Truth or Lies

I bought this one in the vain hope that it would be a fun party game, however I should have realised I was wrong for a number of reasons. Number 1; the game was released in 2010. Siri cannot understand what I say half the time, so how is some backwater Xbox game suppose to differentiate between me lying or telling the truth? Number 2; a quick scan of the internet would have revealed the game’s total shitiness.

There’s not a lot to the game. There are two game modes.

In party play, you get asked a set of generic questions depending on the suitability of players (kids, adults, cats, etc.) and you have to answer them truthfully to beat your opponents. This is surprisingly difficult because no matter how you answer the question, it is completely random whether you will register a truth or a lie. I could see this being particularly problematic for a young audience who don’t know that the game fails to actually register things properly and could lead to several fallings out.

The other mode, Hot Seat, gives the opportunity to be asked specific questions by your friends, however they are more likely to know if you are lying or telling the truth than the game.

There’s not really much else to the game, other than the obvious fact that you need a USB microphone to play it.

The only other annoyance, and it’s quite a big one, is that the narrative in the game feels the need to put in redundant comments based on the fact you registered a truth or a lie after every single fucking question. Just shut the fuck up for fuck’s sake!

Achievements – 1,000 Points – 28 Achievements

It’s a fairly simple game achievements wise. Well, it would be if it was possible to actually lie and register a lie or tell the truth and register the truth. You know, the basic principles the game is built around but hey, we will persevere.

Most of the achievements are easy to get without this issue causing too many headaches or screaming, however there are always exceptions. Anything that requires you to do anything in a row is problematic. Registering three lies in a row was a particularly painful experience but the biggest challenge was trying to register a lie to every question in a Hot Seat round. I had to resort to finding deafeningly horrible sounds on Youtube to get this last achievement and put the game to bed.

A couple of other choice difficulties involved registering the highest scoring lie and highest scoring truth in a single round. Even with a dummy second player, this is still a challenge as you have no control over any of the answers given.

Another tricky one involves having to finish in the same placing for every round of a game. Again, this requires you to be consistent where the game mechanics don’t recognise you which could make getting this achievement a exercise in luck based frustration.

Downloadable Content – N/A

Put simply, it’s a horrible game that won’t give you any value in group play or solo play. The achievements are supposed to be easy but the game mechanics renders unlocking them more based on luck than skill. I can totally recommend not buying it and refusing to download it if it’s offered for free. It’s a total fuck ass.