This strange adventure game is controlled by pulling faces Rock Paper Shotgun Support us Join our newsletter Visit our store Sign in / Create account If you click on a link and make a purchase we may receive a small commission. Read our editorial policy. This strange adventure game is controlled by pulling faces Literally, pulling your character's face to set his expression News by Alice O'Connor Associate Editor Published on Feb. 25, 2022 2 comments Moody new adventure game Who's Lila? has an interesting alternative to selecting dialogue options: pulling faces. And you really have to pull the face. Drag your fella's facial features around to form expressions, and that emotion will be the foundation of his behaviour in conversation. It's an interesting challenge on a timer, and the intentional performance of emotion feels perfectly sinister when maybe we know a little too much about a missing person. Who's Lila? does have a demo, so you can pull some faces yourself. Watch on YouTube There we are, William, a teenager who looks like a blend of Evan Peters, Tom Holland, and Michael Cera, and who supposedly has trouble expressing emotions. He has to intentionally form expressions, and on this day we take over doing that for him. In conversation, what he says and does is dictated by the mood his expression conveys, and we have to drag his mouth, eyes, brows, and cheeks around to set that (a "specifically trained face-recognizing neural network" inteprets our arrangement, the blurb claims) while a timer ticks down. It's an interesting challenge. You have to consider what different emotions might lead to in different situations, what stances might reveal or responses they might provoke, then quickly work to tug his face and form an expression. You might want to carefully consider William's reactions when a girl from school is missing, he was the last person known to have seen her, rumours are circulating, and he's far from forthcoming. I played the demo, and I'm into it. I think we're initially meant to assume William is a psychopath (in a pop psychology, 'American Psycho' sorta sense) and that he murdered Tanya. I can't help but feel something stranger is going on. Some weird vibes, especially in the school basement. And sometimes William's supposedly blank face would start creeping up into an eerie smile I had to actively tug back down. Hmmm! Mysterious. At this point, it feels like it could lead in various interesting directions, or could lead in one obvious direction. It's earned my interest (and trust?) enough for me to play on and find out. I am hopeful for weird psychological horror, not just unpleasantness. I did enjoy times I fumbled the expression I was trying to form, taking conversation in a direction I certainly hadn't intended but the game was prepared for. Also, William's face often ends up looking silly, and silly faces are funny. I dig the look too, a split view with a low-fidelity dithered 3D world to click around adventure-style in the left panel and William's face staring back at me in the right. Good music and all. Who's Lila? is out now on Steam and Itch.io. A 20% launch discount brings it down to £7.43/€7.99/$9.59 until the 2nd of March. The demo is over there on Steam too. More News Jack King-Spooner's next handcrafted game has a teaser demo out Judero brings chat and action in the Scottish Borders Alice O'Connor 17 hours ago 1 If you were hoping for any Overwatch 2 balance changes then you'll have to wait until season two The next season begins in December CJ Wheeler 18 hours ago 3 The Dead Space remake will chuck random Necromorphs at you as you wander the Ishimura In space, no one can hear you proper bricking it CJ Wheeler 18 hours ago 8 Valve register mysterious new Neon Prime trademark in the US It doesn’t seem to be for a particularly colourful Steam Deck CJ Wheeler 20 hours ago 11 Latest Articles What are we all playing this weekend? Well? Alice O'Connor an hour ago 22 Past Wordle answers Here's an archive of previous Wordle words Ollie Toms 2 hours ago 1 Wordle answer today (Saturday 15 October) Hints and the answer to today's Wordle word Rebecca Jones 9 hours ago Overwatch 2 hero tier list Which are the best heroes in Overwatch 2? Ollie Toms 16 hours ago Supporters Only You're probably better than me at One Many Nobody You go on without… uh, you? Sin Vega 17 hours ago Supporter podcast - The Nate Files episode 13: dry bones Bad science is also FUN science! Alice Bell 18 hours ago Japanese dating show Love Wagon has surprising parallels with Yakuza and Persona My new obsession Ed Thorn 2 days ago If you're hankering after Bayonetta 3, Valkyrie Elysium might be a good substitute It's not out on PC until next month, but the console demo has been a surprise charmer Katharine Castle 1 week ago 4 We've been talking, and we think that you should wear clothes Total coincidence, but we sell some clothes Buy RPS stuff here