Common Sense Media Review
Mature adventure explores the limits of law enforcement.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 16+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Play
Videos and Photos
Telling Lies
What's It About?
TELLING LIES is a non-linear adventure story told through a collection of live-action video clips. As a female character of unknown identity (she could be a private citizen, a spy, or some kind of government agent), players search through a flash drive full of private video calls collected by the National Security Agency. Players watch these files which detail only one side of a call and have to match them together in hopes of piecing together full conversations and identifying the players in a terrorist conspiracy. Video clips can be sped up, stopped, and scrubbed back and forth so players can scan them for clues. Players can then highlight (and perform searches on) specific terms within the captions to collect additional information on them, track search history, and take notes on their findings.
Is It Any Good?
This second offering by veteran game designer Sam Barlow (creator of Her Story) is exceptionally well designed, written and acted. Telling Lies has the emotional weight of a film or TV show drama, and while it pays nostalgic homage to the FMV (Full Motion Video) games of the 1980s, its themes regarding online communication and government surveillance couldn't be more contemporary. Your job, as the game's anonymous protagonist, is to watch a series of video files, spying on private citizens' video chat in hopes of uncovering a terrorist plot. Depending on your feelings about voyeurism, this can be thrilling or highly uncomfortable. It's definitely compelling watching people reveal their most private selves, but knowing you're not the intended recipient of these revelations is unsettling, and looking for ways to use these people's words against them is even more troubling. It's engrossing to play this game on a computer, but when you're playing on a console (especially the Switch), the drama feels a bit more intimate, which ratchets up the thrill and discomfort factor.
Telling Lies brilliantly illustrates the moral gray area of government surveillance by putting you in the dubious position of invading people's private lives in the name of National Security. Questions regarding activism, duty, and political and corporate corruption are at the forefront here, and none of them comes with an easy answer. The live-action video really ups the emotional ante, because the dialog is surprisingly well-written, and is carried off perfectly by Logan Marshall-Green (The O.C., Law & Order,) Kerry Bishe (Scrubs, Halt and Catch Fire) and Alexandra Shipp (the X-Men franchise). With a veritable mountain of video to sift through, and so many interesting possibilities to find, this is one interactive story that plays like a top-notch page-turner -- you can't put it down until it's done. All told, Telling Lies is an object lesson in good interactive design and thriller-style storytelling. But its adult themes and presentation make it a game you buy for yourself, not your kids.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about Internet security. Do your kids know how to protect their online messages from prying eyes? Does it seem like the prying that goes on in Telling Lies could possibly happen today?
What's more important to you -- privacy or national security? Are there pros and cons to NSA surveillance?
How could data collection could be used to violate a person's civil rights? Is there a limit to an individual citizen's right to privacy?
Game Details
- Platforms : Mac , Nintendo Switch , PlayStation 4 , Windows , Xbox One
- Pricing structure : Paid
- Available online? : Available online
- Publisher : Annapurna Interactive
- Release date : April 28, 2020
- Genre : Adventure
- ESRB rating :
- Last updated : June 29, 2022
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