Sleuth through strangers' FMV lives in Telling Lies
Nothing suspicious here
FMV investigate ‘em up Telling Lies has launched, bring you reams of stolen footage to search through at your leisure. There’s a good reason you’re nosing into the lives of these four strangers, I’m sure. At least, if you think naked curiosity is as good a reason as any. Which I do. Look, here’s a sneak peak via the launch trailer.
Alice B’s done a lovely Telling Lies review that’s convinced me of my initial feelings, which were always that Her Story was interesting enough that I wanna take a peek at this latest release by Sam Barlow and pals.
The game follows that fella up there in the header, whose name I don’t know because both the marketing materials and Alice’s piece carefully omit it. I expect that this is intentional, so I shan’t go searching. “His character is a man who is many things to many different people, and as you learn more about him you uncover a lot of different layers around what is basically a shithead,” says Alice. “After watching all his secret foibles and dodges and, ahaha, telling lies, it’s incredibly satisfying to discover the videos where various people tell him that he is, in fact, a shithead.” Ahh. Video games are indeed power fantasies.
There is, of course, a lot else going on besides. “Espionage, eco-terrorism, pregnancy, teeth falling out, bedtime stories, blackmail,” lists Alice. But exactly which of these has led to you digging through the video clips is part of the puzzle, so again, let’s not spoil it for any of us by peeking. An intriguing game, where most of the basic research I want to do is best saved for the experience of playing the game itself. (I bet it’s the bedtime stories.)
Of course, the most important thing Alice says is the bit where she says that main actor Logan Marshall-Green looks “inescapably like an alternate universe Tom Hardy,” finally putting end to the unplaced familiarity I’ve been feeling every time I look at him for weeks. Thanks, pal!
Telling Lies is available now on Steam for £15.49/$20/€16.79.