Worth: $13.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
NA
Intro:
Picture Telltale Games by vote and you’ve got the general idea.
Supermassive Games caught the attention of gamers and genre movie fans alike with Until Dawn, a title that played like an interactive slasher flick complete with numerous endings, splattery deaths and a clear affection for trashy 80s cinema. Hidden Agenda is their newest attempt at an interactive movie and this time they’ve gone all serial killer thriller, and the results are pretty good.
Hidden Agenda has you, the player or players, assuming the roles of homicide detective, Becky Marney and district attorney, Felicity Graves. These two are trying to reveal the truth behind a gruesome serial killer known as The Trapper, who comes off like a low rent Jigsaw with a penchant for creating grisly traps and killing first responders.
Unlike Until Dawn you won’t be using the controller to move your characters around the map, rather utilising the PlayLink app you’ll make dialogue choices, search rooms and complete light puzzles and quick time events with your phone. The added twist is that you can play with a group – a kind of democratised storytelling where majority rules on the decisions made. Picture Telltale Games by vote and you’ve got the general idea. It’s an interesting concept and one that benefits from three or more players, as anything else feels a tad redundant.
The story itself is quite brief, coming in around two hours, with a heavy emphasis on replaying to get better or just different endings. It’s a great idea let down a little by a script that doesn’t quite work and technical oddities where the decision you make, say to answer something sarcastically, doesn’t quite line up with what the character is doing on screen.
That said, a group of film savvy, sarcastic (and perhaps drunk) friends will have a hell of a time mocking the characters and each other as they strive to uncover the villain’s… obfuscated motive.
