🎬🎥 The Gallery Xbox Series X Review 8/10 “An Insightful and Engaging Exhibition” 🎥🎬 @paulraschid #IndieGames #FMVGames #GameDev

Paul Raschid is a big name in the FMV/interactive movie genre, having written and directed the wonderful and engaging Five Dates. His name carries a pedigree, and after Five Dates I hoped that The Gallery would continue pushing FMV games forward, with interesting stories, great acting and choices that are both thoughtful and contemplative.

Going into the gallery, it’s fair to say that I had high expectations - they were definitely met.

In The Gallery, you control one of two art curators - one set in 1981, and the other set in 2021. The setting of 1981 is the backdrop of Thatcher’s Britain, civil unrest mounts, social and political tensions rising, a worry of the ecological damage being done, you know, all things that have eased by 2021… just kidding!

They are all still horribly prevalent. You control Morgan Haynes in both scenarios, in 1981 she is played by Anne Popplewell and in 2021 he is played by George Blagden, both own a small art gallery hoping to display a prominent artwork to boost the art gallery's reputation.

Whilst closing for the night, a stranger - Dorian - is still in the building, Dorian is played by the opposite actor for Morgan. Things begin to escalate, and we find out what Dorian wants and how Morgan fits into it.

The plot is very interesting and the dialogue between both is stellar, both scenarios go into engaging topics that range from art to philosophy, asking some deep questions that require the player to engage and think.

One of the biggest elements in these games is choice making, this usually is a great balancing act -choices must feel distinctive and have both an element of predictability and yet unpredictability, it’s a tightrope of contradictions.

The decisions do feel like they strike a good balance, some decisions I felt I knew exactly where they would lead but others tripped me up and lead me down paths I wasn’t expecting, and some really made me question how I had gotten into certain predicaments.

The scenarios take about an hour each to complete and have many decisions and several endings to get, so multiple playthroughs are encouraged. The game has a wonderful feature where you can skip past scenes you have already viewed to get to the decisions you want to make a different choice, it was a welcome addition and really did get me to see various outcomes. 

The acting and production are top-notch, and both scenarios are well-filmed and capture the time period in which they are set. I feel the 1981 scenario is where both actors really shine and give their best performance.

The only niggle I have is that gun effects are digital - and not great, it’s a very minor thing that plagues films with a much bigger budget.