Hace 4 años jugué a The Red Strings Club y no me gustó nada. No era el momento, no era lo que esperaba.

A raíz de jugar a Cosmic Wheel he querido revisitarlo y... Me ha gustado, nos hemos entendido 😂

No me acordaba ni un poquito del final. Ha sido sorprendente 😝

This game is so awesome that it's actually hard to talk about it without spoilers -- I'll try just because you have to experience it too.

It's nearly perfect for what it does -- 2D pixelated artstyle, although it's beat with all new indies, is working perfectly with that retrofuturism aesthetic that's supported by electronic synthwave soundtrack, and the world itself is built phenomenally well for 4hrs game -- the story is giving you enough pillars so you have some image of its world, but game purposely hides a lot of details so you can give your imagination some freedom.

And it shows world and story from a pretty interesting POV: there's one character, who can't even go outside of his home and gathers the information while pulling his strings to affect the world (yeah, red strings); that way you always have info, always have some control over the story (you really have control; every choice you make matters), but never fully understand it. The only thing I can say about the story itself without spoiling it is its interesting themes. Choices are hard while all options are worth choosing, game always keeps you focused and hungry for info, the story makes you think a lot not only about game choices but about the life itself, and bittersweet ending experience isn't gonna wear out anytime soon after completion.

The gameplay is simple; basically all you do is making cocktails and talking with people. Still, it works wonderfully well together with a story, and there's various small chapters throughout the game that let you rest a bit. So, there's that.

And lastly, characters -- they work just in the same way as a story. They're deep, have their own motivations but aren't gonna let you know all about them, especially if you ask wrong questions. So, this game is all about thinking and replaying it over and over just to understand a little bit more.

I can't even say anything else -- just go and play it. It's relatively short, so you can give it a try, but trust me, you won't want this to end after first playthrough.

Red Strings Club is a two-part story. In the first, you play as a barman in the future who requires information as payment from customers for their drinks. He uses this information to find out more about a corrupt mega corporation, while using the drinks he serves customers to alter their emotions to provoke them into providing the information he desires. It’s a fantastic concept which makes for a fascinating story, meaningful dialogue options and ensures the player always pays attention to what is going on, even if the gameplay side of things is a bit simplistic.

Unfortunately, the second part of the story is a bit less engaging. You break into the corporation’s HQ at night with a different character to try and stop an event happening. This character uses fake voices and insights he’s gained from the barman, along with items in the HQ, to phone employees and extract the information he needs from them. It sounds interesting on paper, but the trial and error process of ringing different employees and seeing whether they have information you require is tedious, especially considering how long this section of the game lasts for. If this portion of the game was streamlined and the bar making section was fleshed out further, especially in terms of gameplay, I would’ve had a more positive overall experience. Don’t get me wrong, I still recommend this game to anyone whose interest is piqued by what I’ve described, its just this game was close to being something truly special. As it is, for me personally, its just good.

2018 Ranked

Lately I've noticed a pattern in the type of stories I like - genuine, honest protagonists trying their best in a cynical, uncaring world. Arcane, The Boys, and this game - they all have this framework in common.

The thing is, The Red Strings Club goes full-in with this theme, putting empathy and ethics as its focus. Because yes, most of the time, you're using them as a weapon, as a tool... manipulating your clients to fish out information, and controlling their emotions to let their tongues slip.

But amidst its grandiose plot involving megacorporations, cyber-hackers and mind control... there are these small, intimate moments, when the game just asks: "What do you think of this? What is actually important to you, specifically?"

Because yeah, in the end, the city is fucked. It was fucked from the beginning. But are you going to give up, even despite that? When the moment counts, is that what truly matters?

Ethics, politics, emotions, relationships - it all comes crashing down. How right are we, really?

Play this game.

fiz minha primeira run agora e simplesmente to abismado, que jogo incrivel, te bota pra pensar de diversas formas, acho o final "decepcionante" mas não deixa de ser bom também, todo dialogo nesse jogo pesa de uma forma muito boa, gostei demais das demais escolhas que fizemos durante a gameplay, a gameplay é divertida e diferente, gostei muito de ficar misturando drinks e fazendo coquetéis para obter as respostas certas no jogo

a trilha sonora é perfeita e te faz relaxar absurdos, tambem temos uma arte super bem feita

o roteiro do jogo é excelente, e como disse, toda opção que tu escolhe afeta e muito o jogo, até a ordem dos drinks que tu faz pode afetar

4h de jogo, da pra jogar em uma noite tediosa porque esse jogo vai te entreter bastante

8/10, recomendo bastante a quem curte jogos de escolha e que tem bastante relacionamentos pessoais sendo discutidos

played this after having really enjoyed the cosmic wheel sisterhood from this same studio earlier this year. not only is it neat to register this game as a reference in cosmic wheel, but it's cool to see all the shared dna between the two

a lot ham-fisted in its writing (specifically dialogue) at times, and I don't think the logic of some of the game choices really tracks. luckily, I find that cosmic wheel is a proud improvement in both of these regards, particularly with the writing

a neat, creative experience, made even better by seeing how much the studio has grown and bettered itself since its release

I don't want to write this review. Words are difficult, limited. They can dilute experiences, rob them of their inapprehensible qualities. Writing often forces me to coagulate my emotions, my thoughts, stops them in time when I am mercurial, ethereal; here and not here. But I am haunted by the fear of not saying anything. I am compelled to express, no matter how vulnerable the form that expression takes. That is the scariest part of writing: being vulnerable against overwhelming violence.

And that's okay.

The Red Strings Club is a refuge for that vulnerability. You will feel shame, you will get hurt, you will feel alone at times, even helpless, but that's OK. People who are like you who are here now and those who have come before you, have felt it too. In loneliness is togetherness. It's what we can do against overwhelming violence.

That isn't to say that it's a game about unbridled optimism -- the exact opposite. It's the darkest interpretation of Capitalism as recuperative violence that I've ever seen in any video game (haven't played Disco Elysium yet, sorry). This game terrifies me. It came out of nowhere like a demon and took over my thoughts for what will most likely be a very long time.

It's a horrible feeling. What do we do with it? I don't know, and maybe the game doesn't either. Its only solution is the simplest: love and be loved. What has been commodified into the cliche has metamorphosed here into devastating, ugly-sobbing beauty through painful sincerity. Perhaps that is the power you and I have. The power that's in all of these awful, oppressive systems that seem impossible to destroy is in us too. Not as a message of uncritical hope, but one of poignant endurance. We will always love in the end and find love in the end. Till the end, we have us.

That can take us so far, but it can also fell us a great height. But the fall is worth the climb. At least I think so.

It's a very strange game and a bloody hard one to review. It's very... experimental in terms of structure and gameplay loop, and consequently the moment to moment gameplay can be pretty hit or miss.

In terms of elements consistent across the game, the controls in the 3 or so minigames that make up the majority of the gameplay are extremely clunky. This feels like a deliberate choice but I'm not sure why they made it. Admittedly the awkward controls aren't too distracting in the cocktail minigame, but they make the pottery game absolutely miserable to play. As the pottery game is very early on, it ends up meaning the game as a whole gives a very poor first impression.

But Red Strings Club definitely improves the more you play it. The writing is strong throughout, and its the kind of writing that gets much more engaging the more you engage back with it. The philosophical and ethical themes are dealt with especially well; although occasionally I felt no option in a dialogue tree really represented what I wanted to say, I don't think I've ever played a game that challenged my core beliefs as strongly as this.

So yes, in the end I came out of this with a good impression despite an admittedly very shaky start. I'm glad we live in a world where there are devs willing to put in the time to make something as unusual and experimental as this is.