izigame.me

Payback dyed in black


I liked the rambling phrasing ("reviews") and the feedback from the players upon attempting this interactive film, which all served as advertising for She Sees Red. Is it really worthwhile watching and playing? Above all, is it true that what is stated about the film was well performed and carried out? I’ll be brief about what the player expects.

The film is brief, and I’m glad to provide the synthetic preamble of how it starts out. The story commences with a significant decision, namely whether to watch the movie or not. When we accept, the scene takes place at the Paradise nightclub, where a person is murdered. We then see a person fastened by one hand to the shelf (Eva Anikey). Next, the owner of the place (Boris Polunin) show up and is intercepted by two alleged agents. Without saying their names, she (Veronika Plyashkevich) shows her ID card, indicating that there was a homicide.

The follow-up interaction happens, which leads to a parallel scene where there is the body of someone. While the killer is going inside, at the same time, the agents are following his leads and ushering the owner of the place with them. In this way, the story develops through a series of scenes (branches and variations). Everything hinges on the player-spectator’s choices; through them, it’ll conclude with some contingent ending.


A night of gibberish at the club


The game's story type is a thriller, so its essence is suspense, ambivalence and ambiguity. If the intention of its narrative is to provide red herrings to conceal the real story, it has only partial succeeded. The story goes on without any preambles and sporadically, akin to any crime committed at night. Although the game’s plot touches on gang-related themes, I assure you that it isn’t the detective noir genre. It’s devoid of the aura that engulfs us into the crime scene. This is a superficial story, where the theme is revenge. The protagonists dress up as detectives, yet their retribution will ambiguously rely on what the player chooses. They won’t be revealed the underlying causes immediately, but rather until a conclusion is drawn.

The narrative purpose of being ambivalent is realized with that absence of context and without fully understanding the characters' motives at the beginning. But it stumbles because it intends to conclude the story in response to the choices made without adequately developing the entire plot. Beyond that, the topic isn’t first-rate, although I acknowledge that there’s an attempt to tell it in a different form. The drama is framed by two perspectives, the murderer and the detective, who are presented juxtaposed with the intention of laying a thread for the player to become involve in. Depending on the path chosen, this will be noticeable. Alternate or revealing scenes appear.

The story unravels as it’s replayed. Scenes unfold to expand the overall picture a little. Given that the game is actually an interactive movie (FMV), the medium-length format with fold-out scenes was nevertheless adopted. The cameras shots are adequate, they weren’t filmed by a cameraman with wobbly hands. There was a modest budget for the locations and costumes, as well as some scenes (i.e. flashbacks). In each frame, it features the basic colour palette, off lighting and miscellaneous dramatic scenes. However, it does serve as an extra scene lacking any meaningful elements to the plot. Even the film could have been gibberish experimental. It's almost complete, but I’m still not enthralled by the way the conclusions are laid out.


Stick to the plan


The game involves making a choice and taking a different direction. Scenes are discovered that evanescently expose the context. The player must get the bad endings in order to distinguish what’s going on. The scenes express whether the vendetta was acted on or not. For this, it’s essential to look at the script. It and the cast suggest, inappropriately, a scene a detective motif is taking place. But if we pay attention, what the agents (detectives) say is unworkable. I’m not sure if there was any sense of humour in it, but the dialogues were overblown and inadequately constructed. I’m uncertain whether the script is attempting to ridicule the player and isn’t paying attention, or if it has comically pretended to be a character within another character. I’m not persuaded by the performances, nor by their pretended role of being detectives to commit their acts. When I glanced at them, I remarked to myself, something is wrong.

As you play, the plot notifies you that there’s a foolproof plan in progress. A performance is necessarily subordinated to the story; and the theme is for the plot. However, if it weren't for a flawed script, the actors would give a more convincing performance. I don't know how the plan didn't fail when the characters didn’t realize their bad overacting. Everything happens in one place; however, some hyperboles and exaggerations in the performances don’t benefit much either in the drama or in the understanding of the plot. There are talented and intriguing visages, but they don’t grandly depict what the scene needs to do. Improvisation helps a lot to fill gaps without reverting to naivety. There exists a common thread, albeit with a limited budget, simply the project must be compelling and effortful to be able to create a captivating story and not just simplistic storytelling.

I hardly recommend it because it’s a medium-length film from an indie developer. They have a lot to learn and work to do. It’s a proposal that combines film and games. If you don't want to discover all the scenes, the game-movie has a duration of 30 minutes or so. The film lacks a unique identity. Everything the description in the store says, almost describes what the game is. It has a coldness to it, but at the same time it lacks narrative depth. Get it as part of the FMV bundle, because it’s another one of the bunch.


Recommendation: 6/10