I'll be vague but blunt. If you've played either of Sam Barlow's previous two games you know exactly what you're in for here - spend a few hours collecting a bunch of disjoint video clips so as to figure out "what happened." As in the previous two games, you can get as much or as little out of the characters and the clips as you want; you're entirely responsible for your own inertia and your own trajectory through the experience. There is one twist - one - which you will inevitably encounter after anywhere from a few minutes to a few hours of gameplay. It's an absolute mindfuck and it recontextualizes everything about the story you've been putting together, sending you straight back to every clip you've already seen and changing the scope and vibe of the game from that point forward. I had the... misfortune, maybe?... of discovering this twist fairly early on. It sent chills straight down my spine, but finding it so quickly may have made my gameplay experience shorter and shallower. But that's the way Sam Barlow's games work. (I found the climactic clip of Telling Lies like ten minutes in and then spent five hours filling in a story I just couldn't stay interested in.) Ultimately, I love the unconventional gameplay and - again, staying vague - this is easily Barlow's most artistic game so far. I'm sure I'll be reading discussions and theories and breakdowns for years to come. Play it alone in the dark late at night by yourself and make up your own mind.

Reviewed on Aug 31, 2022


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