Interrogation starts with a difficulty/playstyle choice - you either pick "challenging conversational puzzle gameplay" or "narrative experience". I've picked a narrative experience one.
Later on I've tried challenging mode as well and I'd recommend to pick this one as it's slightly more interesting in general. Narrative experience mode is still good though and it's a good choice if you want a more relaxing gameplay like I did this time (you may still fail even in this mode).

So we play as a police detective and do interrogations + lead/manage our subordinates in between. Interrogation mechanics are mostly generic but interesting thanks to well-written dialogue options.
I really liked visuals in this game and the story is good enough to catch your attention + characters are okay.

There're plenty of interesting choices in the game, but sometimes there's a lack of more obvious short-term "decision-consequences" stuff. As an example: I've tried to do some stupid "roleplay" and my character ended up being shot. I didn't really mind but there were literally no signs (and no reasons in my opinion) that it might have happened. And more importantly, there was no clue how to avoid it when the game offered me to replay this chapter + some stat changes were not logical at all during that playthrough
There're no achievements so far and it's quite sad - cleverly designed achievements are essential for a game like this one in my opinion.

All in all, Interrogation: You will be deceived is a nice addition to narrative-driven games. As stated on store page, developers followed the footsteps of several other games like "This War of Mine", "Papers Please", "This is the Police" and "Orwell". I've checked that description after few hours in the game and indeed, some gameplay moments reminded me of those games, especially about "This is the Police" and "Orwell".
Interrogation is not perfect, but close to the best genre representatives in terms of quality. 8/10

More reviews on our Curator Page

Okay so first, let me be clear. I ABSOLUTELY love nearly every aspect of this game! However, due to strenuous replays and a little bit of lack of guidance, the tediousness has far outweighed my enjoyment which is saying a lot as I've really enjoyed everything else. This review is spoiler free aside from game mechanic discussions (fail conditions)
Pros:
Story - The story is truly engaging. Nothing's worse than a visual novel with a bad story. Interrogation gives you the sense of every character whether you've met them briefly or if they're your go to partner on the task force.
Visuals - I love the art style with a true noir tone. The rough animations and facial expressions really help sell the atmosphere. I felt more like I was interacting with people and not characters if that makes sense.
Music - Music fits, however I did really enjoy putting on a noir playlist to this. Sorry! I do wish there was some ambient music while you're reading briefings/reports. That was the reason I looked to putting on my own playlist. But the music provided (when it is) compliments the game nicely.

Cons:
Ohhhh boy. I understand this could be 100% user error, but I feel like there's a lot here that could be ironed out to make the game more approachable. Let me also preface this by saying, if you give me an option to play as a rogue cop, I'm gonna play as a rogue cop.

Design of play - It might just be my life choices (isn't it always?) but when I try to play as a rogue cop and resort to torture and whatnot. More often than not, it seems to not be the best answer. I mean you could argue duh, but when you're 7 episodes in and have invested in being bad cop, it's disappointing to know you'll rarely resort to it. There's many scenarios where if I didn't pick every exact correct response, I'd fail the interrogation and roughing up the suspects doesn't yield any results.

Lack of guidance. There's not really a clear explanation how any of the PR/Media/Authority parts work. Like it's explained in very literal terms like the media is friendlier with you, but it doesn't really suggest HOW you affect these. I would've thought it'd be obvious, but it doesn't seem so.

I found myself getting assassinated and I didn't know why. The papers suggest retaliation or just bad luck, but the game doesn't explain it. Instead it just has you rewind to the end of your past completed missions. I've found myself locked in a no win scenario. After a case, the game lets you make the PR report first (makes sense) but then makes you go through story, media interviews, more story and then assassinated. Replaying all of that for trial an error in your PR report only to get assassinated over and over is irritating. The only way to remedy this is to replay previous episodes. I'll be honest. I've been playing fast and loose for awhile so I've pretty much taken to replaying the majority of the game again only to get fired/assassinated. Comically I'm not a great cop I know, but really replaying the entire game when the mechanics aren't quite explained as far as impact goes or causality is a lot.

Really it's possible you'll REALLY enjoy this game, but it's also possible you'll find yourself in an endless loop of getting yelled at/murdered.

Unique mix of different genres. It is part visual novel, part choose your own adventure, part puzzle game, part management and above all a temporary tale about ethics.
I'll still have to see it through to the end but I was very positively surprised how this game wraps all those different topics into one coherent interactive story.

Decidedly less fun than I thought it would be. There's not really multiple ways of going about the interrogation.

It's mostly guess work the first time you interrogate a character, you'll make some progress but likely not enough to resolve anything... so you just replay the same thing again, memorizing what questions you need to click and then boom, you beat it on the second try! The fluff in-between investigations where you can send your team out seems entirely pointless.

>Never once use torture, barely ever use intimidation
>Open and honest with press, public, suspects
>Almost get knifed to death by own police force over being too empathetic in interrogations
>Plagued by truly incompetent employees who lose motivation despite saving lives, never succeed in their tasks
>Somehow 'breaching procedure' even though, again, never going off-record
>Boss is furious at me for telling the press I was almost stabbed to death during internal investigation but pyscho stabber faces zero consequences
>Despite all of this, manage to make it to the penultimate interrogation, discover the cult's leadership purely through ethical interrogation methods
>Getting ready to bring these bastards down
>Police chief calls me in
>Fired for not getting results
>Have to restart game from beginning to keep the pigs happy
>Mfw

I find the conversational gameplay fun, but the approval and motivation system is truly such garbage. I get that the police force is supposed to be corrupt and the gameplay illustrates that, but it's to the point that the gameplay is just not fun anymore.

A caveat-ed yes.

At the "normal" level gameplay is fun in a light hearted way. You might have to replay a few of the harder levels once or twice, but generally you'll speed through with no real complications. It is more of a choose your own adventure/word puzzle than a challenge, so keep that in mind if you were expecting deep gameplay. Still, a perfectly fun way to play out a very well illustrated story for a few hours. (Those 21.8 hours as of writing come mostly from leaving the game on overnight)

The story itself plays it decidedly safe and in a heroic manner. Despite the press-tags, you can rest safely assured that there are no real ethical quandaries - the overall simplicity means that decisions on methodology are entirely for your own self gratification, and don't have any notable impact on your ability to succeed or fail. And the devs made sure to back away from any political controversy in their choice of terrorist motivations and actors, so that it plays more like taking down SPECTRE than any real world event.

Now, if you bought it because of it's "thought provoking take on modern issues", you'll be sorely disappointed with that. No moral dilemma. Minimal, heavily sanitized, and at times beyond ludicrously simplified and exaggerated depictions of elements in play that keep things in the heavily academic.

That said, if you bought it for a quick fun game with great illustrations and a heroic detective plot, yeah. It's worth the money.

This is a very well done game, but it just won't be for everyone, and unfortunately that includes me.

This is probably my favorite implementation of mystery solving through suspect interviews in a game. The player has to keep in mind the suspect's fear and openness to questioning and choose a line of questions that match the suspect's emotional state, which is both a cool mechanic and a great way to direct storytelling. Sometimes interrogations will be "timed"; you are not literally on a timer, but each question you ask takes up some of your remaining time, requiring very thoughtful uses of your questions.
The atmosphere of the game is evocative. The art style of the character portraits and the way they move feels kind of grainy and dissonant in a way that really serves the stark, high-pressure world of the game. The soundtrack similarly had me on edge in a great way.

Here's where I reached my endpoint: there's a point in the game where I got stuck and couldn't figure out how to progress. When I looked at walkthroughs online, it appeared the only way to progress the story at that point is to choose dialogue options that increase pressure on someone with schizophrenia, playing into their delusions and exacerbating their mental condition to a point where they become extremely upset and disturbed. As a real-life mental health professional, I found myself unwilling to treat even a fictional character that way, and eventually gave up on finding a way to continue the game.

The game was clear with me from the get go that there would be uncomfortable choices throughout the game, so I do not fault the developers for the inclusion of this content. That said, it did make me uncomfortable enough that I decided to stop playing. Your mileage may vary! This game does a lot well, and I'm sad that I'm not seeing it through to the end. I think the fact that I had such a strong reaction is a testament to just how effective this game is at storytelling; it's just a shame that it caused me to end the journey early.

Selecting "Not Recommended" because for me and other players like me, it's a game that won't be finished and that's a bummer for the asking price. But if you are not unsettled by the content and enjoy a dark mystery, I would recommend this for you.

Like this Review? Follow The Cpt Froggy Club Curator Page for plenty more!

Interrogation: You will be deceived
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived, is an amazing Visual Noir Novel with a compelling cast of characters that complement the rich story-driven detective-noir experience really well.

Playing as a lead detective trying to solve small-time crimes, gathering evidence, interrogating suspects and putting all the pieces of the puzzle together, it seems like just another day at the job.

Until the Liberation Front happens…

Multiple bomb explosions rock the city. The local PD scramble to piece together what just happened.

The initial assessment finds that the terror group, Liberation Front, is behind this.

Leading a group of DP’s top investigators, you now have to figure out the motive behind the attack and work your way through grueling interrogations of the suspects to figure out who is responsible.

Interrogation: You Will Be Deceived brings an interesting and intense twist to the Visual Novel genre.

The increasingly difficult conversational puzzles that were necessary to uncover the terrifying conspiracy felt surreal and kept me on the edge of my seat for the duration of my playthrough.

The intense story consists of multiple well-written characters, some of whom play an active role throughout the game and others a passive role. The character progression is great.

Each character feels as if he/she has a purpose along with their own individual motivations.

Even the suspects play an important part in highlighting each scenario. Each suspect has highs and lows, which adds a certain flair to each interaction.

The main feature that the game highlights is its skill in interrogation. Each interrogation feels surreal and intense. The dialogues are well written, with each interrogation starting anywhere from small talk to straight-out accusations. Depending on the suspect and the scenario, either option can play out well or go sideways really quickly.

The majority of the scenarios seem to benefit from starting slowly, with small talk and minor questions, and escalating from there.

The interrogations were well written for every suspect and witness. Your choice of either small talk, questions or straight accusation options prompt different reactions and answers.

During each interrogation there will be two meters continuously running in the background.

1. Heart rate monitor.
2. Breathing monitor.

As the interrogations intensify, the suspects will start showing tell-tale signs with their ever-increasing heart rate and heavy breathing.

There’s a SFW torture scenario if you choose it, with three different types of torture.

One aspect that I found unnecessary was the budget management; the fact that a detective is having budget issues and has to manage his team’s budget on his own was distracting.

Expressive Noir Art; this game brings an interesting art style to the table with its real actor footage and atmospheric music.
Certainly not for everyone, those who can pay attention to dialogue and who have a keen eye for detail will find it rewarding.

Positives:

+ Rich Story
+ Immersive
+ Unique art style
+ Great sound effects
+ Great conversational puzzles
+ Quite a few unique characters
+ Each chosen dialogue prompts appropriate reactions and answers
+ SFW Torture scenes

Negatives:

- Distracting budget management feature


Challenging Detective-Noir experience; brainstorm your way through the investigation to uncover the conspiracy.

9/10


Key provided by the developer/publisher for review purposes. Any opinions expressed are entirely my own!

READ EPIC REVIEWS FROM “THE CPT FROGGY” AND MATES, UP NOW ON ZEEPOND, THE HOME OF THE ALMIGHTY FROG![www.zeepond.com]
FOLLOW THE CPT FROGGY CURATOR PAGE HERE

Just plain boring. Instead of letting you actually react on what a person is saying, the game makes you return to a previous branch of questions and only then use the information you've just revealed. The very nature of conversation is missed, even though the major focus of the game is to deliver the conversational flow as closest to real life as possible. Abandoned half-way through, disappointed.

The first comparison that comes to mind when you want to characterize the game "Interrogation" is "tight and concentrated." After all, if you think about it, the functionality of the game is not so massive, but the skill and elegance with which the creators use it make it something really interesting and significant. As the name suggests, our main business here will be interrogations. A lot of interrogations. We have to be in the shoes of a professional investigator who stumbled upon the trail of a disguised terrorist cell and is now trying to shed light on its gloomy plans. Nevertheless, it seems to me that the lead to a large-scale investigation could have been done a little longer, because literally after the very first case our investigator becomes the head of a large anti-terrorist department, beginning to communicate almost politically with the authorities and the press. Nevertheless, I wanted to get to know him a little closer even before this crazy fuss, behind a couple of ordinary dirty criminal cases. But this is my personal opinion, do not judge strictly. And only now I realized that I would like the same game based on the television series "Mindhunter", a good idea... These interesting game mechanics and the theme of the series are just perfect for each other.

Oddly enough, but the game manages to constantly surprise you. And yes, I do not argue that many interrogations here are based on trial and error, but the intuitiveness that is inherent in local gameplay is striking. You yourself go into many details, delve into the system of skills, the advantages of various skills, and begin to understand how important cross-cutting issues are, where it is appropriate to apply rigidity (and often cruelty, the game allows interrogation in a variety of ways), and where to cynically rub into trust, praise the suspect’s pet cat or take care of his father’s health. The goal is one - to find the culprit and get information from him that will save lives, but it can be achieved in various ways. Very beautifully, the game avoids the temptation to constantly resolve all issues with harshness, the ubiquitous press does not sleep, and pauses on the dictaphone recording of interrogation will serve as an occasion for serious proceedings, including dismissal from work. A variety of interrogations is brought about by puzzles encountered along the way, some elements of strategic planning, which consist in the correct use of the resources of your investigative team for various purposes.

“Interrogation” is a game in which all elements are executed very finely and thoughtfully, in which everything is in its place, working to achieve a result. Do you like this game or not? Come into this room, sit down on this chair screwed to the floor and let's talk about it. And about everything else, you will want to tell me many, many interesting things, I press the button to turn on my recorder.