A tense role playing game mystery

The Mirror Lied is a masterclass in creating atmosphere and tension. Presented in top-down 1990s Super Nintendo RPG style, you control Leah, after she wakes up in bed.

You don’t know anything about what you’re doing there, and the only way to find out is to do some RPG searching. Moving with your cursor keys, with space to interact, you gradually find things. There are keys to find to unlock cabinets, sinks to fill, plants to water and a ringing phone…

The game is not very long – it might only take you twenty minutes – but it’s an excellent 20 minutes. The lack of information, and the strangeness of the information you do find, along with excellent lighting effects and incidental music make The Mirror Lied very tense. Whether you understand it in the end is another matter, but it’s certainly an enjoyable experience either way!

This might seem a bit strange to people who haven’t played an RPG before, and it’s not explained well. However, the controls are simple, and simply by moving around and hitting space, you’ll quickly get the idea. You can check your inventory by hitting the Esc key, which is occasionally useful.

The Mirror Lied is an impressive little game, that you may want to play through more than once, to figure out what’s going on!