The Gallery Reviews

This game takes a bit to get good. I did not enjoy my first play through (boring story and characters, and perhaps I just don't understand the political climate of England). But the beauty and ingenuity of these types of games is in the replays. The more you do it over, the better it gets. This is a game for completionists; the fun is in the replay and exploring every path and ending while attempting new options each time to hunt down all trophies. I liked it a lot more after playing it for multiple hours then I did at first. I was unable to hunt down every available clip within the game, so there's more to explore although I think I'm done. One of the most fascinating parts of this game was the parallel words in two different time lines. The stories and choices are similar between the 1981 and 2021 version, and you feel a familiarity going between the two games. I love the inverse of the roles. I'm not sure I'll replay this game in the future. If you love this style of game and completing all paths and endings, I think you may enjoy this game. If you only play it once, I think you'll leave very underwhelmed. It's definitely not as good as others in the genre, but if you do indeed enjoy this genre, you will get something out of this game.

I find this quite hard to rate. The game consists of two stories and I played 1981 first and was just blown away by it. The sets. music, acting, story. A masterpiece. Then comes 2021 and its just rushed, empty, the actors suddenly have no chemistry anymore (maybe this was filmed first?), the sets seem boring and stale. Had it only been the first bit but a bit longer and more complex this would be the best FMV I've ever played, but like this Im hard on the fence of even giving it a thumbs up. I really dont understand how the one part could be so amazing and the other so bad. For 1981 and Anna Popplewell this gets a soft thumbs up.

As far as FMV games go this one was... not so great. Different isn't always better. Having played Bloodshore, Late Shift, The Complex and Five Dates all of which I enjoyed this one was missing something that those other games had. Not that any of them are outstanding, far from it, but they all were entertaining or engaging in their own way and unfortunately The Gallery just didn't have it. There are certain things you have to come to expect and accept when playing these FMV Games. You're not watching something with a Hollywood level script, or acting, or story telling (although Hollywood does tend to fail in this quite a bit). It's more akin to watching a Tubi Original. The acting ranges from deadful to passable, special effects aren't great. You can tell the budget was rather low. Usually the strength is in the story telling, choice-driven narrative and replayability to see the multiple endings. This is where The Gallery fails where it is supposed to succeed. The acting suprisingly was among the strongest I've seen from this genre, limited as it may be. It was nice to see Anna Popplewell doing something again. Even some of the non-leads were okay (most were not). The special effects were awful as is par for the course. The story to me did not really make any sense. Now maybe this is because I wasn't paying that much attention because I was bored (my own fault). I had a friend or two watching with me and they agreed it was a snooze-fest and could get quite melodramatic at times. Without spoiling too much, the plot focuses around art, a brewing revolution in Britain and the main character (an Art Curator) trying to squeeze every last penny from Studio with a high profile painting arriving the next day. It was really trying to do something, it just didn't work. It felt like a very subpar V for Vendetta knock off. It was due to this very boring story that I really just didn't care about my choices, the outcomes or the different interactions with the characters, which is a shame really. There is a fair amount of inclusion in this game as well, if that kind of thing bothers you. The game doesn't whack you over the head with it so IMO who cares. 4/10 I do however highly recommend most FMV Games from Wales Interactive. They may not be the highest of quality, but they're definitely good for some laughs and fun.