Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story

Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story is a very good narrative game tackling a difficult but important subject matter. As someone who's gone through something similar to Laura, I'm glad this game exists. The part where she couldn't accept what was happening for so long was especially relatable. The counter app too... While it brought up some trauma at times, this game was overall healing, I think. It was comforting.

A pretty nice little narrative game where you can dive into someone's complicated life, using hints from their emails, texts, notes, etc. to unlock additional apps. The puzzles are pretty reasonable, and for the most part the game is intriguing and enjoyable. The art is nice, too. I definitely think it's an improvement over A Normal Lost Phone. I did suspect what was going on right from the beginning because I've been in a similar situation, but overall I think the game does a good job of slowly unraveling the story as the player goes through it. I enjoyed the first half of the game more than the second because as you get to the end, it starts to feel very preachy. It feels like the devs' primary goal was activism, not making a good game. Regardless of your cause, preachy games will generally fall flat and good games will actually spread the message. They did manage to make a decent game, but that's [i]despite[/i] all the preachiness at the end. The information the devs want to share is good, but trying to pass it off as a text conversation doesn't work. Very unnatural and immersion-breaking. And speaking of "unnatural"... I looked through some other people's screenshots and saw that the messages are probably better in the English version, but whoever did the German localization really sucks. Periods at the end of every message, spaces before ellipses, "ha ha ha" instead of "hahaha"... I feel like everyone in the game is either a boomer or a literary agent. But anyway, it's still a pretty good game.

enjoyed it way more than the first tbh. puzzles are a lot more fun, the story feels less contrived, and the twist isn't instantly spoiled by the steam tags. i can't say i recommend the first one, but i do recommend this one.

Another Lost Phone: Laura's Story is definitely an improvement over A Normal Lost Phone. I was skeptical about buying it since I didn’t enjoy the first one, but after seeing a few reviews saying this one was better, and after realizing it would only cost me 63¢ since I already owned the first game, I gave it a shot. This sequel fixes a lot of the issues I had with the original. You’re still digging through a lot of text, but it feels more engaging this time, with different apps offering pieces of the story. The plot is more vague at first, so it took me longer to piece things together, which I actually appreciated. The subject matter hit harder too, as I’m also a survivor of DV, and the game offers genuinely helpful information for that kind of situation. Toward the end, it does start to feel more like a message directed at the player than a natural conversation, but it’s handled better than in the first game. I’d recommend this one on sale, and I hope the next game improves even further.

This game and the prequel (A normal lost phone) are both amazing but short. I'd love to find more games like this or similar to scratch the snooping itch I never knew I had. I've played the Simulacra games and I like solving the mysteries too.

i really enjoy narrative puzzle games like these that rely heavily on the player interacting with the game's environment to figure out what the puzzle is and then how to solve it. the story being so realistic was quite sobering, but i was very happy with the ending. loved playing this.

Fun and short puzzle/detective game with a surprisingly serious theme. It's worth the $1 or whatever absurdly cheap price this game goes for on sale.

I really loved the prequel and had hoped to love this too, however it was just really boring.