Interesting story but poor gameplay
Positive notes: The games graphics are very good - there are some beautiful and harrowing scenes. The sound and voices are excellent, although there are no recognizable ones - not that that matters. You get to play 4 different main characters - Lucas, Carla, Tyler and Martin. Lucas is really THE main character, while Martin plays a minor role. Carla and Tyler are played considerably. Your actions and decisions with each character move and affect the story leading to replayability of this game. The story is very good and somewhat unique, although it gets a tad hokey in parts. You delve into a little of each characters personal lives as well as Lucas and Martin's past, even playing their characters as children - actually some of the best gameplay in the game. Your actions/decisions also effect the mental stability of each character. I felt compeled by the story and outcome which was fairly satisfying at the end.
Negatives: Gameplay is atrocious except for a few exceptions like the playing in the past as Martin and Lucus. Basically the primary action consists of something like a "Simple Simon" game in which you press arrow keys in time with colors popping up in the middle of the screen . And this really is the key negative aspect of this game. First the "simple simon" interface is certainly not innovative and gets kinda old quick, not that I didn't want to finish - also gets progressively harder (I changed the game setting to easy midway through) , But even more important, although the colors appear in the center of the screen the interface distracts from following the action play out behind it - might as well be a black screen. Other action is controlled by the quick back and forth action of buttons - not as bad but "been there-done that". The rest and bulk of the action like opening doors, climbing, interacting with object s- like computers and phones - was controlled by a somewhat unique interface in which you control a red dot and move it in different directions. Not a negative but hard to describe unless you try it. Ultimately though the gameplay really detracted from the game. I think the developer felt he was being innovative and diferent with the gameplay but I think the game would have benifited from more the more traditional interfacing used by adventure game. Lastly on the negatives, the play in story gets a little inconsistent in spots, especially toward the end. This may have been caused by decisions that I made, but some characters like Tyler just suddenly go away.
In conclusion, despite me going off on the gameplay, this game was fun to play and interesting. It appeared that the game ended with a sequal in mind. I hope the creators rethink some of the game play elements in the sequals to make this truly a great game and series. My score came out to a 7.1 which I believe should give the impression that this game is worth playing but no at full price. I recommend playing on easy to get through the "simple simon" crap more easilty, while it ultimately doesn't affect the main goal of the game which is to immerse the gamer in a movie.