The game is a oneshot that revolves around the missing teenage girl Alice Briarwood where the players take on the roles of her closest friends who try to find out what happened to her. During the start of the game, players can choose from a number of ready-made character cards, all of which have a relationship with Alice, as well as a background, a secret and a thing that must appear in a voice message to Alice that each player must record. You also get a random "drive" card that establishes a personality trait and the relationship with two of the other players. After a short presentation of each other, the game begins.

The game has a rather different structure as all communication during the game takes place quietly via text messages such as text messages or chat (both to the whole group and privately between the characters). The game is also powered by a 90-minute animated countdown with background music. At certain specified times (when there are 90, 80, 70, 60, 50, 45, 40, 35, 30, 20 and 10 minutes left) a random clue card is drawn that establishes an event in the current game. In addition to this, there are also "location" and "suspect" cards that are linked primarily to the clue cards but also places where players can look for Alice. All communication about the different cards is then woven into their text messages. When the last clue card (10 minutes) is drawn, it describes what the search results in and in what condition you find Alice.

Since the game deals with a sensitive and dark subject, the author has included both a clear description of X-mechanics, but also "Lines & Veils" to flag subjects that players may feel are uncomfortable. "Lines" for topics that you do not want to be confronted with at all and "Veils" for topics that are ok as long as they are not described in detail.

I think this is a pretty exciting move to experience a story, although I am very unsure of how well it works in practice to "only" communicate via text messages for 1.5 hours. The layout is a bit strange when you have to use physical cards, and thus should preferably be in the same geographical location (but only allowed to send text messages). The game has a Roll20 variant ($ 20), and I would guess that the variant where you sat in completely different places can work better (especially considering today's rules regarding social distance).

I interpret the replay value of the product as low (I even think it is expressed that way in the rules). If you have played through it once, the risk is great that you do not get as much out of it when you know which "drives" there are.

All in all, I still think this is an exciting game and I would like to play it if I can only find good technical conditions for handing out the cards digitally (but not by adding another $ 20 to get access to the Roll20 version) .