Recent reviews by Coyote30

So far it's a thumbs down for me. It will probably change to a positive review in the future, but right now POE2 is the younger, way better looking brother of POE1 without the same charme and flair. The experiences that shaped and fine-tuned the first game aren't there yet and GGG isn't doing themselves any favours by already nerfing stuff in the first 48 hours after a quite frankly disastrous launch on the 6th. Player goodwill will only last for so long and they should let the game breathe and people enjoy it for a bit instead of already changing stuff around before most players have even finished the campaign once. Some claim this to be the Dark Souls of ARPGs, so far it rather feels like Empty Souls...

PS As GGG continues to change the game and basic balance stuff every couple of hours the game isn't worth any time at this moment as it doesn't respect the player's time. Wait until the official release...

The game makes good use of the FMV mechanic and you get to choose your actions at certain moments (comparable to games like Late Shift or The Complex). What makes this game stand out is the topic and the unique perspective which reminded me a bit of the movie Se7en...

This game series follow in the spirit of the ZUP games. There's no tutorial, the levels progressively teach you how to solve the puzzles. Very enjoyable, especially for a quick distraction.

I give this game a positive review because I love the FMV genre and want more games to be made. And while I enjoyed some aspects of "Night Book" this is without a doubt one of the weaker games in this genre. Where "Late Shift" or "The Complex" had great plots that could very well be made into actual movies, "Night Book" lacks the narrative focus and length of other FMV games.
At full price it isn't worth it unless you love FMV games as much as I do, get it for 50% or more off on sale and you will get your money's worth - especially if you have played the other games already.

This game would be fine if it had decent servers - until then it's a thumbs down...

Thank you D'Avekki Studios for another amazing experience. Time to explore the other options...

As a big fan of FMV games it was obvious I would play this on day 1. My first playthrough took me a good 90 minutes and there are 9 different endings. If you have played "Late Shift" by the same devs/publishers you will feel right at home and if you like that one you will like this one as well. You watch the movie and at certain points you get to decide how the main character, Amy, acts - and you'll have to deal with the consequences... Moreover there's a new stats system that shows you certain character traits of the main protagonist and her relationship with other characters.

As with "Late Shift" the production quality is very high and the acting is great, I've seen and paid for worse movies at the cinema. You get loads of content for your money and it will be interesting to see how long it will take me to get all the endings and clips. If you're into FMV games you will like this one and if you're new to the genre give this one or Late Shift a try, it's great value for money and very entertaining to steer proceedings in the direction you want them to go (they should have had that option for GoT season 8, too...).

I love FMV games and I was absolutely blown away by "Her Story"... but although this game brings back the searching for words/phrases in a video database to find and watch clips containing these words/phrases as its main mechanic it's a miss for me so far. I'm several hours into the game and at the moment I'm forcing myself to continue but I'm not enjoying what the game has to offer...

The main problem is the story and that by now I know so much about the characters that I don't like anyone of them. They are all unsympathetic and I don't really care what happens to them, so to find out more gets tedious. And the game doesn't help in that regard because

- you can rewind clips but even at high speeds that takes forever (I found myself watching other stuff while rewinding... The game should be renamed "Rewinding Clips"... note to devs: There should be a "set clip to 0:00 instantly button".)

- you get all conversations from both sides in separate clips. I'm sure this idea sounded great on paper but as a game it gets tedious soon. Because of course there are a lot of pauses and if you have the same story twice you already know kind of what someone will say. Take for example the father telling his kid a fairy tale, a clip that takes almost 10 minutes and you're watching it twice. That's almost a full sitcom episode... I found myself doing other things during most clips, the game just couldn't hold my attention because it didn't appreciate my time.

The content to price ratio you get even at full price is good (I guess I'm not even half way through all the clips by now) but sometimes bigger and more isn't better. Where Her Story was telling a concise story that left room for interpretation, Telling Lies feels forced and spills everything out. And it does so at a snail's pace...
It hurts to give this a thumbs down because usually FMV games are my thing but this one just misses the mark in regards to story, characters and gameplay.

PS I've finished the game by now but my opinion stays the same. The remaining time was spent filling in the blank spots but it wasn't a worthwhile experience. Too bad that you can't watch the conversation with both parts on the screen at the same time (at least once you have both parts retrieved). It would make for a much more dynamic experience and save the player a lot of time. That would definitely make "Telling Lies" a better game but it would still be dragged down by a story that telegraphs everything from a mile away and is filled with unlikeable characters...

As a fan of FMV games I bought "She sees red" on release and I liked the game/experience. The closest comparison is obviously Late Shift (the game mechanics are more or less the same, at certain points of the movie you can decide on the next step to take/move to make and the story branches from there) although this is a smaller, more compact project than Late Shift (that's why the price is way lower).

The story itself is intriguing (without being anything ground-breaking) and I found the first couple of playthroughs to be very redeeming in that I tried to get all aspects of the story itself. The following runs were to find the remaining videos (and as of this writing it looks like I'm still missing one or two to get the completionist achievement).
The production quality is there and the new english dub is fine. I like the acting and it's absolutely on par with Late Shift in that regard in my opinion.

I hope the developer will release more games like this and I would recommend the game to everyone who likes FMV games. If you're looking for an experience with a smaller scope than other games of this kind this is the right one for you.

Glory to Arstotzka!