Hello and welcome to the latest Discussion: [indie game] (spoilers!), a series which, I’ve just decided, needs no further explanation in the introduction. I’m sure you can work it out, readers, even if you’re new around here.

Today’s game is Telling Lies, a spiritual sequel (of sorts) to the subject of our very first indie discussion, Her Story. Developed by Sam Barlow, in partnership with Furious Bee, and published by Annapurna Interactive in 2019, Telling Lies is, like Her Story, a game in which you conduct an investigation by searching through video clips.

Here’s a brief trailer:

I don’t think it’s a spoiler to say that we both liked the game, and would recommend it.

Otherwise, though, if you haven’t already played Telling Lies but are sufficiently intrigued by the trailer to want to do so, you should probably leave before the discussion starts and we talk about what happens at almost every stage of it. (Also, be warned: there’s a couple of spoilers for Her Story in there too).

Ok? Here’s the ***FINAL SPOILER KLAXON***!
 

The FFG Guarantee

Rik: Let’s game chat!

Jo: Let’s!

Rik: I am to blame for this one…

Jo: There’s no blame here. We choose games, and then discuss, that’s the premise – and an FFG promise…

Rik: The FFG guarantee! We will play a game and tell you about it.

Jo: Then you decide if you want to play it.

Rik: At a rate of ‘a few’ per year. It’s really that simple.

Jo: This offer is not available in the shops.

Rik: Well, speaking of offers in shops, we may as well mention the fact that we were monitoring the price of this one in Steam and GOG sales.

Jo: Hotly monitoring it, more so than any other game, for some reason.

Rik: On the basis that most games end up coming below the £5 mark eventually, except this one always seemed to be reduced to… £6.19? Or something?

Jo: It was at least £1.19 over the threshold. Every time it came on sale we seemed to get our hopes up that it would be below a fiver. But no, just routinely stuck at £6.19

Rik: Of course, it’s fine for games to not be automatically reduced so much, and if you want to play, you’ll pay. But, on the other hand, £5 is the amount that makes me think, well if it sits in my backlog and I never get around to it, never mind.

Jo: I do want to play, but I don’t want to pay more than five British pounds.
 

Pages of Mad Scrawl

Rik: I guess we’ve had this one in our sights since Her Story, which was the first ever discussion in this series.

Jo: I think Telling Lies got released around the time of that discussion so we’ve had our eye on it for a good 3 years.

Rik: I think we were always going to get around to it. Any expectations going in?

Jo: Well, yes and no (I feel like I always say that…) — I had it in my head it was a sort of spiritual sequel to Her Story, even though they are different and not (I don’t think) set in the same world.

Rik: I figured it would be similar in some way to Her Story, and feature lots of video, but that was it.

Jo: Something I thought of early on was to do with the fact you could see the reflection of you — the player — in the monitor, and I sort of had the significance of that feature in Her Story playing on my mind somewhat.

Rik: I was caught slightly off guard by the external video shots in the intro, but then then once I settled into the game, it was more like Her Story than I thought.

Jo: Yeah, same, but that intro was over so quickly, there wasn’t enough time to make much of it.

Rik: I think possibly there are more tools to help you track your history and videos found, none of which I used, but otherwise it all works in very much the same way as Her Story: search for keywords to unlock different video clips and piece the story together.

Jo: The setup is the same — you’re an unknown character, reviewing footage of various video calls. But each clip is only one side of a conversation.

Rik: You can see both sides this time, though.

Jo: Well this is what I was going to mention… because in Her Story, you only hear her responses, don’t you?

Rik: Yep, I think so.

Jo: Some of the reviews of Telling Lies on Steam seem to suggest otherwise.

Rik: Oh really?

Jo: Yeah — I only had a cursory glance, but it was a common bugbear, it seems, as if that was the downfall of this game compared with Her Story. But you didn’t hear anyone else speak in Her Story either.

Rik: I mean even if you do, it’s only background. The camera is never facing another person.

Jo: I will say that the one-sidedness of the clips bothered me far less in Her Story than it did in this. Maybe there was something about it that made it seem more prominent?

Rik: Well, at least both sides are available here for you to find. I guess if you never do find the other end of a potentially interesting conversation, it could be frustrating. But trying to do so was a big driving force for me here.

Jo: Yeah, though there are a lot of long pauses and raising of eyebrows to sit through here – maybe that’s the difference.

Rik: There are clips that aren’t much use or of interest on their own, and they can be quite long.

[Note: We didn’t mention it here, but it should also be acknowledged that some of the clips aren’t in the form of one end of a video call and are more like hidden camera footage, featuring multiple characters.]

Jo: I think Her Story clips were much shorter.

Rik: I guess that’s the other change mechanically, you go to the point at which the search term is mentioned, and have to spin forward or back (at a comically slow speed) to see the rest of the clip.

Jo: What did you make of that? I wondered why it was like rewinding a VHS tape.

Rik: It doesn’t make much sense, really, in terms of the tech you are supposedly using. But it works for the game in terms of spooling through the footage. And it takes you straight to wherever your search term is mentioned, because you don’t want to be put at the start of a long clip trying to find it. I guess there could have been a ‘go to start’ option. But I don’t think the point is to watch the full length of all of the clips — you’re meant to be doing detective work.

Jo: Yeah, I think you’re right, though I must admit that during my first play through I did rewind them back to the beginning. I have this issue with all games and it’s not about 100%ing it, more missing a key part of the story by not being thorough. But I guess, when you’re watching an eight-minute video of someone raising their eyebrows and nodding, you know it’s time to move on. From the time/date perspective, I think I was less thorough with this than I was with Her Story, which I pieced together methodically, this time I was just punching in one keyword after another trying to eke out more info.

Rik: As I mentioned, I think trying to find the other side of the conversation is a big driver here. It often brings up new stuff that you didn’t expect, so then you have to put a pin in your original search and go down the new rabbit hole.

Jo: Yeah, I found it a bit overwhelming in that way, because I easily lose my train of thought.

Rik: I used pen/paper again instead of in-game tools. It went a bit haywire with keyword ideas.

Jo: Me too. Just pages of mad scrawl.

Rik: It’s a simple concept but there’s always the temptation for just a few more searches, a few more avenues to go down. I broke my ‘no gaming time too close to bedtime’ rule, just to get a bit further.

Jo: It is a bit addictive in that way.

Rik: As we said with Her Story, it’s well done. You can get a bit stuck but never hopelessly stuck.

Jo: I think this went the other way though, where I just couldn’t search for enough words.

Rik: How do you mean?

Jo: Like you said earlier with falling down a new rabbit hole – I just seemed to be constantly writing down more words to search.

Rik: Yes, and there is more of a ticking time element here I think.

Jo: Which I didn’t realise at first.

Rik: Just occasionally you get a sense of time moving on via the character looking at the screen, as well as the system clock on the laptop.

Jo: And the achievements, if you play on Steam. Even after my second play through, I wasn’t sure what determined the passing of time.

Rik: No, me neither. My second time seemed to be really quick.

Jo: Yeah, less than half the time for me.

 

Nice Smiles

Rik: So, what did you make of the story itself? One of the first clips made me think it was like a dating profile. But it’s actually [main character] David’s plan for his undercover persona.

Jo: I think the very first clip makes it seem that way.

Rik: I spent quite a long time trying to get the other end of that conversation.

Jo: Yeah, same.

Rik: Unfortunately, I had to guess that when David says ‘nice smiles’ the main FBI guy on the other end is asking about what kind of ladies he likes. The search terms for which lead down some other roads… I hadn’t realised the extent to which there would be ‘sexy’ elements to this game.

Jo: David the letchy FBI agent… It did take me a little while to piece together the scenario…

Rik: Most of the lies here are about David being naughty. Some of which is sort of required because of his work.

Jo: At first I thought maybe he was separated from his wife, but then I was like, ‘they seem to still like each other’ and realised he was FBI.

Rik: His wife (Emma) seems quite understanding at first, even about the fact he might have relationships while undercover, although not quite to the extent that he goes to obviously.

Jo: He has problems with women. I think that much became clear to me.

Rik: The main core of the story is that he has to infiltrate this group by hooking up with Ava, a young activist, and that much seems to be mandated by the FBI.

Jo: Yeah, she seems to be the key person of interest, doesn’t she, though I can’t say I ever got to the bottom of why that was.

Rik: Did you get that clip of an [unnamed] character videoing her entering the meeting room? The hippy place where they first meet?

Jo: Jasmine Center?

Rik: Yep — and he’s like, reading a file, ‘will respond well to an older man, who is self-aware’ or something like that?

Jo: Oh yeah. Ok, so it’s literally because she’s likely to fall for David?

Rik: Yeah, that much has all been planned out. His persona is designed to meet that end.

Jo: Letchy older man — tick!

Rik: Watching all that unfold is kind of yuck. He plays all the ‘older boyfriend of teenage girl’ moves.

Jo: Oh yeah, their flirting is a difficult watch. Mind you, David and Emma’s flirting is also hard to watch. David’s conversations with his shrill child, ditto.

Rik: It’s weird, almost as if none of the three personas he adopts is actually him. The one that seems most genuine and appealing is the cover.

Jo: Well, it does seem that way. I wonder if that was the point. The one thing they all have in common is that he seems determined to be some kind of, I dunno, manly hero protector of women.

Rik: He seems to have no chemistry with his wife. And I must admit first time to not being interested in her clips at all. Especially when they try to, er, ‘get sexy’. Thank god the child stops it.

Jo: ‘Hey hon the kid’s in bed, maybe let’s have a sexy video call?’

Rik: Bleugh.

Jo: I was more comfortable watching the cam girl…

Rik: Yes, well, apparently those were my most watched clips first time. Which I don’t think can be correct!

Jo: Hahaha! Yeah, I followed the Ava story first time.

Rik: That’s the main plotline really. It’s a whole ‘spy cops’ story, which I think we discussed in the Sagebrush piece.

Jo: I fell down the protesting rabbit hole about what the group was all about and why the FBI was after them, but then I think I just found out more about David and Ava’s relationship.

Rik: I don’t think there’s that much if you try and use case—related keywords, like [oil company] Prosperen…

Jo: Or Black Kite.

Rik: Yeah. Even the people in the environmental group like Eric and Peter, or the Black Kite narc, Simon, you don’t get too far trying to dig up clips on them.

Jo: Did you get the clip where they’re chatting in some kind of arcade? And they’re playing some kind of shooter?

Rik: ‘How come you’re so good at Virtua Cop?’ ‘Because I’m a virtua cop’ [looks to camera]

Jo: Actual lol! Well, he deffo reloaded too many times, that’s all I’ll say.

Rik: #fake #gaming #guy — I bet the gun wasn’t even plugged in.

Jo: ‘Playing a video game’ acting and ‘drinking coffee’ acting are two of my major pet peeves.

Rik: There are examples of both here!

Jo: If you cannot make it look like the cup has liquid in, then just put some liquid in.

Rik: Hehehehe.

Jo: Watching people slurp from an obviously empty cup or haplessly wave it around and then pretend to drink from it – it really bothers me. It’s a very small thing that’s routinely overlooked. Sure, you can method act, but can you handle a coffee cup in a convincing manner?

 

A fling with the an(a)esthesiologist

Rik: Anyway, you get a sense of how the operation is progressing, but not an in-depth look at the undercover work really.

Jo: Until they have to send someone in to try and get David out, and then you realise it’s not going very well.

Rik: Well I think you get a sense that he’s got a bit overexcited about the whole thing. Like he prefers it to his actual life.

Jo: Do you think he really falls for Ava, or do you think he is just enjoying his pseudo life too much?

Rik: It’s hard to say. It’s something he’s acting out, but he gets too involved, which I imagine happens. Probably he would prefer that life to his FBI life. I guess he does blow up the bridge in the end, just like he was suggesting to the group while undercover, so that would indicate he had some kind of conversion.

Jo: Yeah, that’s what I wondered.

Rik: But then he is pretty much cooked as an FBI guy by that point. Because the cam girl shoots him in the leg.

Jo: There are a few clips where he seems more enthusiastic about the cause than everyone else in the group. And you kind of wonder if he’s doing it to get them caught, but then he goes and blows up the bridge himself.

Rik: I think he is supposed to egg them on so they get caught doing something bad. But that’s another ambiguity. Arguably guys like that enjoy stirring things up, as part of the cop DNA. I bet he enjoyed the fighting at the demonstrations.

Jo: Maybe there’s part of him that is attracted to violence in some weird way?

Rik: Yeah, I think so. These guys that are like a blank slate: tell them to care about something and they’ll do it. And if there’s violence, who cares what side it’s on.

Jo: And of course he shot [Emma’s ex-boyfriend] Paul.

Rik: That plotline didn’t do a lot for me.

Jo: Me neither, but it ties in with his whole persona. He shoots Emma’s boyfriend, he gets Peter sorted out, and then goes to ‘rescue’ [cam girl] Max. Does he blow the bridge (and himself) up after Max shoots him in the leg?

Rik: Yes. He’s limping in the clip. And he says ‘Maxine, I’ll never run a marathon now’ or something similar.

Jo: I think maybe I saw that clip before the one where Max shoots him. In my first play through, I barely watched any of the cam girl videos – but then accidentally got a few towards the end while searching for other things. Do we get to see exactly when things go south with Emma?

Rik: I think there’s a whole thing about long periods with no contact. He misses a few important home things, and before you know it he’s meeting Ava’s parents.

Jo: Also Ava is preggers.

Rik: Emma does have a fling with a guy at the hospital…

Jo: The anaesthesiologist?

Rik: Yeah. I accidentally found out about the baby too soon, because I searched for ‘Tavern’ which is the name of the pub Ava and David agree to meet at during one of their first meetings. Then I got the clip from about a year later of her sitting there crying and talking about the baby.

Jo: I think it was the clip where [handler and player character] Karen bursts in that led me to search for ‘pregnant’.

Rik: I had to really search for that one. I’d established that she’d gone to his apartment and found the conversation between them about it, but not the actual clip of her arriving.

Jo: Ah, see, I didn’t get their conversation until my second go.

Rik: It’s funny how we didn’t both get the same clips. It speaks to how well the game is put together. You’re not just unlocking the same story.

Jo: Yeah, it’s a very complex set up. You’ve got multiple characters, multiple backstories, and interweaving narratives, and then you piece them together through conversation, and how you interpret those conversations sets you off searching for whatever thing you want to find out more about. It’s impressive, the amount of thought that’s gone into it not just having a handle on that many narratives but also how different players might follow each one.

Rik: Yep, like Her Story, but more complicated. And though the limits on search results are slightly contrived and implausible, you accept it.

 

Mike’s web of power

Rik: What did you make of the whole ‘Paul shot by David’ thing? I think we mentioned neither of us were really into the wife/child side of things.

Jo: Er, I was a bit like, ‘oh, why did he do that?’ and also ‘how did he get away with it?’

Rik: I wasn’t sure it was all that necessary to have this dark secret in their past.

Jo: No, it just didn’t quite tie up somehow.

Rik: I guess it fills in the ‘why are these two together’ blank a bit.

Jo: I mean, it was clearly still eating away at her, and she deffo had uncomfortable feelings towards him about it, but then I was like, so why are they still together? One minute she’s missing him and making out like he’s hot stuff but then it’s like ‘WELL YOU BRUTALLY SHOT PAUL’… it just doesn’t seem like the kind of thing you could shelve and continue a relationship with.

Rik: Yeah there are quite a few clips of him missing things and her being annoyed, but it does seem to jump a bit. Perhaps there are some clips neither of us saw.

Jo: Missing thanksgiving and your kid’s school performance is one thing, but shooting a guy and leaving him for dead is another level.

Rik: Well exactly. How did he get away with it? Perhaps it’s all part of [FBI supervisor guy] Mike’s web of power. He can make things go away.

Jo: Yeah, that just got brushed under the carpet somewhere.

Rik: Did you get the clips after David and Emma have separated? Where he’s at that barbecue?

Jo: No, I didn’t see any clips after they broke up. I have to say, their relationship didn’t intrigue me much. The clips I did watch I fast forwarded through anyway.

Rik: Definitely the least interesting of the three stories. With Maxine, I kept hoping to avoid anything too embarrassing. Fortunately David never wants to do any sexy stuff. He’s one of those ‘let’s just talk’ guys.

Jo: I only got interested in her after I accidentally found the clip where she shoots him in the leg at the end of my first play through. And then I was out of time, so that was my focus second time around.

Rik: I think the whole point of the cam girl clips is that David is supposedly ‘real’ with her. Which is, kind of a blank cipher psycho. He spills his guts to her, pays her to talk and not do sexy things, and he wants her to be honest with him. Which obviously she isn’t.

Jo: But he is convinced that she is, and that they have a connection.

Rik: I think because he’s used to convincing people to open up, he has an expectation that he can do the same with Maxine. So when he’s honest and it doesn’t work it’s a bit of a snub.

Jo: You might say it’s like he gets a taste of his own medicine, hmmm?

Rik: Indeed!

Jo: MEDIA STUDIES ANALYSIS!

Rik: I wasn’t surprised to see her cut him off, although I didn’t expect the coda where he tracks her down and gets shot.

Jo: Yeah, me too. I think that’s maybe why I feel like I didn’t quite see everything that unfolded between those two. Did you see the clip with hippy bearded David Duchovny?

Rik: Harry? Yes, he helps David track down Maxine, and get drugs for framing someone (Peter?) in the group. Plus the bomb for the bridge of course.

Jo: Who do you think he is?

Rik: He’s just one of those freelance shady guys they have in America, I think.

Jo: For all your dodgy needs. Again, I didn’t stumble upon him until the very end of my first play through. It was mainly all Ava and David first time.

Rik: The natural instinct for most people will be to follow that ‘main’ story. It’s the most interesting one I think.

Jo: But not for you, heh!

Rik: Well, I thought it was for me but obviously not! It’s quite weird to observe it all unfolding. She thinks she’s being careful, he’s reassuring her that he’s a nice guy really… Those early clips where they talk about music and stuff is really icky.

Jo: It is AWFUL. [Note: for the avoidance of doubt, we mean that it’s done so authentically that we found it uncomfortable to watch, not that the script or performances are bad!] ‘Oooh I sell vinyl’, ‘oooh I like Iggy Pop’.

Rik: There’s a clip where they have phone sex. But the vinyl stuff is probably worse than that.

Jo: For sure.

Rik: ‘I’m an older man and sophisticated…’

Jo: ‘I’m young but like old man stuff…’ BLEUGH!

Rik: Did you find there were moments where you felt like you were on the call yourself, or that you were being recorded?

Jo: As Karen?

Rik: No, just you the player, sitting there on your laptop. Like, there were moments when I thought, I’m here watching conversations looking at my webcam, the footage from which could easily be recorded. And if someone came in it would look like I’m on the other end of a call.

Jo: Um, no I don’t think so.

Rik: Ah ok. Maybe it struck me because I was home alone for most of it!

Jo: Having said that, there were moments – mainly Max’s clips – where it did strike me that anyone watching might think I was video chatting with a cam girl. I was like ‘I hope the window cleaner doesn’t turn up right now’.

Rik: Well quite.

Jo: ‘It’s just a game – no a computer game. She isn’t real, you’ve got to watch all these clips and figure out what story is…’ I can’t imagine trying to explain that to anyone.

Rik: I guess there’s no nudity at least.

Jo: No, but Max’s cleavage does hover right over the subtitles. It was much sexier than I was expecting, put it that way.

Rik: Yes, for me too. Apologies, I had no prior knowledge!

Jo: Also, I did initially keep getting distracted by what other things I’d seen the actors in.

Rik: Prometheus! The O.C.!

Jo: Her from Scrubs Medical School! Who was in The O.C.?

Rik: Logan Marshall-Green. He played Ryan’s brother in Season 2.

Jo: I never got beyond Season 1.

Rik: Ah well, I won’t say what happens.

Jo: Ava [Alexandra Shipp] was in Tick, Tick… Boom! With middle Spider-Man. Which I watched in January, but I just couldn’t quite place her until I got on the imdb.

Rik: She seemed familiar but hadn’t seen anything she’d been in.

Jo: Scrubs girl [Kerry Bishé] had me thrown.

Rik: I’d stopped watching Scrubs by then.

Jo: I don’t think I watched it, but it was one of those things that was on E4 all the time.

Rik: Once they actually all became senior doctors it was harder to take it seriously.

Jo: It also had Dave Franco in.

Rik: And her from Happy Endings [Eliza Coupe].

 

The Significance of Karen

Rik: Were there other things you wanted to mention before we get into summing up?

Jo: Let me consult my notes. Do you think the music was significant?

Rik: I figured it must be but didn’t work out how.

Jo: Sometimes music would chime up and I wondered if that was when you’d uncovered something. Also, the cat jumping on the laptop?

Rik: That’s just to signal time moving on I think? Plus it messes your desktop up.

Jo: I did think, going back to being able to see yourself in the reflection… Once you found out Ava was pregnant I was a bit like ‘ugh, I hope you’re not the daughter’ but then I was like, nah they wouldn’t go there again. I was quite surprised when you turned out to be Karen. But I still can’t say I fully understand the significance of her.

Rik: I was slightly puzzled by her motivations.

Jo: Yeah, so she’s obviously another agent on the case, but not undercover. Until Mike sends her in to pull rogue David out.

Rik: She’s like a field supervisor. And seems to be into the lifestyle to a certain extent. I wonder what made her want to leak the videos. She can’t feel sorry for David?

Jo: That’s what I wondered.

Rik: Or, more likely, maybe she feels like Mike is abusing his power.

Jo: But she’s pro-Mike in that clip?

Rik: Well, she says he’s the kingmaker and that she has to do what he says. Maybe she changes her mind after this case.

Jo: Did you continue searching for videos after it had ended, and you read the summary report etc.?

Rik: Not the first time. I figured I’d start again if I wanted to look for more clips, and maybe get a different ending and report.

Jo: Yeah, I might have another look now I’ve finished the second time. I did wonder if some of the date/time stamps weren’t quite right.

Rik: How do you mean? I got mixed up with the US month/day/year, instead of day/month/year.

Jo: There was one clip, where I’m sure I found both sides of the conversation, but they had different dates. It’s the one where he says to Max they have something real, and then she walks the camera around the set. I wondered if it was maybe because they’re in different time zones? But that would make it much too complicated.

Rik: Yeah, I thought it was down to different time zones.

Jo: Any further thoughts?

Rik: Did you feel it all came together in the end?

Jo: Yes and no. I feel like I have some questions — there are some gaps for me, even in the main overarching narrative. But also, I feel like it covered such a huge amount, so some things have to be left unanswered/ambiguous.

Rik: Like what?

Jo: Like, what the hell is David’s deal?

Rik: I think that’s what FBI guys are like that do this kind of work. They don’t have a deal.

Jo: Why did he blow himself up in the end? What was the situation with the FBI? What was Karen’s involvement? How powerful was Mike and why did he wipe his knife midway through cutting his steak only to resume cutting it again? Why were the protest group of such great concern to the FBI (they seemed pretty small fry to me)?

Rik: One take would be: the feds concern themselves with things that aren’t that important, then train up psychos to live double lives, and do loads of unethical things in service of… what? David either gets in too deep or actually prefers his cover life. Once he gets extracted and then shot he’s seen as a blunt instrument, and has destroyed his personal life. I’m not sure there’s a ‘message’ overall, except about the ethics of spy cops.

Jo: I seem to have watched so many things revolving around this theme of the FBI (watching Ozark atm). We had similar conversations over Virginia I think and, as you mentioned, with Sagebrush too. Weirdly, it kind of reminds me of that documentary we watched about Jim Carrey when he did Man on the Moon [Jim & Andy: The Great Beyond]?

Rik: Oh really?

Jo: He got so involved being Andy Kaufman, then he was sort of depressed going back to being Jim Carrey.

Rik: He is just a Hollywood actor though?

Jo: Oh yeah, I just mean, you know from a psychological perspective. And the parallels between preferring a different personality to your own.

Rik: Ah, ok.

Jo: I think overall I enjoyed Telling Lies, but I would say possibly not as much as Her Story.

Rik: I think maybe I prefer Telling Lies. Definitely a high recommendation from me. But not just because there’s sexy bits instead of an acoustic guitar.

Jo: Hahaha!

Rik: I just felt it had more layers to it, and it built on the successful concept established by Her Story.

Jo: I like it a lot. I did find it a bit overwhelming, but I think that’s just how my brain works. I felt a bit more invested with Her Story from the off, whereas Telling Lies had to build quite a bit of groundwork first.

Rik: Would you recommend?

Jo: Yeah, definitely. Maybe it took me a while to warm up to. I think I should have had a straight run at my first play through, rather than breaking it up over a few different days/weeks. I enjoyed it, and would recommend it. But I think Her Story just pipped it to the post for me.

Rik: I enjoyed the game, and the discussion, as always. Your choice next!

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Telling Lies is available on Steam and GOG for around £15, although when featured in sales it may be purchased for £6.19 or less.