GAME CLEAR No. 201 -- She Sees Red

She Sees Red (2019, Multiplatform)

Developer: Rhinotales
Publisher: Rhinotales
Clear Version: PS4
Clear Platform: PS5
Clear Date: 12/5/24

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Why should I care?
If you want to see the somewhat unremarkable interactive film efforts of a little Kazakh studio, this is your game.

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Snooze your own adventure

Okay, look. I’ve heard it said that “every movie is a miracle.” I think that’s probably true, and I generally like it as a way of looking at any kind of finished media. It takes a lot of effort to make something.

In that way, of course She Sees Red has value. Tons of people put a lot of time into this. In many ways, it is a competent product. It’s just not all that good!

She Sees Red is, to use a term the game self-applies, an interactive movie whose action is portrayed entirely with live-action footage. The game/movie opens with a shot of a mysterious hooded criminal standing over a dead body in the back room of a night club. The police arrive, and it’s time for the perp (you, it seems) to make their moves or get busted. It’s a branching narrative with four rather different endings that all reveal different motivations. You arrive at these endings based on the decisions you make at various prompts throughout the game. It’s like a TellTale game but with real people. Lots of these exist.

I can’t say I’d recommend this one especially, but I mean it’s fine I guess. As with most of these games, a lot of the choices don’t really matter all that much at all, ultimately resolving to the same place just by a slightly different path.

But as a little half-hour crime drama that you can have resolve in a handful of different ways, I guess it’s all right. Just tough to recommend compared to other good stuff that exists even in this somewhat niche genre.

A bit of value I got out of it was that at least it was not made in the United States, Japan, or Europe. I do vaguely aspire to play more things made outside those three places, so I guess this at least counts for that.