This is a complicated game to review.
I would preface this by stating that I don't believe that any game needs to be or should strive to be of a particular length. Games are art, and in pursuit of that don't have any set parameters by which they do (or should) abide. With that said, inevitably games will still be judged based on their length, because one of the myriad reasons people play them is for long-term entertainment.
I can safely say that if you are looking for a long game, Postmortem is not a game that should place highly on your list. It is difficult for me to even say that it has a lot of replayability (though it does). Postmortem is a game that is built deep instead of wide. People often speak of open world games, broad as an ocean and shallow as a puddle -- this is the opposite side of that equation. This is a game that actually provides what people's impossible expectations for Mass Effect 3 had envisioned...and the only thing it needs to sacrifice to provide this bountiful opportunity for branching narrative is to be somewhere between five minutes and half an hour long.
If that were the [i]only[/i] problem with Postmortem, though, I think it would have performed far better in reviews. Almost all of Postmortem is spent in conversations with guests at the gala, which means that one can expect the writing to be doing the heavy lifting of the story through characterization and dialogue. Personally, I think the characters are well-written and enjoyable, but nothing here stands out as a truly transcendent or incredibly inspired. It is very competently-written, and you're able to gain a lot of insight into the different perspectives and beliefs of each character, but despite expressing some very different beliefs, they somehow manage to feel lacking in original personality. I want to be clear, this is a nitpick. The writing in Postmortem is [i]much[/i] better than average, and it would be a huge step up if more games were written at this level. Still, with the writing doing literally the heavy lifting here, it's just not enough.
And of course, we invariably have the matter of price. If Postmortem had been a free game, I would expect a Mostly Positive or even Very Positive review average. In the end, I think that the game unfortunately falls too far on the side of being an artistic curiosity to be able to charge much of anything. I think it is worth the asking price, but most people are unlikely to see it that way. They will reach the end, they may or may not play through again to see how divergent the narrative can be from their decisions, but even if they do conduct multiple playthroughs, I imagine most will finish and ask, "Nice tech demo, but...where's the game?"
Still, I give Postmortem a positive review. It [i]is[/i] an interesting piece of art worth the asking price. This is definitely a case of "this game is not for everyone," though. Only purchase if a short, experimental game fits into your budget -- you can get more entertainment of a higher quality from a vast array of other titles. Even if you're just looking for writing-heavy game with significant player choice, you would still have dozens of visual novels to choose from with better length and presentation than Postmortem.
