.
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