Little Red Lie

My depression has depression now

I'm not sure what message I was supposed to get out of this, if any. It was well-written, but it was bleak and filled with unlikable characters. The ending disgusted me and left me wondering what the point of the story was, unless that was exactly the point of the story, that "there is no point to anything." It was a slog and I'm glad it's over. [spoiler] As for Arthur, he was insufferable to the point of comedy. I was really looking forward to overdosing him and him having a stroke or a heart-attack and spending the rest of his life as an invalid. For some reason that didn't happen, but the game seemed to be trying to claim that this sociopathic rapist/murderer had some sort of change of heart and was trying to turn his life around. I didn't buy it. Someone that far gone doesn't just have an epiphany. The lack of any sort of consequences for his actions bothered me as well, but the game was going out of it's way to be...something. Deep? Depressing? Grittily realistic? Again, I'm just left with puzzlement. [/spoiler] Always Sometimes Monsters has a similar vibe, but it was way better executed and more interesting, IMO. It also gave you some control over the story.

This a very hard game to review. I wish Steam had a 'maybe' button. First off their's not a whole lot of actual gameplay here. Basically it's just a 5 hour visual novel, and many of the visual novel elements aren't all that great, In some cases you just walk around interacting with different items over and over again until the story proceeds. In 2017( when the game came out), we already had tons of VNs which push the envelope. Take Orwell , Life is Strange, or a personal fav of mine Hate Plus. Little Red Lie feels like a Game Maker project, this isn't bad, To the Moon is a great example of this. But To the Moon had one of the best stories I've ever seen. This story feels like a long winded Reddit rant about how horrible life is. The characters are all ether comically evil or stupid. I grew up very poor, multiple evictions. I could not feel sorry for a 30+ year old who expects their parents to keep taking care of them. At a point you need to figure it out. Oh noes your trust fund is running dry, you could ya know get a job. Getting a job isn't shameful, nothing wrong with working at Starbucks to feed yourself. But this is seen as some horrible demeaning existence. The 'good' characters problems are mostly self imposed, [spoiler] AT 38 HOW CAN YOU BE STUPID ENOUGH TO GIVE A STRANGER ALL YOUR MONEY! I grew up around adults like this, who never wanted to work, and when their parents died, they couldn't function. Real life spoiler, even if given a home and tons of cash these types of people still mess up. They take loans against the home so they can sit around all day. Then when the bills come due and they will, it's all someone else's fault! Avoid these people ! Their parents are sick of taking care of them and they'll want you to pick up the slack. The 'good' character even has a bit where she mentions trying to buy groceries while living off her parents. Too hard, 'I never brought the right things'. We have this invention, it's called paper. On paper , using a thing called a pen you can write down the food your parents want, this is called a grocery list. Using a grocery list you can buy the right things. [/spoiler] It felt really insulting to folks like myself who had rough childhoods. If you keep the sliver spoon in your mouth don't get mad when it starts to rust. That said, I really want to see more games like this. Which is why I'll give it a yes. Just something with less self pity.

Fenomenalna narracja i gęsty klimat, podbijany dodatkowo przez oprawę graficzną (tekstową?) gry. Rzecz obowiązkowa dla fanów gier, które przeżują, wyplują i na koniec jeszcze naplują.

While the game is very realistic towards life there is too much doom and gloom paragraphs that could have been done in a few sentences. Its like an overthinker on the meaning of life. Their is no divine purpose for existence, just a happenchance. Its funny after everything Arthur does, he can continue being with his family. Im glad he turned his life around but it doesn't sit well with me that he got off his charges by using money. I know thats how life works and it sucks. Also what happened to Dan, Melissa boyfriend? And is Sarah dead or now in a poly relationship?

Enjoyable enough narrative , doubt you would want to play it again (at least not for a long time) but worth playing on sale if you enjoy this sort of thing

Wow, there truly is no revolutionary potential in the West!

Mouse controls seem to be broken. Probably conflicting with virtual joysticks on my PC. No convenient way to fix it, and my usual trick of rebinding axis to a physical gamepad via the unity launcher didn't seem to fix it.

I was drawn into it because it's setting was the streets and landmarks of Scarborough, Toronto's and I live near there and visited the areas plenty of times. Having played through it I'd say I enjoyed the experience and I would recommend it. It's dark though and not really a "game" you play. It's more like a reading a book but you get the benefit of visuals, sound, and moving the main characters which all help to provide a connection to the setting/atmosphere/world that the game is portraying.

EDIT: After finishing the game I find it so mean spirited and cynical that playing and finishing this game only results in misery and depression. But tell us how you really feel game designer. Do Not Play. An excellent narrative game about the real world terrors of being in North America as a millenial and how the amoral truly succeed. All of it excellently done. It weaponizes curse words. As every other review said, it is very very depressing because it is about the real world we live in. And that world sucks!