Buy Contradiction - the all-video murder mystery adventure

Great acting and location. Very immersive. The ending was a bit meh though.
I would definately play the sequel.
9/10

Although they are not our typical style of game, my partner and I occasionally enjoy playing point and clicks together. I saw Contradiction and managed to convince her, with a bit of hesitation, that we should give it a shot. We had a lot of fun and laughs with it.

Contradiction: Spot the Liar, is a point and click murder mystery game that revolves around finding clues, spotting lies and contradictions in the characters responses, ringing the Chief, and, most importantly, watching loads of FMV scenes where the characters are portrayed by flesh and blood actors. The story revolves around a the death of Kate Vine, a student of a pretty dodgy libertarian Ayn Rand style business school set in a small English hamlet.

What really makes the game is the acting. In particular, Rupert Booth brilliantly plays Jenks up to 11 in terms of his mannerisms, and comes across as a mashup of Richard 0'Brien and David Tennant. Every sign of the horns he pulls was a source of hilarity, and although it was a little cheesy, it is also incredibly endearing. Another special mention has to go to Paul Darrow, who does a wonderfully sinister and creepy portrayal as Paul Ryan. All the other actors do a great job with their respective characters but it's these two that, for me, stand out the most.

The gameplay of finding clues and spotting contradictions, for the most part, is very solid. There are a few times where both of us felt like the contradictions were a bit of stretch, but for the most part they sit in the virtuous mean of not being too obvious and requiring some thought, while also not being a complete stretch of the meaning of the term. It's difficult to get these things right, and the few times where the game was a bit obnoxious in this regard is totally forgivable and forgettable.

POTENTIAL SPOILER BELOW

Another weaker part of the game is the rather abrupt ending. I certainly felt that we were leading up to uncovering some big conspiracy, but that never really came to pass. So a little lack of catharsis here, but again, nothing unforgivable.

Overall, we loved the game, and would highly recommend it, although I do feel like this is probably the kind of game where you get the most out of it playing with other people. I would also love to play a sequel should it ever come to pass, and would be happy to donate to any kickstarter should the need arise.

This is a great game. The story was interesting and the acting was superb. This is one of the very few games that I actually played to completion, with 100% achievements. Definitely one of my top 10 Steam games of all time.

When is the sequel coming out?

A hidden gem. A must-own for fans of detective games.

Me likey, me want to blay 2nd part.

I decided to buy the game after seeing the first two episodes of Jesse Cox & Dodger's playthrough of it, and it's an interesting game if perhaps leaving a lot of decision making out of the equation at times (such as non-interactive cutscenes that could have been timed puzzles/QTEs) and you can't accuse/arrest the wrong person, which I add only for completion as that may or may not be important to you as a player.

I appreciate the HD video, but at times not the acting which can range from being (unintentionally?) comical (especially the player character Inspector Jenks, who also perhaps got his dress sense cues from McCloud rather than Morse, which I find to be diverting) and then the acting being ineffectua throughl to playing the scenes straight. The story is okay, but could have been solved almost immediately with the all-important clue being blatantly obvious and yet the option to compare and contrast the statements given yielded no results. Not until the final in-game hour anyway.

Then there are the elements of a paranormal/horror plot, which sadly was only touched upon and could have made this much more of a game. More than likely the budget constraints put paid to developing that plot, but at least there were little touches in the form of short scenes informing the player of potential events (one I recall being optional, that being the scene in the Reading Room where you're told to go away because "we're about to start a session").

As it stands, I achieved a 96% completion rate by the end of the game. This says to me that there is a way to solve another murder mystery that crops up, but there isn't any warning box/prompt before selecting the option that ends the game.

You cannot fail to get the murderer of the student that Inspector Jenks is investigating the death of, which for me makes the whole experience feel more like a guided tour that you unlock pieces of if you compare the right choices, but that's it. If Contradiction had much more of a budget? Then we could have had a potential Tex Murphy-esque game to play, but right now I can only recommend this to those who don't want to wait for the aforementioned (or any other) Let's Play to be completed or as a party game given that £6.99 is a fair enough price and I got some enjoyment out of it with about 9 hours of play.

All said and done though, there is potential here and I would like to see the developer take another stab at making a detective adventure game.

ADDITIONAL: This, as per the game's Steam store page, is perhaps best played with two or more people as opposed to solo like I did. In that case, I'd say it would play out like a Cluedo-esque murder mystery evening. Approaching Contradiction in this manner would, in my view, override any qualms about the acting and improve the experience overall.

There are some glitches in the form of typos ("North Lane" instead of "North Road" when outside the pub) and also in the conversation with Rebecca (her name is sometimes spelled as "Rbecca" and a summary statement of hers that should start with "Usually" has been misspelled as "Ususally", I've preserved the casing for the developer to quickly get to the problem); Steam integration isn't perfect (the Steam overlay and the taking of screenshots isn't possible at this time); when you get to the end of the credits, the "resume" button is available and Jenks acts as though the conversation with the person-in-question ended normally, however the final end credit text is still overlaid on the screen and prevents access to the game's UI (ALT+F4 to the rescue at that point). Given the developer is very quick at updating (again, as per the game's Steam store page), I expect all these will be fixed soon enough.

I vaguely recall other typos being present, but I can't recall them right now. To the developer, be assured I mean no disrespect and I have added all this to help you/yourselves in refining your game. :)

Furthermore, I've tidied up my own review for the purposes of clarity. :)

Best FMV adventure game in a long time, great actors and plot.

All hail the return of the FMV mystery. Some of the contradictions are a bit of a stretch, but Janks acting being over-the top and everyone else playing it straight was more than entertaining enough to make up for the brief moments of frustration.

Also.... Jesse And dodger brought me here.... I know it's sad

Rise and Fall

If you're old enough to have been gaming in the 90's you might remember the emergence (and sad demise) of the FMV sub genre.
Games like Gabriel Knight, Phantasmagoria and the Tex Murphy titles started to embrace Full Motion Video footage.
Initially it was viewed as a novelty, real actors playing out the narrative in all the interlaced video glory the 90's could muster.
FMV seemed liked a perfect fit for cut scenes and narrative heavy titles and I loved it!
Even some real "Hollywood" actors were seduced by the rise of the interactive movie, with the likes of Mark "Skywalker" Hamil heading up the Wing Commander games and Christopher "Pulp Fiction" Walken starring in the 1996 FMV thriller "Ripper"


RIP FMV

Unfortunately, my love for all things FMV wasn't shared by my peers, I was in the minority and the FMV trend had almost died away completely by the end of the 90's.
This was partly due to the technological limitations of the time.
The video was often interlaced or blocky, the frame rates were poor and the amount of space required by the footage used up a huge amount of CD-Rom storage, the game Ripper I mentioned earlier was spread across 6 CD's!

Many FMV games also suffered from cheesy writing and equally bad acting.
"Phoned in" performances were the norm and as such a stigma began to emerge in the media around the whole "interactive movie" genre.
This stigma probably had as much to do with the death of the genre as the technical limitations of the 90's, but whatever the reason, the interactive movie died, I mourned its passing and moved on, but now I've discovered a game which has rekindled my interest, a new, modern FMV experience in all its interactive movie gaming glory.


The Stage

Contradiction: Spot the Liar! to give it its full (and unnecessarily long title) is a "whodunnit" detective adventure set in the sleepy little English village of Edenton.

Edenton isn't just a stage for the players either, its a character in its own right.
From the village pub to the surrounding woodland, all the locations are beautifully realised and tie together to create a charming and peaceful setting, you'll even see the odd Union Jack fluttering in the breeze.
This rural tranquillity gives Edenton a charm of its own, it feels like a real location that you'd find if you drove out into the green and pleasant land that is the English countryside.
It's this tranquil charm which makes the recent events in Edenton all the more shocking.

There's been a suspicious death in the village, a young woman, Kate Vine, has drowned but was it suicide? a terrible accident? or something more sinister?
You've got one night to find out, let the investigations begin!


The Players

You play as Detective Inspector Jenks, an interestingly likeable character with a compelling interview technique which is sure to make you smile, he's also somewhat of a kleptomaniac and has the added side effect of making me want to start wearing a hat.

As you explore the village you'll come across some equally interesting locals, friends and acquaintances of Kate's all getting on with their lives, each with their own personalities, view of events and secrets to hide.
I can't overstate how well written these characters are, without exception everyone you come across feels like a fleshed out and fully realised person, from the landlady at the village pub to the father and son team who run "Atlas" an exclusive business training course which seems to be popular with the local students, they're all engaging and make each interview a pleasure to play through.


One Week Later...

Jenks arrives in the village of Edenton one week after Kate Vines death, it's a Friday evening, the locals are going about their business and it's your job to snoop through their things and interview them regarding the death.

Everything in this game is presented through video footage, from the navigation of the village through to the interviews themselves, but more on that later.

Movement around the village is a simple, go left, go right affair, each location has its own video loop, there are no static screens here, Edenton is a living, breathing village.
Stand by the lakeside and waves will ripple in the light whilst branches move and creak in the wind, the level of immersion this creates is undeniably impressive.


The Questions

You'll find yourself searching through locations, finding clues and interviewing the locals.
These interviews are the meat of the game, initially you'll only have a couple of "conversation pieces" to enquire about, the dead girl, Kate Vine and her driving license which was discovered some distance away from her body.
Questioning the residents of Edenton quickly opens up your investigative options as you uncover more information about events leading up to Kate's death and "acquire" items to ask about from your inevitable snooping.


The Play

It's not just a case of ask everyone about everything you discover either, that's just part of it.
You actually need to listen to what people say,

Who's lying?
Who's telling the truth?

It's listening out for contradictions in characters answers that will help reveal this information.


The Lies

The actual mechanic of spotting these contradictions is well implemented too.
As you question a person, notes of their relevant answers are recorded in your journal.
You can go through these notes and if you spot two that contradict each other you can question the person further regarding the holes in their story.

Why did they lie?
What are they hiding?


The Lost

This game is by no means easy either, you're not going to breeze straight through the story without actually thinking about what people have told you and going through your notes.
Having said that, there is a hint system if you find yourself stuck at a dead end.
The hints are given by going to the phone box in the village (Jenks is an old school kind of guy and doesn't seem to have a mobile) and calling the police chief who will offer an insight to help get you back on track.
If these hints aren't enough there's always the old faithful option of just plain cheating too, but try and avoid it if you can, the satisfaction of catching someone in a lie is what this game is all about.


I Spy

One thing I wasn't keen on with this game was the snooping investigation mechanic.
When you reach a scene with something interesting for you to discover a giant magnifying glass icon appears in the bottom right corner of the screen.
Click on it and Jenks will investigate whatever it is that he has spotted at that location.
It works fine but I would have enjoyed a little more subtlety here.

This mechanic is likely a throwback to the titles mobile gaming routes but as a PC gamer the ability to scan your mouse over a location to discover something for yourself would have been more rewarding.

I'm just being picky though, this didn't tarnish my enjoyment of the game, it's a just a change that would have added something to what otherwise was an excellent experience.


HDTV

Visually this game is hard to fault with high quality full motion video throughout.
This is an FMV title with the production values of a primetime TV show.
From the camera angles to the sets themselves, everything works to draw you into what feels like a real place populated by real people.
The sound is equally impressive, with an excellently appropriate musical score to accompany the ambient sounds found at each location.
The voice recording itself is generally of a high quality, occasionally you'll... [snip]


...You can find the full review (and others) HERE

Oh was this an experience to play. It was incredible and I was hooked from the start. Not many games can have me playing for 3 hours running and have me feeling like i've only been playing for about half an hour.

I feel like there isn't a whole lot I can say about this game without spoiling the story to readers so i'm going to structure this review into a few smaller sections explaining the main premise of the game and linking in my opinions/experience.

Gameplay
Contradiction is an FMV style game. I'll admit though I have never before played an FMV game. I wasn't around during the FMV craze that I heard about. So I am not sure what typical gameplay is like in them type of games. But I can explain how gameplay functions in Contradiction.

You play as a detective. You are investigating the death of a character named Kate Vine. You do this by exploring the small village and finding the clues along the way. All areas that you explore are real areas and nothing is animated. The clues that you find can be used to interogate other characters that you meet accross the way. After asking all the questions to people your goal is to spot who is lieing. You have to put two responses together that disagree with each other and then interogate the person more about this Contradiction.

The game is an investigatory experience. It could be compared to the likes of L.A NOIRE or Sherlock Holmes. But Contradiction decides to strip it's core mechanics down to the basics. They decide to focus on the questioning mechanic. The responses are well thought out and it is very enjoyable to listen to what the characters have to say. You often find yourself linking replies that you got right at the start of the game to ones that were said very late in the game. This means you need to have a good memory or else you could find yourself having to look through pages of replies. Although boy is it satisfying when you finally find a contradiction amongst all of the replies.

The UI
Now this game is controlled entirely with the keyboard. The UI is key to making sure the experience is fun. It does this well to an extent. The initial controls the game gives you are horrible. You probably want to rebind them to more appropriate keys as soon as you start playing. Although even navigating the controls screen isn't great. There is no way that I could see to just rebind one single key. You have to go through the entire list and rebind each key instead of just picking one. What I would like to see is the introduction of mouse control, even if it was just across the main menu. It would definitely make the experience a bit better.

Then you have the map. Initially it is kinda confusing to use. You have 2 choices of how to explore. You can use the map and go to a location straight away using that. But you can only use the keyboard to control it again. Originally I didn't realize you could use the map for movement because I was trying to use the mouse to click on the location. But once you realize that you can then it is a much better form of movement. The second way of navigation is through the arrow keys. You get given a choice of places to go to next from your current location. The problem with this is that the game seems to confusingly decide to change orientation. This means you can't just spam up for example to keep going in that direction. You need to keep an eye on what direction orientation the world has randomly decided to go to. This factor confused me for quite a while and made me go in the wrong direction numerous times. But I did get used to it in the end.

The Characters
So each character is played by a real life person including the person you play as. The character development throughout the game is great. Your really do get to know the characters which is key in an investigatory game where your main focus is to spot the criminal. Some of the acting is vastly exagorated, especially Jenks(Your own character). But this is OK I think because it makes sure you don't miss anything but sometimes it is a little bit cringeworthy.

Some characters in contradiction I felt were amazing actors and definitely gave their characters a personalilty. To name a few the characters of Ryan, James and Simon were played excelently and I want to take the time to praise their actors. Obviously the rest of the other actors were also great as well. But there were some moments were I felt the acting was kinda bad. I have to wonder if it was the bad dialog that the script writers had given them that made these moments cringeworthy. But the majority of the dialog and acting was amazing and I definitely enjoyed it.

Summary
So would I recommend Contradiction. YES, YES, Oh boy yes. It was an incredible experience the likes of which I personally havn't seen before. If you love detective games this is definitely the game for you. It sees the detective experience from a different perspective that isn't usually focused on in games. The game ends gearing up for a sequel. But they need peoples support on this game if they are to make another game. I really hope this game succeeds because I would love to play another game of this and experience some more backstory behind the characters. I would definitely recommend this game to anyone. Especially at the very reasonable price point of £6.99. It is a bargain for how much fun you get out of it. It took me 8 hours to complete which is well worth the price.

TheIronicGamers rating system

• Don't ever buy this game.
  
• Maybe consider it on a sale.
  
• An average game.
  
• A good game that should definitely be considered.
  
• A must play!

Disclaimer: I was given a early press key by the developer to make this review.