She Sees Red

If you were to present She Sees Red to me as a critically-acclaimed short film from an up-and-coming young director, I would have no problem believing you. This is a good-looking crime caper with a strong cast, a well-paced story and occasionally gorgeous cinematography. The problem is that this isn't a movie, but rather the debut game from Russian developer Rhinotales. It's a simplistic full-motion video experience where you make a handful of choices and watch them play out on screen. Is that enough to warrant the $8 asking price? I'm not so sure about that.

She Sees Red will grab your attention right from the jump. It tells the story of a female detective who is investigating a murder at a shady nightclub. As she pulls evidence and starts piecing the puzzle together, we flash back in time to see what actually happened from the perspective of the mysterious hooded killer. We jump back and forth in time, with each new step revealing vital information that will reshape the way you look at these characters.

As a short crime thriller, She Sees Red is incredibly effective. Although the action takes places almost entirely in a single location, they do a good job of moving the killer and investigator from one interesting part of the nightclub to another. The hooded figure somehow manages to get into a lot of trouble in a short amount of time, which includes having to escape captivity, sneaking around the kitchen, fighting off guards, helping repairmen and hiding in plain sight. The killer is a lot more Solid Snake than John Wick.

This is where you come in. She Sees Red will pause the action from time-to-time and make you choose what the hooked killer does next. Will he look around the room or leave without taking a risk? Will he hide from the guard or try to distract? Will he stick to the plan or improvise? Each of these decisions will impact the story, which will often lead to a different ending. And since there's important information tucked away inside each story thread, you'll need to play through the game multiple times in order to understand everything that is going on.

The problem is that there really aren't that many choices to ponder. This is a thirty-minute game and there are only a half dozen or so diverging paths to take. This type of full-motion video game is often criticized for not being very interactive, but that knock is especially true here. There are no puzzles to solve or anything else to do outside of making a few major decisions. And while those decisions will certainly change the outcome of the story, I never felt that invested in She Sees Red as a game.

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The other big problem with this game is that you can't skip the bits you've already seen. Considering that this is a game built around replaying the story multiple times in order to see everything, this seems like a major oversight. There were quite a few conversations and moments that I ended up seeing four times. They are fine the first time, but I found that I just wanted to skip to the next story beat so that I can make a different choice. Hopefully that's something the developers will add in the future.

On the technical side, She Sees Red gets a lot right. This is a Russian production that defaults to a dubbed English voice track. The good news is that you can switch to the original Russian audio with subtitles, but even if you stick with the English dubbing, the voice cast is mostly pretty good. I was thoroughly impressed with the quality of the short film, especially from a visual perspective. The action is shot well, every part of the nightclub is visually interesting and there are a few genuinely tense moments. It even has a ludicrous twist that will make you want to play through it again just to look for clues. I really dig the looks and feel of this crime story, but wish that more was done to make it interactive.

As a short film, She Sees Red is an impressive thriller full of twists and excitement. But as a game, this debut release from Rhinotales falls short. With only a few choices to make and nothing in the way of puzzles or interactivity, this is a mostly visual affair from beginning to end. The good news is that the Russian crime story is instantly compelling and leads to a fun roller coaster ride, but there may not be enough here for most gamers to latch on to, even with the relatively cheap $8 asking price. There's a solid thriller to discover, but compared to other interactive movies, She Sees Red comes up short in more ways than one.