The Red Strings Club

The Red Strings Club is a very unique game. A mishmash of mechanics and almost minigame like sections, it should, by all accounts, by an uncohesive mess; and yet it works. Every single segment helps build the larger story and unearth more of the game's mystery, and the mechanic for each portion stays just long enough for you to get the hang of it and love it; before moving onto the next thing before it gets tiresome. The world and characters are fascinating, and we only get a gimpse. Although there are some larger social messages the game tries to convey, it is ultimately up to the player make up their own mind about them and these decisions even affect the story. CYBERPUNK POTTERY: When I read on the store page that this game would have a pottery section I just about spit out my coffee. I am a big geek, so I seek out just about every cyberpunk everything I can get my hands on. The idea of 'cyberpunk pottery' was so absurdist and hillarious I knew I had to buy this game. But in the game it is played (almost) totally straigh, and believe it or not it actually works. It's fun, unique, and requires you to make tough decisions that affect the story in the last sequence. Bartending: Easily the best part of the game. Serving different drinks to play off of emotions to gather information from customers is fun, and somewhat uniquely difficult. I messed up more than one section, but still had an awesome time. Makes me want to replay the game! Phone-Phreaking: The part of the game originally designed in the old demo for the game, titled 'Super-Continent ltd'. A very fun little detective portion with some unique voice impersonation mechanics. Probably my second favorite sequence, even if by the end I was just rubbing voices together to see what worked. Mechanics: 5 Stars. Fun, short, and unique. Story: 4.5 Stars. Brief, interesting, choices mattered. Characters: 4.5 Stars. Interesting, detailed, and fun to drink with. Art style: 5 stars. Gorgeous game. Great aesthetics.

I'll admit- I have no major criticisms regarding this game. I'm sure, like any game, it's not perfect. But by god did it really come close! I wept, genuinely shed tears. Something about this game hit really hard, the gorgeous in depth story stirs a sense of yearning, it evokes empathy, brings to the surface emotions that come with having relatable characters with soul. It's story feels lovingly crafted. It's not a difficult game- but that's not the point. The "minigames" so to speak are engaging, but if you've bought this game because you want to something challenging regarding gameplay- this isn't the game for you. That said, it challenges you emotionally. It rattles your thoughts around, shakes them up like a well made cocktail and serves them to you with a garish in a beautiful glass for you to savor and contemplate. The art is stunning. As a pixel artist myself, I'm in awe by the gorgeous art displayed in this game. The work that must have gone into it astounds and inspires me. I'm madly in love with this game! Deconstructeam made alchemy with words, a bucket of pixels skilfully arranged, a lovingly crafted story, and a beautiful soundtrack- they brought these things together and from them came pure playable gold. I cannot recommend this game enough. I implore anyone who loves a good story, who loves to be moved to their core to play this game.

The writing in this game is wonderful, its fantastic, up there with the best games ive ever played on that front. My only gripe is the occasional politicking. Its made obvious that the writers are on a certain end of the political spectrum, and they dont like you if you dont fall on the same end as them (going even as far as to call the player stupid) which I deem egregious enough to remove a star from this games rating. This games world approaches much broader philosophical topics with great deals of nuance and mixed perspective, with many characters giving strong and bold arguments for their own positions on these issues. The idea that the player should be chastised for opposing political views to the developers that aren't even based on or explored within the games world is absurd. I wish the writer could have saw past their own pettiness on the issue. Regardless if you're interested in this game at all it is a strong recommend for me, and were it not for the developers open aversion to myself within their own product, this would definitely be a 5 star experience, one I hope to carry with me all my life.

Red String Club has a lot of intersting ideas it touches on, both regarding characters, themes, an the world it's trying to build. The problem is that each of these are quickly churned through in favor of pushing forward a plot that's less interesting than almost every other aspect of the game. While most pieces of media try to cover 1 or 2 thoughtfully, Red Strings club breezes through about a dozen in it's 3-4 hour runtime. Sometimes it bringing some interesting new ideas/approaches to cyberpunk, but the majority times feeling like it's running through an unedited checklist of things the game wants to cover. The core game mechanic of serving drinks to customers to alter their emotional states & influence conversations is interesting, and works as a pretty solid puzzle-y mechanic that does a good job of making you heavily engage while doing it. This only represents about 1/3 of the interactive game, the other 2/3's are much less interesting and easily fall into the "try everything with everything" method of tackling puzzles to determine what the devs want from you. Talking about game mechanics of a visual novel would be irrelevant if the writing & story was spot on. At the end of the day though, this game is a complete mixed bag. People range from being comlpex characters with multiple competing internal priorities, to talking points for what the authors wanted to say about the topic of the minute. Some of the dialog as a results ends up being incredibly unnatural feeling to the world, enough to draw you completely out of the experience.