First of all, please ignore the curators who say you can get 100% of achievements in 23 or 30 minutes (according to two curators for this game). That's a joke. To suggest that anyone could complete this game with 100% achievements in under an hour is completely misleading. No, no, no. If you're after all the achievements in this game, you're going to be spending HOURS. First off, there are four hours of videos (plus a bunch of evidence to look at). You should actually watch a bunch of the videos, if not most of them, at least once, on your first run, to even know what's going on, especially if you want to input the correct search terms that will reveal more videos, evidence, and clues. Of course, it's not completely necessary to use search terms to unlock videos; you could just click on the “Messages” option (then the videotape icon). Using this method, your boss will unlock ONE video at a time, but even that’s a bit time-consuming, opening and closing each screen and so forth. You also don't have to watch the videos; you only need to start them (and then you can close them). The videos still count toward your progression when you do that, but what's the point? You're not actually playing the game for the experience or figuring anything out if you do that. I mean, that's fine for the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th runs (it's what I did after the first run and went for the other 3 ending achievements), but I wouldn't suggest doing that on your first playthrough. I suggest you familiarize yourself with the characters and what's going on in the first playthrough. It helps with knowing what to do to get through later runs a bit quicker. Trying for the other endings is no walk in the park either, as for trying to get through it quickly. I’ll elaborate more on that in a little bit.
As for guides, I saw that one curator mentioned that the game was “fully guided.” The one who said the game could be completed 100% in 30 minutes (LOL). Fully guided usually means there’s a walkthrough or achievement guide on Steam (or YouTube). I also take issue with that. There is a total of ONE guide on Steam, and “fully guided” is a bit of a stretch. It’s helpful for a few of the achievements (not all), and almost no help at all as far as useful search terms to get through the game a little easier. Mostly, you’re on your own. I just had to figure out most of it for myself. Not that it’s not doable. The game is fairly user-friendly and can be figured out on one's own, but there is no complete guide. You will need to think a bit for yourself. For achievement hunters, there is one caveat, which I’ll explain further on.
There are 4 endings, and each has its own achievement. For each ending, you must select the suspects you believe were involved in the crime when the Accused option finally pops up (requiring a bunch of unlocked videos); however, after selecting your suspects and going through the ending videos, you must COMPLETELY DELETE that session before you can replay the game and before you can choose other suspects and endings. Yes, you will have to go through unlocking all the videos all over again, until you are given the Accuse option and a chance to choose different suspects and a different ending, and there are a buttload of videos to unlock before you get the chance to do that. Even if you go to Messages to unlock one video at a time, it still takes time. Since I watched all the videos (100% for each character) on the first run, I had a good idea of the search terms I needed to unlock multiple videos at once, which made checking them off a little faster than having the Messages guy unlock one video at a time, but it was still time-consuming, however you will still have to use the Messages system to unlock some of the videos. It's all time-consuming, so going for multiple endings will take a few hours.
Another note to achievement hunters and completionists, like myself... you may not get the “Not Quite Done Yet” achievement. I didn’t, and I believe that achievement is broken. I played 4 complete runs and chose the “no suspects” ending first, on all 4 runs. The "no suspects" ending is supposed to unlock that achievement when the Accuse option comes up. I actually chose that option on every playthrough. I did that first, closed the Accuse screen before I decided on which suspects I was going to choose, and the achievement never popped, so I chose some suspects. I got three of the four endings, and tried one more time, going through the whole rigamarole of starting a new session with a blank slate, patiently unlocking enough videos until I got the Accuse option. Closed the Accuse screen without choosing anyone (which is supposed to unlock the achievement), and nothing. I also made sure I had unlocked 100% of all videos for all suspects. I tried it multiple times. Nothing. The achievement never popped, and I know I did everything right, so it seems to be broken. It ticked me off a bit, having gone through this game so many times, only to not get that one achievement. So, that screwed up my Steam Completionist rating, after spending hours on this game. I would suggest to the Devs, either fix that achievement or remove it, because it’s quite frustrating for completionists like myself. I feel cheated. Another suggestion would be to allow the player to have ready access to the videos they’ve already unlocked in previous run(s) when they start a new session, then allow the player to choose different suspects without having to go through the hassle of searching for and unlocking each video 3 or 4 times for the different endings. For all developers: repeating tasks over and over again is tedious and tiresome, especially for experienced players aiming for alternate endings or achievements. It’s not fun, and it feels like a waste of time. I think most players would agree.
All that said, it was a good FMV game. I enjoyed the game, but I was left quite frustrated with having to keep unlocking videos I’d already unlocked, trying for all the endings. And I was really annoyed that one achievement was broken. If you just want to play a decent FMV detective game and don’t care about achievements or upping your completionist rating, and you’re good with just one or two endings, I’d say go for it. As far as good FMV detective games go, Interrogation Files: Port Landsend is up there with some of the best. So, aside from my stated frustrations, I can still recommend this game.
