The new game developers of its history is a troubling journey through stolen NSA images

Tell lies, the latest interactive fiction His history Creator Sam Barlow invites players to snuggle up in front of their computer and go through hours of fictitious footage from the National Security Agency. It's mostly about watching the game's characters through their webcams and other video sources, all of which have been captured without their knowledge. The player must play in the often intimate interactions of Tell liesCharacters to reconstruct a story of suspense, intrigue and sorrow. It's as scary as it sounds.

A spiritual successor to His history, a game that also provided the player with video clips to analyze, Tell lies is an emotional thriller cut into pieces and stored on a USB key. The reader, attributed to an FBI agent by an anonymous source, contains hours of secret video clips, mostly centered on four characters. Logan Marshall-Green, star of the science fiction movie Improve, describes David, an FBI agent on a cover mission. Stop and catch the fireKerry Bishé plays David's wife. Alexandra Shipp, aka Storm since X-Men: Apocalypse and Dark Phoenix, plays a young woman linked to a shady organization, and WestwroldAngela Sarafyan plays a cam model.

Some clips are surveillance videos recorded from hidden cameras, but most are unilateral conversations recorded via a webcam. To reconstruct the story, players use a virtual computer interface to search for words in video transcripts. Searching for the word "tofu", for example, returns a series of clips. It is up to the players to determine how the clips are connected and which words enter the search bar to find other clues. Two clips with the same duration are most likely both sides of the same conversation. If one of the game's actors tells a joke, looking for "who's there?" In the database can lead the speaker to the other side.

As a player, mark and mark video clips Tell liesThe story will slowly come together. Superbly interpreted excerpts from the lives of these characters unite to form a captivating story. The paths meet and life crumbles.

Tell lies is a puzzle with the potential to be different for all who play it. At the end of my first part, after spending a few hours watching, categorizing and organizing videos, the game provided a report stating that I only watched half of the clips available. On returning (thankfully, there is a continuous option), I dig deeper to discover more clips and add more depth to my version of the story.

It's an intimate experience, often disturbing. I know that they are actors who play roles. I also know that the computer on which I work in the game is virtual; The face of the female FBI agent who makes the look is subtly reflected on the monitor at all times. But I always feel like a jerk when I search in the most private moments of these people. I will see someone wish a good night to a child. Sing a song for a new love. Learn to know each other intimately on the Internet. All along, I keep thinking, I should not see that.

To some extent, my discomfort is a testament to the ability of the cast. The cast of Tell lies is consistently excellent and offers performance far beyond anything I've seen in an FMV game. I would watch this game as a movie. Hell, I would have perhaps preferred to watch it as a movie rather than having to play the role of a character who does this background work. But what is also troubling is the idea that this type of film can exist. In a dark room somewhere, there is a person sitting in front of a computer screen that erases images of me sleeping my kids or skyping with my parents in the hope of getting some good results.