Truth or Lies (Wii) - Review by Chris

Introduction

Growing up, there's no doubt that many people reading this will have been to their fair share of parties, both good and bad. Some of the ones which will stick out for many are the ones where unexpected truths or certain acts took place courtesy of the old party favourite game Truth or Dare. Seeing a gap for this kind of party game in the games industry, THQ have teamed up with Imagination to develop a game based around one of the lesser Truth or party games, Truth or Lies, but poor tech and a generally frustrating experience pose the question of why make it into a game.

Gameplay

Truth or Lies centres around the premise of gathering a group of friends, with the game supporting up to 8 players, and asking them questions which the recipient choose to answer truthfully or lie to cover up any shame or embarrassment they may feel about the truth finally finding its way out to the ears of friends. The game is as simple as that and presents itself as an easy option for anybody to get involved as no prior game experience is necessary as no controls are used besides a single Wii-mote for menu navigation and instead, the entire game is played by using a USB microphone to answer the game's vast number of questions which are split into categories which can be tailored to the groups who are playing the game, with categories tailored to the likes of kids, adults or couples.

Comprising primarily of two main modes, Normal and Hot Seat, the premise never really changes in either of these and you'll be answering a series of questions which the game will attempt to determine whether you are answering truthfully or whether you are lying. In Normal mode, you'll essentially pass the microphone around between players as they take it in turn to answer the questions being presented within the category you've specified the game to play to, although there is some strange crossing over of questions which seem out of place for certain age group categories. This is in contrast to Hot Seat mode where one person becomes the focus of a series of 5 questions created by the other players with the roles changing once all 5 questions have been answered. However, all this second mode does his highlight some serious issues for the technology incorporated into the game.

The game includes a piece of technology whereby it can apparently tell whether or not those answering the questions are telling the truth or not, which is key to completion of a round of the game seeing as the winner is chosen based on how honestly they answer each of the questions with each answer carrying a certain score. The main issue, however, is that the game seems to have difficulty in actually doing what it says it can do and will more often than not claim that those telling the truth are lying and vice versa meaning that whether you answer honestly or not, the winner is essentially picked randomly and winning is purely luck. It therefore dampens the experience greatly as these recognition issues make sure that the game is nothing more than an expensive and unnecessary addition to anyone's party gaming library. Add to this the fact that there is little variation in the way in which the game is carried out, as it is all question based rather than actually giving any incentive to get up and be active, and you have a game which loses its appeal very quickly.

Controls

To play, you'll need at least 1 Wii-mote, which is essentially used to navigate any menus. This is really the only implementation of the Wii-mote with all of the other game's functions being covered by a microphone, with wireless or cabled USB microphones supported. Strangely, Wii Speak isn't supported and given that it is Nintendo's primary microphone peripheral for the console, it should at least been made compatible.

Graphics

Visuals take a backseat for this game as everything on display, while clean cut and well presented, won't be winning any awards for artistic design. It's very streamlined and accessible visually, although at times it does try to feel slightly more upmarket than it is, but it is something that anyone with any experience with photoshop or any other proprietary graphics program could knock up with ease. Some effort has been put into the game's caricatures which adorn the various screens during play for each player, with a cartoon style being employed which seemingly gives these small images more character than the rest of the visual presentation.

Sound

Again, another backseat area for the game with some background music and basic sound effects to keep things ticking along, while an obnoxious announcer does his best to interrupt any atmosphere that the game tries to create by constantly and aggressively reminding you about certain features.

Final comments

When you're main angle for pushing the game doesn't work, you're left with a steep uphill battle on your hands and unfortunately, THQ and Imagination have failed to event make it anywhere near the levels of acceptability. The technology for determining whether you're telling the truth or lying plain doesn't work as it was touted and as a result, everything else falls down the pan rather quickly. It also acts as an extremely expensive alternative to the real thing, which requires nothing more than a group of friends. If you're contemplating getting this to play with friends, don't and instead simply opt to play it as it was intended, in its original Truth or Dare form rather than this dull and lifeless attempt to cash in on unknowing consumers this holiday season.

Pro: Caricatures give the game some form of life, the technology behind the game is an interesting idea...
Con: ...But it simply doesn't work, expensive alternative to the real thing, no Wii Speak compatibility, dull selection of questions
Final score: 3.5

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