Telling Lies

 PC
User Score
5.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 71 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 71
  2. Mixed: 18 out of 71
  3. Negative: 24 out of 71

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  1. StarkAgentos
    Jun 12, 2022
    5
    Мне было интересно просто полазить по рабочему столу, увидеть упрощённую версию macOS, но пройти эту игру мне кажется просто нереальной задачей. Непонятно, что делать, на какие видео натыкаться, что вводить в поиске.
  2. passionne
    Oct 19, 2019
    3
    Same system as "Her story" : good story but the interface is awful :

    - why am I forced to rewind videos while stop, start buttons could have prevented me from rewinding a 7 min video ? - only 5 results from a search even if there are more occurences with the chosen keyword ! - impossible to watch 2 videos in the same time, very useful to link 2 conversations. Really, if NSA    Same system as "Her story" : good story but the interface is awful :

    - why am I forced to rewind videos while stop, start buttons could have prevented me from rewinding a 7 min video ?

    - only 5 results from a search even if there are more occurences with the chosen keyword !

    - impossible to watch 2 videos in the same time, very useful to link 2 conversations.

    Really, if NSA analysts use such outdated tools, rogues and terrorists don't need to worry ! These amateurish errors spoil the gameplay.    … Expand
  3. TrueBowser
    Sep 5, 2019
    0
    Ugh. Self-Indulgent Faux Hollywood Writing you can’t escape from. Lack of basic interface mechanics that would drive any gameplayer who actually focus tests this game to short-circuit the long tedious stretches (7-8 minutes of video! Add PLAY FROM BEGINNING/FAST REWIND, it’s common sense) rather than endure them. “Ending” doesn’t land properly. I liked Her Story, but that story (andUgh. Self-Indulgent Faux Hollywood Writing you can’t escape from. Lack of basic interface mechanics that would drive any gameplayer who actually focus tests this game to short-circuit the long tedious stretches (7-8 minutes of video! Add PLAY FROM BEGINNING/FAST REWIND, it’s common sense) rather than endure them. “Ending” doesn’t land properly. I liked Her Story, but that story (and definitely not this one) wouldn’t be worth it if it wasn’t interactive. Regret purchasing, should have waited for Steam reviews to roll in vs. publication critics.… Expand
  4. Diverse_Voice
    Jul 31, 2020
    2
    Was expecting more quality along the lines of Her Story (although the story of Her Story wasn't good, the interactivity was there). Here, it's mostly long one-sided rambling with extended footage and it quickly becomes boring and tedious to sift through. Not recommended (PC or Switch, I've checked out both).
  5. SillyVase
    Sep 17, 2019
    0
    Perfect example of where UI and basic game response kills whatever story being told, but story is not good anyway (unfortunately, after HerStory expected much better)
  6. JayAlex
    Apr 24, 2021
    2
    Too expensive for what you get, and if you're expecting "Her Story 2," this isn't it, it isn't even close. Part of what made Her Story work was the micro-viewing sessions, which are replaced with longer, more tedious one-sided delivery that seems to be basically ignorant of what makes a game fun - this is more a slog than fun. Don't recommend.
  7. maxpj
    Aug 23, 2019
    10
    Hi to everybody i just felt alone when my brother got to Canada so i waited to play this game so i can release my feelings . you know nowadays we do not see many games which gives us stories and some kind of looking to life in other hand telling lies is a masterpiece for people like me who had much more bad moments than good moments in their life. enjoy it and i hope to see the new Silent Hill too
  8. asifaow
    Aug 30, 2019
    1
    So much bugs. No new patch in steam. I dont know HER STORY WAS MASTERPIECE . This game is BRUH. When you just go forward in the video. Next videos just go so fast and you cant stop it. The game isn´t finished it. But Money Come on to my pocket. I dont care. Dont buy it.
  9. kaczan3
    Feb 19, 2022
    0
    Pathetic non-game that hits all the f****ist talking points like "toxic masculinity" and "mansplaining".
  10. Steyraus
    Apr 21, 2020
    1
    If this is the future of narrative storytelling , there is no future. This is clearly a lazy cash grab from people that cant make it in the film and TV industry so they are trying to get a piece of the gaming industry. Which would be fine if the product did such, of course "Game Journalists like it, they like crap"
  11. wjomlex
    Sep 16, 2019
    9
    If you liked Her Story at all you should play Telling Lies. If you like visual novels or detective work at all, you should play Telling Lies.
  12. Rahn1908
    Aug 30, 2020
    10
    Amazing experience of a game. Finished it a week ago and cant stop thinking about how emotionally involved it got me and what a genius idea the one sided convos are to immerse you far deeper than watching two people talking would. Less of a game more of an experience I will surely never forget
  13. auditbadger
    Aug 9, 2020
    9
    I think that this is truly a unique game and I would recommend that if you are a fan of this type of genre then I think you should give this game a try.
  14. check2wice
    Jan 8, 2023
    0
    giant waste of time and money. This is not a game, its a waste of resources.
  15. Woolee
    Sep 29, 2021
    6
    Hi to everybody i just felt alone when my brother got to Canada so i waited to play this game so i can release my feelings . you know nowadays we do not see many games which gives us stories and some kind of looking to life in other hand telling lies is a masterpiece for people like me who had much more bad moments than good moments in their life. enjoy it and i hope to see the new Silent Hill too
  16. renyw
    Dec 19, 2022
    10
    great great great great great great great great great great great great great
  17. icheyne
    Aug 30, 2021
    10
    Video jigsaw detective game. Superb story. Great acting. Even better than Her Story.
  18. Crimert
    Mar 14, 2020
    8
    Director Sam Barlow is an amazing man. If you liked Her Story, you would have liked this game too. Good story and it was a good experience. Besides of that, the cast is very good: Logan Marshall-Green from Upgrade, Alexandra Shipp from X-Men: Apocalypse and Angela Sarafyan from Westworld. 4hrs on record.
  19. GVB
    Oct 30, 2020
    9
    Love, romance, sadness, emptiness, tension... and lies. Lots of lies. A very well treated theme with good acting. Maybe the ending and some moments are not so good, but in general will let you thinking about the characters and their motivations while you try to find all the videos. Recommended!
  20. apeot2002
    Feb 1, 2023
    6
    Telling Lies tries to bottle lighting a second time

    “Telling Lies” is the second game in the genre that Sam Barlow seems to have established as his own playground, and it hews pretty close to the trail blazed by “Her Story”. Since I am a big fan of “Her Story”, I was looking forward to “Telling Lies” quite a bit. The gameplay loop is almost unchanged: You have a database of video files    Telling Lies tries to bottle lighting a second time

    “Telling Lies” is the second game in the genre that Sam Barlow seems to have established as his own playground, and it hews pretty close to the trail blazed by “Her Story”. Since I am a big fan of “Her Story”, I was looking forward to “Telling Lies” quite a bit.
    The gameplay loop is almost unchanged: You have a database of video files which you can query with a search string that is matched against the spoken dialogue within the videos. These videos tell a story, and the player is tasked with puzzling this story together. The difficulty comes twofold: The number of search results is limited to five and ordered by date, so the later videos that contain most of the dramatic plot developments tend to be excluded, just as it was in “Her Story”. Also, almost all these videos are recordings of one side of conversations over the web, so to get the full picture, you need to find the recording of the other side. This actually is a meaningful step forward from “Her Story”, where only one side of the conversation was recorded.

    The game provides you with a few tools to help you keep track of the developments you uncovered: A notes tool, which is bare bones but absolutely sufficient, a search term history, the ability to set bookmarks and to mark and search for terms from the current dialogue. This leads to the immersive gameplay loop known from “Her Story” and provides quite a bit of fun.
    For a while. But then things started to drag a bit for me.

    I think this is not inherent to the gameplay systems, but to the story “Telling Lies” wants to tell. It is an engaging yarn with quite a few plot twists and some very clever and important things on its mind, but it is a bit too long. The game contains almost 10 hours of video content, and not all of it is engaging. Also, the plot of “Telling Lies” is not as well matched to its medium as the plot of “Her Story” was. That game has a few twists that work uniquely well in the interactive medium of computer games, and “Telling Lies” struggles to provide similar peaks of engagement.

    It is not a problem of the production values: The images and sound are crips, the performances are all at least adequate.

    In the end I think this might be a case of diminishing returns. Barlow’s unique style of game wowed me the first time, but the second time around, the wow factor was gone and what engagement remained wasn’t enough to overcome the bloat of the story.

    TLDR: If this is your first Sam Barlow Interactive Video Detective game, you should have a lot of fun: “Telling Lies” is the superior product. But if you’ve played “Her Story” or “Immortality”, “Telling Lies” might lose you before it reaches its conclusion.    … Expand
  21. F1_is_WWE
    May 28, 2023
    1
    Mr. Hitchcock famously said that drama is just life with the dull parts cut out.

    Mr. Barlow apparently disagrees. His idea of drama is 5 hours of unedited skype calls. That is, "how was your day?", "how is the weather?", and lots and lots and lots of flirting.
  22. Usama192
    Jul 15, 2022
    0
    Lazy,pathetic,boring and excessively long fir an interactive movie.Annapurna is know for creating mediocre games.The fact that this is on gamepass shows what little developers are starting to do to earn money.Poimts why gamepass is Netflix of gaming with mediocre games
  23. SilentLev
    Aug 13, 2022
    8
    Telling Lies - уникальный проект из серии "аналоговнет", с уже фирменным исполнением Сэма Барлоу, и имеющий довольно высокий порог вхождения. Его я преодолел только со второго захода: надо дать время разобраться в механике и её нюансах, если к Her Story не прикасались. Основным двигателем успешного форсирования проекта является, конечно же, любопытство. Остальное уже сделает общаяTelling Lies - уникальный проект из серии "аналоговнет", с уже фирменным исполнением Сэма Барлоу, и имеющий довольно высокий порог вхождения. Его я преодолел только со второго захода: надо дать время разобраться в механике и её нюансах, если к Her Story не прикасались. Основным двигателем успешного форсирования проекта является, конечно же, любопытство. Остальное уже сделает общая целостная эстетика, мелкие детали и качественная актерская игра. Единственное, что я бы записал для себя в недостатки, это малое присутствие дирекции: ты - игрок, - по сути, являешься здесь режиссером и у каждого опыт прохождения будет особенным.… Expand

Awards & Rankings

28
#28 Best PC Game of 2019
56
#56 Most Shared PC Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
84

Generally favorable reviews - based on 34 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 27 out of 34
  2. Mixed: 7 out of 34
  3. Negative: 0 out of 34
  1. Eurogamer Italy
    Oct 23, 2019
    70
    Telling Lies is a desktop thriller that takes a bit too much to be in gear and suffers from avoidable technical intricacy, but if taken with the right amount of patience,it gifts us with a story of love and violence, fear and lies, with credible and admirably interpreted characters.
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  2. IGN Japan
    Oct 8, 2019
    75
    As a successor of Her Story, Telling Lies succeeds in delivering a deep and varied story with what is essentially the same system. However, whether that story is full of surprises or not, depends hugely on the player’s reasoning powers.
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  3. COGconnected
    Sep 23, 2019
    85
    In sum, Telling Lies represents a niche genre that explores interactive storytelling in a very unique way. The game’s director, Sam Barlow, evolved the Her Story formula, but at a cost. After all, what makes the game so good also reveals its flaws. The ending, for example, can feel very anticlimactic depending on how you uncover specific videos. Still, as the saying goes, “Life is a journey, not a destination.” And Telling Lies is quite a journey — hopefully, one that will inspire many more story-driven games to come. Now go, awaken the sleuth inside you.
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