Simulacra is a "found phone" game—a genre where players uncover clues after discovering a stranger's lost smartphone. While the concept has gained popularity in the last decade, games have experimented with faux interfaces mimicking imagined technology for years. I remember playing Mean Streets and the officially licensed X-Files game, both of which attempted something similar.

In Simulacra, you navigate the protagonist's phone within the game's tightly controlled framework, piecing together what happened to its owner. I was initially drawn to the game due to the resurgence of modern full-motion video (FMV) storytelling. Having enjoyed 2015's Her Story, I expected a similar experience. While Simulacra integrates FMV clips effectively, its "found phone" premise was far less compelling to me. I think I hit an audience mismatch—I’m simply not a fan of smartphones. Since I don't particularly enjoy using my own phone, the idea of rifling through someone else’s was unappealing. I played on my laptop and embarrassingly took about a third of the game to realize that it was undoubtedly designed to be played on a smartphone—duh.

The protagonist, Anna, feels like a generic twenty-something woman struggling with rocky relationships, an unfulfilling job, and repeated rejections in her academic and professional pursuits. She has a non-binary best friend, which the game seemingly frames as a revelation, but it’s so heavily telegraphed that it falls into cliché territory. In fact, Anna herself is a walking cliché, as is the familiar "technology is evil" theme—an overused trope in uninspired sci-fi narratives. After seeing it so often, it no longer has much impact for me.

The game’s title did surprise me. Before playing, I had never encountered the terms "Simulacra" or "Simulacrum," which piqued my curiosity. Midway through, I looked up the meaning, wondering why a game about a woman's lost phone would have such a name. Ah, crap—spoilers.

As for gameplay, Simulacra offers little freedom. Players must follow rigidly scripted conversations in a precise order to unlock new options and clues. While there are minor choices in how you interact with Anna’s close friends, they ultimately boil down to a few dialogue changes that determine which of the five endings you get—most of which depend on choices made in the last 10% of the game. That said, I appreciated that I could make all the necessary connections without resorting to a guide or hints. That sense of progress and accomplishment is something lacking in other puzzle or adventure games.

Overall, Simulacra is predictable but not necessarily bad. The FMV clips are well-integrated, Wendy Van Horen Carneiro delivers a solid performance as the wronged damsel in distress, and the faux-phone interface is thoughtfully designed. I give it a 3 out of 5—though the game is clearly aimed at a different audience than me, so others may find it more engaging.

Actually got me with some jump scares and noises, but a good story and how it's exacuted and the choices and good

I enjoyed it mostly, getting one of the medium endings.
My big problems with the game:
The videos and audio recordings have a too-crisp studio quality, which I found uncanny compared to what you'd expect from a mobile phone.
Cutscene calls cannot be paused, and have no subtitles; I happened to have my headphones off *twice* because real life happened at that moment I triggered those videos and I missed them