I am not gonna lie in this review, but this game certainly will! Welcome to Interrogation: You will be deceived, a game developed by Critique Gaming and published by Mixtvision!
This game is available on PC, Mac, and Linux and can be bought on Steam, Humble Store or GOG.
Interrogation revolves around your job as a detective as the leader of a task force in dealing with a growing Liberation Front, who has been expanding slowly over the city. Growing up with detective movies made this a very interesting premise for me.
Through the game, you start understanding what they want and how are they planning on achieving it. That’s as far as I can say without giving out some spoilers, but I do want to say that the premise, despite being simple, is engaging to read about. And boy, get your reading glasses because you are gonna seriously need it. It can be tough to play through the game in one sitting so you do need breaks now and then to relax from the gameplay.
What is the gameplay, you might ask? Interrogation functions like a puzzle game of sorts, where you have to piece the information obtained from each suspect. You start with only the minimal knowledge from the police database. Be it by through intimidation, kindness or even ‘rough physical kindness’ (or commonly called a bit of brute force), you need to understand who they are and what are their reasons for being in the interrogation room are.
Get to know the suspects a bit, and you might extract some information you can use to match with information from other suspects to verify if they are telling you the truth. The game even gives you tools for it! There’s a heartbeat monitor and a “trust” monitor to check if the suspect is scared or trusts you, depends on your approach to the situation. It’s very engaging seeing the highlighted yellow text for an option, which means that somehow the information was unlocked through something one of the suspects was made to say. I did feel like taunting the suspects from over the screen due to my smarts in figuring out the solution (which may have involved restarting some levels a few times).
Do you feel like you aren’t that good with the gameplay aspect of Interrogation? Well, this game thought about it too! There are two modes. You can play the interrogation challenge mode which enforces the normal rules or the narrative experience mode so you can enjoy the story without too much worry about the choices you have to make. I picked the interrogation challenge to experience the full game and enjoyed myself only having to reset a minority of missions more than once or twice so I would say not to worry too much about feeling like interrogation would be too hard for you and trust me I am not the smartest person around. There’s even some background you can add to your character with the progression of the story that helps your particular investigation style succeed better, though you have to choose wisely as locking yourself on one method may not be the best idea
Along with the puzzle aspect, there are also some other gameplay mechanics! You can manage your team so they can do missions while you perform your investigation. However, you have a budget each “session” of the game so to speak in which you can work on your popularity and the motivation of your team, alongside other factors. It’s important to choose well since the money is limited each day. I can’t say much more about the story or gameplay since that would ruin it, but I hope this gives you a taste of how the game functions!
The art style in this game is amazing to see and brings a black and white aesthetic to the screen that I crave for so that’s a plus in my book. The backgrounds are very well made despite being static and not changing much, but that’s a given since the majority of the time you are interrogating people in a closed room.
The music is something that I feel ended up weak compared to the rest of the game, but I was so tense during most interrogations that I didn’t even realize it at first.
In conclusion, the game is an amazing way to satisfy that puzzle and detective niche that is so rare these days. The game has a really engaging story with different endings and a type of gameplay that leaves you hooked, but can be tiring for some people due to being so text-heavy. The sensation of truly being tense about the future of your task force was in the air for me, but I wish there was more world-building outside of the office as you are mostly locked in that place. Knowing the story of the city so we feel more connected to the city and meeting the people who live in it would make you more confident and try harder to protect it. The final nitpick is the music, but aside from that, the game is a great recommendation from me. Keep in mind that this review is based on a pre-release version, so some aspects may be updated in the future.
The game can be bought digitally on Steam or here on Humble Bundle.
Thank you to Mixtvision for providing a review code for the game.
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Detective Nick, signing out!
Nick has been gaming for quite a while, a decade now! His first console was the DS but the first one played extensively was the Nintendo 64. He loves a huge variety of games, favourite genres include RPG, platforming, metroidvanias and visual novels. No longer a member of the NookGaming team, but still here in spirit. Follow him on @NickMendz.
