Oh boy! Not all that often I get to expierence something like The Red Strings Club. It's a story about... taking down a corporate conspiracy, I guess, as the store page says. But it's a lot more about getting you, the player, to think about things. To get you to philosophize or contemplate, I'd say. It's a short experience, about 4 hours for a single playthrough, but you can re-play it. I say "experience", since there isn't much gameplay. A few minigames that I honestly could have done without, and the rest is mostly just dialogue options and a bit of point-and-click. More like a visual novel. But I want to step back from the story for a bit and tell you about the other great things in this game.
I think that even moreso than what you're reading, the strongest aspect of The Red Strings Club is the atmosphere it manages to create. The pixel art is pretty good, fitting, and the music sets the mood excellently. There isn't really a lot to say about it, but I just want to assure you that as a whole, the aesthetic side of it is masterfully executed.
The little bits of gameplay - pottery, mixing drinks... They were somewhat finnicky and poorly executed, where doing them was more of a chore than a fun experience. They were also a bit too long to serve as just a break from the dialogue. They should have stuck with deductive minigames, like the phone one at the end, not "skill-based" ones. But aside from making me a bit more hesitant to replay the whole thing because I don't want to do these minigames again, they didn't really take much of my time.
So, the meat of it all - the story. I can't tell you any details of course, but it's all this sort of detective game. Remember people you've met or heard about. Remember things that have happened. Connect the dots and read between the lines to choose the right dialogue options and get the information out of people that you want. While I don't think you can really fail completely, you can fail to gather all the information, making latter parts more difficult, or just depriving you of narrative you would have liked to read. I did not replay it, maybe in the future, but your actions can have a real impact on what people do, what people say, and who you meet, so there is reason to play the game more than once.
Aside from goal-oriented bits of dialogue where you aim to uncover the truth and learn new things, the game also offers you dialogue which does not really affect the game. Dialogue to make you reflect on the events happening in the story, and to make you form your opinion on it. Except, in this department, things felt a bit off. On one hand, I did definitely start to ponder certain questions, and the game did not answer them for me. But on a contrasting and conflicting note, I felt the game tried to push certain viewpoints on me. I don't view either as particularly bad ways to tell a story. The former is less likely to conflict with anyone's personal ideas on the subject, if they exist, while the latter makes for an easier reading experience, and works for people who don't like open-ended stories or thoughts. But combining the two... I felt at times like the game wanted me to come to my own conclusions about what I think of it all, and then rammed into them by saying what the author thinks, and followed the story according to their views. Having multiple endings would have been perfect for this kind of game. To really show the positives and negatives of both outcomes. Sadly, we did not get this opportunity.
Overall, despite this conflict in storytelling and having only one outcome to a struggle where I felt both sides had their reasons to be right and wrong, I enjoyed my time with The Red Strings Club. It shall take a place, even if not a high one, at my favorite adventure games list, and I would definitely recommend it to others who enjoy stories. I have to admit that the game does carry a tone and a message regarding social politics, culture, and such, and I can imagine there might be people who don't like that, but it's not forefront in the story, and most should be able to enjoy it regardless. I sure did.
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