Interrogation Files: Port Landsend

First of all, this is my absolute favorite game genre. There aren't many police interrogation/keyword search FMV games out there (thank god for Sam Barlow,) and as such, my standards for what I'll play are low. However, this is the first time ever I've felt compelled to write a review for a game because I have to express/warn how much this game frustrated me, making me give up and quit at about halfway through (I'm slow!) The Good: - The writing/story/world building was super intriguing. I still want to know how it ends so I'm sure I'll finish it when I have more patience. - I'll be honest and say I thoroughly enjoyed the first few hours, because most of my cons weren't at all apparent until hours in. I feel like the first 3 suspects you discover do a pretty good job being somewhat believable, all things considered. Originally Ruth annoyed me and felt overly dramatic, but honestly she stole the show. The Really Bad: - Ok. So, it is clear all the subjects are reading off of cue cards or something off-screen to their right. I didn't even notice it for hours because it plays into the evasive/thinking look and a lot of the actors are good at maintaining some eye contact with the cops they're talking to. And then there's Natalie. This is by far the worst acting I have seen in basically any form of media, ever. Natalie almost never looks at the detectives, she just stares to her right, reading her lines like she's doing a spot-on Tommy Wiseau impression. Her performance was so jarring and unrealistic that after a few of her clips I just shut the game off. - The keyword weirdness other reviewers have mentioned also kinda sucks but doesn't even come close to Natalie. Overall, the game is only 7 bucks, so if you really enjoy these games and have exhausted the current options I'd still recommend it. Just be prepared.

This was a fun little game. A few irritating elements, mostly around the occasionally dodgy acting and the search system being really picky. But otherwise I had a great time playing through it. I hope this dev makes more games!

Okay. This is one of the better "Her Story"-like database scrubbing experiences. Finding 100% of the videos is pretty much impossible without a guide for a normal person and some achievements are annoying, but overall, the mystery is pretty cool and keeps you invested until at least one of the possible endings. + story was really nice + relatively good database tools + believable "old" tech effects, like scan lines and visual artefacts + Unlimited help functionality so you don't get stuck unless you are proud and stubborn - some of the "acting" is laughable... [spoiler] be it "Natalie the robot" or "Ruth the skin-walker" [/spoiler] - Not sure how the recording of the scenes was set up. (composite of several videos + green screen? idk) Sometimes it was quite uncanny how the interviewing cops seemed smaller on screen than the suspect... almost like the cops had the person on a big screen in front of them instead of being in the same room. - Relating to the previous point: A couple of the interviewees constantly look hard right during interrogation, almost never looking to the direction of the interviewers. Something weird was going on with the camera work in this game, and it made some of the people look guilty or crazy by default. All in all, a nice FMV mystery experience, even for the full price of 5.99.

The game itself is interesting. Kinda basic on the whole horror thriller and murder, but the worst part is the actors. The actors were so low budget i cringed watching them avoid eye contact and making it feel more real. i was hoping to pick apart facial expressions, fidgetting, and using the avoiding of eye contact to use as a precursor to determine keywords. However just about every actor is monotone and looking off to the left while reading the lines. It was absolutely terrible for that alone. Decent game but would be better if you had some puzzles or were able to break down evidence for clues. 70% of evidence had nothing to do with the anything. kinda lame to be honest. If you ever make a second game id hope you hire some actors who can read line without staring like robots at the cue cards and make it a bit more interactive other than trying to find key words. Maybe take some ideas from SIMULACRA 2 and make them to fit your own game. 3/10

I for sure would recommend this game to you if: [list] [*] You have already played Her Story, liked it, and would enjoy playing a similar game [*] You wouldn't be put off by lower production values (the acting, in particular, can be distracting) [*] You can look past and put up with some minor but irritating design flaws [/list] If the above describes you then I feel pretty confident that you would enjoy Interrogation Files: Port Landsend. It is clearly a small indie game, but it has an interesting story and I was definitely invested in the investigation to figure out what had happened. For me the good very much outweighed the bad, and I personally wouldn't hesitate to play future games from the same developer. If you didn't enjoy Her Story (or Telling Lies) then you probably won't enjoy this game. If you haven't played Her Story yet I would recommend trying that out first, as I think that it is a better game and probably a better introduction to the genre. The reason I am comparing this game to Her Story so much is because the influence is obvious (it even gets a special thank you mention in the credits). There are a few interesting differences, however. [list] [*]The theme of this game is a little more spooky; I don't want to spoil any of the story, but if you enjoy occult themes then I would recommend this to you even more. [*]There are multiple suspects that you discover along the way, and it is up to you to decide who is guilty. (The game ends when you decide to accuse someone and then you get to see the consequences of your choice.) [*]There is an evidence screen that shows pieces of evidence that are unlocked during your investigation. You can look at the evidence for clues. [*]The search terms don't correspond to the exact script (as they do in Her Story or Telling Lies), but rather to concepts. Ultimately this ended up being a bit frustrating in practice because some clips were overly picky about keywords (it felt a little bit like the old Sierra games where you had to get the word exactly right), but I think it was an interesting conceptual design idea that changed how I approached trying to uncover new things. I still ended up spamming everything I could think of (especially at the end of the game), but rather than trying specific words that had been used I would try to be more descriptive about things I wanted to know more about. [/list]

Ugh. I was enjoying the acting and the story for a while. Then the 5th suspect Natalie was introduced. An ai bot could do a better job acting and speaking like a human than whoever this actress is. This is a shame because the other 4 main suspects and the interrogators were all really good in their roles. I can barely listen to Natalie. The game would actually just be better if she was cut entirely.

This game was amazing, i enjoyed it! I'm a big fan of FMV games. I wish there were more games like that. It's a thriller that gets spooky sometimes but without horror game cliches like jumpscares. The music in the menu only gives additional spooky vibe. This game is fairly new, released in 2020 and I cannot wait for this studio to release more games like this one! It should be a series. One thing i didn't like tho is that if you don't have a person unlocked it won't show you the tapes with a word you typed. You have to re-type the words you already used after you unlock new person.

It's alright. Quite a long game as well, too long I felt. Also the ending just didn't really land for me. And the searching mechanic was more than a little awkward at times, it seemed quite arbitrary whether a video would turn up when you searched for a word. I think a bit more story editing, a bit more accomplished actors, and a bit more refinement to the search mechanic, and this could have been very good.