Contradiction: Spot the Liar! (2015)

Contradiction is clumsy and boring. I, however, feel like there's something here that if finessed could become a better product. I like experiences like Her Story where you pick through testimony but the way Contradiction presents this is a total slog, especially by the end of the game. You ask people about evidence you collect or hear, and then pick through their testimony to find contradictions. This often leads to you talking to 6 or so people over and over, poking at their text like a bored, manic book editor. The first 1/3 of the game was fine, but the loop wears its welcome out by then and only gets harder as evidence mounts. There's a lot to pore through.

It falls into the trappings that many adventure games do, also, where you know exactly what do do, but can't figure out the game designer's thought process in getting there. Yes, game, I know I need to talk to Character A about Evidence B, but I haven't found the exact combination of contradictions that trigger the game to move forward. You'll find yourself solving contradictions before you are able to present them, too. You'll build a cache of information and once you break that bottleneck you'll cruise through encounters because you've heard everything a thousand times. Then you'll hit another roadblock and stare at the same text for 15 minutes.

I found myself frustrated with the writing, because they drop a not-so-subtle visual queue about who might be responsible for the murder (or at least know about it) about 20 minutes into the game. I spent the rest of the game going "WHEN ARE THEY GOING TO TALK ABOUT _________?!?!?" And then, at the absolute end of the game, the thing I noticed at the beginning was exposed as if it were some mad twist. Yeah, man, I noticed that hours ago. Frustratingly, the game's conclusion only answers the main question of "Who killed Kate Vine?" and ignores the several other, arguably more interesting, subplots you uncover throughout like demonic possession, Satan worship, and doors that strangely open by themselves.

The film quality is OK. The "nighttime" scenes are just the same as the daytime scenes with blue color correction. It looks a little goofy. The sound varies wildly, and I suggest you put subtitles on. The sound was recorded on location and not with lavaliere mics. Some conversations sound fine, while others (Simon in the kitchen, for example) have a pronounced echo which makes the whole thing feel amateurish. The acting quality varies a bit, with Inspector Jenks being a bit of a ham. Ryan Rand who acts like a man who knows how to act acting like a man who is trying to act which is, actually, in-character though possibly unintentionally. Paul Rand, played by Paul Darrow, is a clear leader in acting quality. He's got a good resume and, unfortunately, passed away in 2019. I wouldn't call the overall acting abjectly bad, it just varied a bit without being too distracting.

I feel a bit guilty giving Contradiction a 2/5, because it's clear that a lot of work went into this and the game is admittedly an "experimental" title. I hope they make more of these and tighten up the gameplay loops a bit because I think they're onto something here. However, this game isn't enjoyable enough for me to recommend.