Telling Lies

I was on the fence about buying Telling Lies for ages, having loved Her Story and Immortality, but seeing very mixed reviews for this one. In the end I wound up really enjoying it, but I almost refunded it in the first few minutes due to the terrible playback controls (or lack thereof) that immediately drove me insane. Fortunately I was saved by a mod that actually gives you the ability to go to the start/end of a clip as well as going 2 or 10 seconds backwards/forwards. It saved the game for me. Telling Lies was my least favourite of the three games by Sam Barlow, but I still really liked it in the end and would definitely recommend it if you liked the other ones. Here's a handy link to the mod that saves the game:

Recommended for eclectic game players. This is a unique take on a video game. Some people will find it too slow or boring if they don't get what the developers were after in what you are supposed to DO in the game.
Recommendation: Read the instruction PDF in the database file (in game). It clarifies what you can to do to advance in the game. I found this a little later in playing, and it sort of helped me to get the premise a bit better. This is NOT a spoiler, as it is just a pointer to guide the new player at the start of the game.
I like spy games, and I like detective novels, and this game sort of gets into this arena in a nice, understated way. There is depth here, and that makes it more interesting, and provides realism. A lot of material is fluff, on purpose, because that is a part of being a detective: Separate the wheat from the chaff. It works, though I admit this is not for people who want a more action-oriented experience.
You basically search on key terms and watch one side of video conversations between two people, and sometimes you are watching hidden camera video of a group interaction. You can take notes directly in the game interface, which is a really nice feature. At first, you just come across some random stuff, but as you listen and catch different pieces of information, you can follow up on it by searching the database of video clip metadata. It's really well done.
Some have criticized the mechanics of having to manually rewind videos, and I guess this is valid. A start from beginning button would have been a nice touch, but I suspect the devs saw that as a massive shortcut. It could get tedious, but I was not that bothered by it. I think the search feature was meant to get you directly to the information you were seeking and perhaps saving you time.
I conditionally recommend this game to those who like story rich experiences. This plays a lot like an interactive movie. I was thoroughly engaged and felt the acting was incredible, especially Logan Marshall-Green. His David was deep.

This is a double down on what made "Her Story" unique, and it ends, very weirdly, being a modern day Chantal Akerman's "Jeanne Dielman" with a thin layer of metanarrative. It holds up most of the time because of the amazing, incredible work of Logan Marshall-Green who does absolute magic with the character, but mostly it is a hardcore intellectual exercise that I don't know if it was intentional or not. If it is fun or not is up for debate.

I would highly recommend this game if you aren't expecting a full gaming experience. You don't PLAY this game in the literal meaning of the word. Imagine picking a thriller movie, dividing it into many pieces and giving it to you. You would have to go looking for a way to put it back together to find out what's going on.
This game is just an interface that shows you tons of clips that you have to discover with keywords to connect the whole story and discover the real plot and the relationships between the different characters.
If you like puzzles, logic games and especially detective and investigative stuff, it's well worth it.

It's pretty much the same formula of "Her Story", with a way bigger budget: lots of actors, locations etc. But a little less immersive, because this time you play as one of the characters that actually appear on the screen. The main difference is that the videos are not independent, but come in pairs and you have to watch both of them to get the whole conversation.
If I have to shine a light on something here, it's the cast: everyone is really good. The overall plot is not that amazing and it doesn't take long for you to realize what's going on and getting to the end _ but if, like me, you're a completist, you'll spend most of the time filling the blanks with non essential, but interesting details. The ending is worse than its predecessor's.
I enjoyed it a lot. It's fun to experience a story told in this highly nonlinear way. Pity that the beginning is always the most interesting part.

It's true that these type of games aren't suitable to anyone.
But Those people, who are good at story writing and narrating, is suitable for it.
"Telling lies" is a mind puzzle game. You just have to get the pieces, to unlock more clues about the person's past and make decisions.
You're your own Judge, see their past and find some shocking secrets.

Overall I enjoyed playing the game and finding the pieces of the story. There were a few things that were minor annoyances while playing the game: Some of the bookmark mechanics don't work properly, and the other thing is that it's kind of weird staring at someone in silence while they are being responded to via voice chat (I didn't find out you could fast-forward at first), like I get it and why it needs to be there, but it was weird. Once I found out about the fast-forward button it definitely helped so that's on me I suppose. There's a character in the game that's in a band and you can come across them playing a song and it is actually a pretty cool song.