The Gallery

Like I purchased someone’s experimental student film project published using the choice-based movie format that Wales Interactive popularized. (note: spoilers in the Negatives section to explain some of the nonsensical story beats) I enjoy the Wales Interactive games (note: this is NOT a Wales Interactive game) and have played most of them to date. This game appears to be like one because the writer-director worked on some of those, but it's the first FMV game I don’t recommend giving a try unless you really want to see experimental work. It’s a failed experiment, but there are positives and so I want to list those first and then go into how this is just a huge misfire for the genre. The Positives -The idea of having a movie along two timelines was super-intriguing to me; I thought it was going to be some amazingly interconnected story that was going to enthrall me and give me that mind-blown feeling that I love from psychological thriller movies. It did not, but this is a positive experimental idea about seeing the same story played in two time periods with different actors (one switching from protagonist to antagonist!) that, even though it didn’t really work, was a very interesting idea. I only wish that the writing and story had lived up to the idea so that this had become a groundbreaking experiment in the medium. -The acting, audio, and cinematography are fine enough. I’m not a good judge of acting, but I think the performances were fine and the video and audio were well done. Since this seems to be made by a production company the director set up separately from Wales, I’ll cut it some slack for not having the same experience yet in all of the areas to do it all perfectly in its first solo outing. -This director has a record of sticking to the story for the most part without doing a lot of the BS that modern Hollywood does. This movie has an original story, it mostly keeps political commentary where it makes sense for the story (it’s in here, but it’s mostly about motivation for the antagonists and not trying to moralize to the viewer), and it focuses on trying something different and, as a result, is what generally makes me prefer this kind of media to most movies and TV shows these days. The Negatives -Just about everything I didn’t mention in the Positives ranges from bad to atrocious. The story isn’t well told, the choices are not that interesting (seemingly inconsequential early and then repetitive “comply or resist” choices later), and way too many of the things that happen in the movie are detached from reality. I can’t believe that people reviewed a draft of this and didn’t see anything wrong during writing, production, or editing. -The way the story unfolds is just “and now another plot point happens” in nature. For example, this was my journey in my first 1981 run: I am asked out on a date and choose whether to accept; I get accosted by a crazy person and I decide what to tell the police about it. I then randomly hook up with someone (of the opposite gender of the person I just accepted a date from) while I’m handed a painting in a case that’s way too small to fit one, and then I’m visited after I close for the day by someone and have to choose how to argue with the guy around whether the door was locked. Then, I randomly get painted (even though I’m supposed to be going on a date later and need to prepare for the biggest day ever for this struggling little gallery tomorrow) by this guy who clearly broke in, and then—SURPRISE!—I’m now a hostage and have to decide how much to resist or comply for the next 20+ minutes while he spouts his manifesto. During that, I can choose to make out with him. Then, based on my decisions, an ending occurs. Notice how none of this seems to connect—sure, they try to make it so that, for example, if you accept the date you end up missing it and so the guy doesn’t help you later, but you might as well flip a coin with that decision because you have zero context. It’s just so bad how the story flows. -The two-time-period parallel story structure is just the same story done twice with time/actor variations. It’s like watching the original Total Recall or Point Break and their modern remakes (but pretend they’re shot-for-shot remakes with different actors and graphics/fashion) back to back—why? What’s the point other than for the artists to experiment? It’s not made for the audience at all. If they had been different timelines that were interconnected or something, then that would’ve been for the audience and would’ve been awesome. Because the story was bad, watching it twice for those experimental elements was not as enjoyable as it should’ve been. -So many things make near-zero sense in this movie game. Since they did a gender-swap thing with a lot of the characters, the two policemen in the 1981 version become women in the 2021 version, and the two women just tell this crazy guy to move along and he complies—not realistic at all. He could’ve and would’ve easily taken them both down if he were a real crazy man—they at least would’ve gotten physical. The suitcases used to store the supposed main-event paintings for the showing the next day couldn’t fit a painting bigger than 6”x9”. The protagonist has romantic interactions with three different people of various gender/gender identities in the span of 30 minutes. Later, the raving lunatic returns and can’t even seem to keep his ideology straight—he’s complaining about the government controlling you and free-market capitalism at the same time (those are competing options). The suspension of disbelief required to watch this and not lose immersion is beyond the realm of a rational human. I forgot to even mention that a sex scene cuts away to two paintings of elderly people and the characters say nonsensical stuff like, “You snooze, you lose.” when they should have said, “Beggars can’t be choosers.” Who quality controlled this? -The choices, as I mentioned, are so bad. At the beginning, they are 50/50 “whatever you feel like” without enough context to make them with a clear preference. Later, there are the same “comply this time” or “resist this time” options that, with maybe two exceptions, cause your relationship with the antagonist better or worse. It’s that transparent and bland. It might as well just be a movie, but they give you choices and different endings that you have near-zero attachment to because you don’t really care about the characters or story enough where you really care what happens. -Unfortunately, this production crosses the line that I was happy that in previous games they didn’t cross before. This game has some progressive and post-modern ideas seeping in that make the game worse. In Ten Dates, they let you choose your character’s sexuality through choices and so it’s fine; here, you’re just making out with everyone with no explanation. They also have a period lecturing you about gender ideology, which is out of place, forced on you, and the “right” answer gets you a better relationship score to save your life. It’s way too close to the “down your throat” indoctrination crap that Hollywood puts out for my taste. While I still give it credit for having things like diversity in the game without drawing attention to them (i.e., they have characters of different demographics and play them straight without resorting to progressive tropes/stereotypes of them), they inserted a few post-modern ideas that were not for the story’s sake, requiring you to turn your brain off to stay engaged. Overall, I’m disappointed because I usually like these games and give them a lot of credit for what they either do or try to do with the genre. They’re usually better than many streaming shows because they’re different, fun, and focus on the stories. But this is just a catastrophically bad story with nonsensical elements, and I just can’t recommend it vs. other FMV games unless you really, really love experimental work in the genre.

If you enjoy fmv games then this one is for you, there are many dialouge choices some that dont seem like much but later on have dire conseuquences, some trophies are somewhat dififuclt to unlock but that's what makes it fun. The acting is pretty good, also side note if you love art this you will enjoy this game as the title states it takes place in a art galley and there are many really well painted portraits in the game. I would say if your new to this type of genre, this could be a good one to start with. I also like there is a skip feature so you don't have to listen to all the scenes all over again.

honestly the modern day feels like a better story to me personally (probably cause despite less endings it feels like there's more branches) so play 1 playthrough of the past to get the story that is playing throughout both then play 1 playthrough of modern day before trophy hunting so you can see the differences in the stories. Overall super fun and enjoyed finding different story branches even if some took ages to find because of choices I thought didn't actually change too much of the story.

Игра - шедевр. Давно я так не угорала. В первые полчаса игры на меня напали свидетель Иеговы, лесбиянка тётя Мотя, панки рокеры, брат нарик и Дориан Грей. Причём самый кайф в том, что в этой игре, по сути, аж две игры. Тот, кто придумывал сюжет, - явно был под кайфом, но в этом и вся прелесть. Однозначно рекомендую к прохождению ради ржаки

It's a shame that the last few achievements are glitched and refuse to unlock for me, I've followed several guides religiously to make sure I would get them, and have gotten the events in question that should trigger those achievement unlocks, but those stubborn last two achievement unlocks still evade me. I'm too tired to keep trying. Maybe if it was just one, I'd keep trying, but the game isn't even good enough to merit me keep trying.

Another FMV Banger with excellent acting and gripping storyline. There is gay and trannny stuff in this game every two seconds but if you're fine with that there's plenty of stuff in this game to keep you engaged for little while

El juego esta muy bueno super recomendado en oferta, al inicio lo compre para ver que tal pero me sorprendió gratamente, si te gusta ir al cine, por un monto pequeño es como ver una peli pero tomando decisiones, un guion interesante no el mejor pero bueno, rejugable, dos historias en épocas distintas, no puedo decir mas sin spoiler pero bueno. (ojo compralo en promo de descuento) - cabe destacar que no soy el mayor fan del genero pero esta bueno ahh verdad, según la pagina de la tienda no esta disponible con sub en español, pero si tiene idioma en español subtitulos e interfaces.

Ich finde das Spiel ist ganz gut gelungen. Aber ich liebe auch einfach Spiele mit verschiedenen Enden! Die Schauspieler sind auch nicht schlecht, ich finde nur es könnte noch etwas mehr... knistern 😉