random-reviews02

[random-reviews02]

The Red Strings Club (2018) Review

TLDR: The Red Strings Club is a thought provoking 4-5 hour experience. It features a cyberpunk dystopia which explores ethical issues surrounding AI and human modification through a mix of point-and-click adventure and mini game styles. Although I enjoyed this game, I felt unsatisfied by the ending and feel like it could have explored it’s base concepts better if the game had a few more hours of content. For that reason, I would give this game a 5/10, and recommend buying this game on sale if interested. 

The Red Strings club is a cyberpunk themed point and click adventure game developed by Decontructeam and published by Devolver digital. It’s primarily a text based experience with multiple engaging minigames, which has you play as three different characters in a dystopian future. Most of the player’s time is spent engaging with NPCs to try to uncover their secrets and persuade them into leaking classified information. The game itself delves deeply into moral and ethical questions regarding technology, which is ever more relevant to us nowadays with the rise of AI technology.

The length of this game is about 4-5 hours and it is priced at around £20 (or $25). Personally, I wouldn’t buy this game at full price. While it is a unique and intriguing experience, it doesn’t have a lot of replay value, and in my opinion fell short of its full potential. However, I would still recommend buying this game when discounted. The Red Strings Club has an interesting story and asks the player difficult questions, as well as pushing back and querying your answers to often make you consider the other possibilty. This is a unique property as in my experience, most games tend to be ‘player central’, where you as the player or the MC are placed as the central hero figure. I enjoyed being questioned and argued with by the characters in the game, and I enjoyed the fact that it made me seriously consider my opinions on certain subjects and pause the game to take the time to really think about the answers I was giving. The Red Strings Club also has a wonderful pixel art style (my favourite) with cohesive colour palettes.

On the downside, I would argue that this game is let down by its ending. For me, the ‘big reveal’ right before the final scene left it no time to really sink in, and I felt as though the game almost needed another 4-5 hours to really explore the concepts it was trying to convey effectively. In the last 10 minutes or so, the game introduces a sort of supernatural ability to a character, but without any warning or explanation, and then never mentions it again. I find it frustrating when games randomly introduce additional concepts only to end on a cliff hanger. Although I suppose it may be an attempt to introduce a wider sense of mystery and world-building, I personally feel that it just makes the game feel rushed and the story feel messy. I would have preferred the game to be more subtle and leave the ‘magical’ to interpretation, since this is a cyberpunk themed game that is otherwise strictly ‘realistic’. I feel as though it almost broke my immersion in this cyberpunk world.

The Red Strings Club was thought-provoking and insightful, and although it did have its flaws, I am glad and grateful that I was able to experience this game. I finished this game in about 4 hours, and it had me stopping several times to really think about what I intended to say, and made me question myself, which I enjoyed. I would give the Red Strings Club a final rating of 5/10. As of writing (02/09/23) The Red String Club is currently on sale for just £4.04 ($5) on Nintendo Switch and goes on sale regularly every month or so. At this price, I would recommend this game to anyone interested.