Contradiction - Spot the Liar! (2015) (PC) (Baggy Cat Ltd)
0Veteran video game composer Tim Follin's new Kickstarter-funded game Contradiction is an ambitious and intricately plotted Full Motion Video adventure which offers hours of entertaining content for a very reasonable price. There are several glaring design issues to wrestle with - and the Steam release being a really clumsy iPad-to-PC port certainly doesn't help - but that anything as lengthy and ambitious as this was designed on a production budget of a paltry £6.000 (less than many cheap 30 second commercials cost to make, according to the developer) is impressive to say the least.
As far as adventure games go, Contradiction takes the LA Noire approach by focusing on interrogations with suspects and keeping the puzzle item inventory juggling to a minimum. As the title suggests, the key gameplay element is to spot contradictions in the various statements made by the interviewees. Unfortunalety, the implementation is spotty to say the least and there are many situations in which the exceedingly linear game arbitrarily refuses to let the player call out obvious inconsistencies until he or she has progressed further into the story. Also, wading through the rapidly accumulating mountain of irrelevant information becomes a chore and the gameplay easily degenerates into asking everyone about everything (while also trying to contradict any statement with any other statement) without much thought or strategy. A more methodical playstyle does reap its rewards, however, as finding contradictions by listening intently and going through the statements carefully leads to some very satisfying "Gotcha!" moments.
The acting is a bit of an acquired taste and there's certainly a lack of consistency between the hammier performances and the more naturalistic ones, but ultimately I felt the story encompassed enough campy over-the-top elements to excuse some dedicated scenery chewing (by actors Rupert Booth, John Guilor and renowned thespian Paul Darrow in particular). As always with FMV, seeing real people in a video game adds something which 3D graphics can never replicate - and although Sam Barlow's Her Story was a more clever and innovative take on the genre I'm actually having more fun playing Contradiction. Despite its small cast of characters, the game's intentionally convoluted script probably includes more dialogue (and thus also video content) than some of the big budget adventure games which pionereed this subgenre in the 1990s.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/373390/