An NSA database sits on a stolen hard drive, and you’re searching through it. The database contains recordings of video calls between four people whose lives are connected in ways that aren’t immediately clear. Unlike Her Story’s single interview subject, Telling Lies gives you multiple perspectives on the same events, but with a crucial limitation: you can only see one side of each call at a time. Watching a man speak into his laptop camera, you can guess what the other person is saying from his reactions, but you won’t know for sure until you find the other side of the conversation.
Sam Barlow’s follow-up to Her Story scales up every aspect of the original. More characters, longer videos, a broader story spanning years instead of days, and higher production values with recognizable actors. The community response acknowledged the ambition while debating whether bigger was better. On mobile, the database-searching interface remains compelling, but the increased scope means more time searching and less of the tight revelatory rhythm that made Her Story so addictive.
Watching Both Sides of the Screen
The one-sided call mechanic is Telling Lies’ signature innovation. Seeing only half of a conversation forces you to imagine the other half, and when you eventually find the matching clip, the gap between your assumptions and reality creates narrative surprises that traditional storytelling can’t produce. A conversation that seems benign from one perspective becomes devastating from another, and the game exploits this asymmetry masterfully.
The four lead performances anchor the experience with genuine emotional depth. Each actor brings distinct physicality and vocal patterns to their character, and the video call format demands a naturalism that feels closer to documentary footage than scripted performance. The intimacy of watching someone speak directly into a camera creates a voyeuristic discomfort that reinforces the game’s surveillance themes.
The scope of the narrative is genuinely impressive. The story spans approximately two years and touches on undercover operations, personal betrayal, political activism, and domestic intimacy. The connections between characters reveal themselves gradually, and major revelations recontextualize earlier clips in ways that reward deep engagement.
The search system retains the core satisfaction of Her Story. Typing a keyword and discovering new clips that deepen or complicate your understanding creates the same investigative pleasure. The database is significantly larger, which means more potential paths of discovery and more opportunities for that electric moment when a search term unlocks something unexpected.
Lost in the Database
The increased scale creates navigation problems that Her Story avoided. With hundreds of clips across four characters, keeping track of what you’ve seen and what you’re looking for becomes a genuine challenge. The game provides a basic bookmarking system, but it’s insufficient for managing the volume of information. Players who don’t take external notes may find themselves lost.
The pacing suffers from the longer video clips. Her Story’s snippets were brief enough that even unsuccessful searches felt productive. Telling Lies includes clips that run several minutes, and watching a lengthy conversation that doesn’t contain useful information can feel like wasted time. The ratio of searching to finding shifts unfavorably compared to the tighter original.
The story’s ambition occasionally exceeds its clarity. The multiple character threads, time jumps, and thematic layers create a narrative that can feel muddled rather than complex. Some players finish the game uncertain about fundamental plot points, and not in the productively ambiguous way that Her Story achieved. The difference is that Her Story’s mystery had clear boundaries, while Telling Lies’ boundaries are harder to discern.
The framing device, the laptop you’re using to search the database, adds a meta-narrative layer that divides opinion. Reflections in the screen and contextual details about the person doing the searching introduce a parallel story that some players find compelling and others find distracting from the main investigation.
Surveillance and the Stories We Tell Ourselves
Telling Lies finds its deepest resonance in the gap between how people present themselves and who they actually are. Every video call in the game is a performance, someone showing a specific version of themselves to a specific audience. The surveillance framing means you see past those performances, watching people lie to each other and to themselves. The game asks uncomfortable questions about whether truly knowing someone is possible, or whether every relationship is built on the stories we choose to tell.
Should You Play Telling Lies on Mobile?
Fans of Her Story who want a more expansive version of that experience should try this, understanding that bigger isn’t always better. The mobile format suits the database interface naturally. Players who found Her Story’s ambiguity frustrating should know that Telling Lies is even more opaque. Those who enjoy surveillance thrillers and are willing to invest significant time in investigation will find the richest FMV game currently available. Keep a notebook handy.
The Verdict on Telling Lies
Telling Lies demonstrates both the potential and the limits of scaling up an innovative formula. The one-sided call mechanic creates genuinely unique narrative experiences, and the performances are strong enough to sustain hours of investigation. But the increased scope introduces navigation challenges, pacing issues, and narrative complexity that sometimes works against engagement rather than for it. Her Story was a revelation because it felt like discovering something hidden. Telling Lies sometimes feels like searching through something sprawling. The best moments are as good as anything in the genre. Getting to them requires more patience than the original ever asked for.