The Mirror Lied

Game Title: The Mirror Lied, by Reives

Synopsis: A little girl is in an empty house, trying to piece together what happened.

Story: You play as Leah, a young girl trapped in an opulent old house. You must piece together your mission and find a way out.

Gameplay: The style of game is different from the usual: using a mouse or keys, the player navigates through the environment by using context-sensitive actions: so hovering over a light shows a lightbulb mouse cursor, which will then turn on the light. Imaging something similar for doors, searching cupboards and so on. It is a great approach to exploring the game, however you do find yourself being aware that you are actively searching the game maps more often for clues: however, considering you would usually walk up to everything anyway and press the ‘action’ button to see what happens, this control method cuts down a lot of random trial-and-error. That said, it works best when there are also visual tells on-screen to give the player some pointers, like little sparkly tells.
There are some dark themes running through the game, and some nice timed parts where you try to reach the phone in time. You can get through this demo in just over an hour and the plot itself poses more questions than answers at the end.
The game maps and levels are very natural and fit together well. They are both practical as ways to get to other rooms and yet still packed full of intriguing items – and seldom cluttered with irrelevant red-herrings.

Look and feel: The music is sparse and creepy, delivered mainly by a music box in the main room. The maps are well put together and eand room can be lit using lights, which is a nice touch. The environment also evolves and changes as you play.

Summary: You finish the demo and it feels like a ‘Chapter 3’ in a larger, darker story. Also, after an hour of playing, you realise that you wished all RPG games were controlled in this method.

Rating: I would rate it as 4.5 / 5.0: I do strongly feel it is a great idea that tries to explore something different within the more-traditional RPG gaming sphere. It is intuitive to play, compelling to follow and absorbing in its darker backstory. I do hope this is the beginning of a larger, deeper game and look forward to see how this evolves.