The Red Strings Club

Remeber the feeling you get, when the teacher asks you something in class and you only vaguely know the answer? It is hit and miss? If you are correct, you feel a shy sense of success, if you fail to answer correctly, it is frustrating? Well, this is what you get in this game in my oponion. Red Strings Club really has a unique approach to story-telling. You, a bartender, set the mood for those seeking shelter in your bar by crafting drinks tailored to the a certain character trait. Depending on the character trait that you "activate", you will get a different answer for your question. Sometimes the answer you would have hoped for and sometimes not, if you did not set the correct mood. While the idea is great and not too similar to what "VA11 HALL A" does, it is also slightly frustrating at times. The game somewhat lives from being vague in its options, at times however too vague. You sometimes have very little to work with and you have to draw conclusions on what is availible to you. At times it felt the game's progression did not follow the "good path" because my chances of doing the correct thing where comparable to rolling a dice. The story itself was fascinating and delivered a lot more think about and ponder than anything else in this genre imho. However, the gameplay itself and the way you interact in the game where it bit of a letdown, I did not enjoy "playing" the game, I would rather just have listened to what it had to say. On the other hand, it was just about clear enough to not be confusing, this is something that a lot of games do not get right with a similar approach to storytelling. It is definitly a game that you can play multiple times, which makes up for the short game time. I just completed the game in just about 2 hours (while being stuck at one point due to what I would consider an UI issue for about 20 minutes). If you value a philosophical story, well written dialogues and are able to look over flaws in gameplay, I would recommend this game. If you actually want a "game", then better leave this out and watch a walkthrough.