The Red Strings Club

I don't usually play this genre, but this was such a great experience that i'm wondering how many other gems i'm missing out. The atmosphere was dense, well delivered by design and music. The writing left me thinking long after i closed the game. Made me more selfaware, and sometimes the game played me better than i played it. Worth every cent and hour i put into it.

I've never before seen a game actually respect player dialogue choices the way this game does, and the ways in which you interact in the last half of the game feels more free-form and explorative than what is usually afforded in adventure game narrative pathing. They sell the illusion of choice really well by having what I assume must be a metric ton on bespoke dialogue content. Great story, makes you think, makes you question your own ethical beliefs constantly. I like it.

It's oddly relaxing; the writing has it's quicks but overall it's strong

This game's aesthetic is nice. It's the best thing about it. I like the art direction and execution. The music is ok. I put 2 stars. The missing 3 stars is due to the writing, and the mini-games. The mini-games can be fun (pottery and bartending) if you get into it. However, their mechanics are disconnected from the overall design of the game. Some might like this kind of disconnected gameplay, but personally, when I get into the mood to follow the narrative, it was irritating to be distracted by challenges to my dexterity. But my main issue is the writing. They chose to deliver the game with writing at the forefront, but the story had little subtlety, and much verbosity. Despite the verbosity (or because of it), it wasn't very good at explaining what the world was about to a newcomer, so it handed me minutes of confusion before I understood the premise. When I finally got my bearings I was treated to a click-fest. Advancing the dialogue requires clicking the text box. Normally, this wouldn't be a problem if the dialogue was interesting. One aspect that irked me was that it consisted a lot of useless expressions and turns of phrases you have to click through. These were probably an attempt to develop character, but to me, they were actually barriers. For a narrative game, the writing fell so short of my expectations that I couldn't find the patience to finish it, so I'm afraid I don't know how it ends or what it's about. Overall, it was tedious and boring as a narrative game. I think it would have been much improved if they concentrated on using art to express the world and story, using dialogue only when necessary. I.e. show, not tell.

...with a sad ending. Short, yet sweet. Great easthetics!