Laura’s Story is the indirect sequel to A Normal Lost Phone, another screen simulator focused on searching through a stranger’s messages and apps. You are a third party in both stories - a witness to the private life of someone you’ve never met. As you find the passwords to their locked accounts, you will slowly unravel their personal history and current whereabouts.
Besides their identical formula, the two games share another important similarity; both focus on different - but comparably serious - themes. They discuss subject matter that almost no other game will approach. Yet, this duology does so happily, with the aim of informing their players in an engaging way.
This ends up being a blessing and a curse in both cases. The good intentions are evident, but ANLP and Laura’s Story both feel clinical and impersonal at times. Ping put it well when they said the writing reads like a PSA, especially post-reveal.
Still, I admire the utilization of this unique aspect of video games. It’s an advantage that they have over every other entertainment medium - the inherent immersiveness and direct involvement. There is something emotionally stirring about controlling the flow of your experience, something that you don’t get with anything else. Even if you have little choice in what happens, you’re still making the story move forward. ANLP and Laura’s Story are good examples of the unique ways this can be put to use; even if they’re far from perfect in execution, they aim to put the players directly in the shoes of suffering people. It’s a powerful tool.
Yet, I still find myself disappointed by this game. It’s not like ANLP was perfect, either, but it had a lot of heart and love put into the story, presentation, and character interactions. Meanwhile, Laura’s Story has almost nothing that made ANLP memorable. I feel the need to compare the two throughout this review to properly express why I’m so disappointed by the sequel’s shortcomings.
SHORT REVIEW
Visuals: 2/5
Sound: 3/5
Story: 2.5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Worldbuilding: 1.5/5
Overall game score: 2.5/5
IN-DEPTH REVIEW
VISUALS
To start with, ANLP’s art direction is warm, inviting, and colorful. It sports a hand-painted feel, with simple - but charming - icons and interfaces. It was one of my favorite things about the game, and something that I still remember months later.
Unfortunately, Laura’s Story is the stark opposite. There are no pleasant color palettes; instead, the phone is largely an impersonal, cold ‘white and pink’. There’s no background photo, no appealing app homepages/icons. The phone has almost no personality at all; it feels so generic, totally unrelated to Laura. There’s barely even any pictures to be found, whether in the gallery or in her messages. It’s a pretty big letdown, because Sam’s phone in ANLP felt like a real slice of her life, tailored to her specifically.
On top of that, the interface is a confusing mess. ANLP’s setup is simple, but it still sets itself apart from any boring real-life phone. Meanwhile, Laura’s Story tries too hard to be unique. There’s too many ways to get to the same places, poorly-designed navigation buttons, and a perplexing home screen.
I will say that the one thing Laura’s Story has over its predecessor is the character art. While the pieces in ANLP were charming too, the ones here generally feel less rushed. The profile pictures for each character, as well as the gallery pictures, are really well-made.
But besides that, ANLP’s visual design is just better. The devs wanted to make their sequel stand out so badly that they hurt the functionality of the navigation - while at the same time removing all of the personality that made the first game feel special.
Overall, 2/5.
SOUND
ANLP’s soundtrack is made up of relaxing acoustic pieces accompanied by pleasurable vocals; the lyrics often fall flat, but if you don’t overthink it, it sets a really nice atmosphere. And just like the visuals, it feels tailored to Sam. Not only do these songs feel like what she’d be into, but they discuss themes pertinent to her and what she’s been through (such as being a misfit or wanting a happier life.)
Meanwhile, Laura’s Story takes a different approach; it focuses on lyric-void lo-fi beats. It still manages to add to the atmosphere a lot - but it feels much less personal to Laura. The only song that holds any meaning to her arc is ‘True Love’, a romantic piece with a few generic lyrics. Besides that, there’s nothing that connects to her.
It’s good music, don’t get me wrong. I found it very calming. But it just feels much more low-effort when compared to ANLP’s soundtrack.
Overall, 3/5.
STORY
[Spoiler warning for this whole section.]
Laura’s Story is about the relationship between the titular Laura and her boyfriend Ben. They’ve moved in together five months before the start of the game, and things seem to be going very well between them. Both parties always appear ecstatic to be together through texts; they’re sickeningly sweet to one another, and always doing things for each other.
However, as the plot progresses, there are more and more clues that something isn’t right between them. Laura suddenly doesn’t talk to or go out with her friends. She works from home due to an embarrassing video sent to coworkers by an anonymous person. You discover that Ben is prone to jealous rages and perpetuating the abusive cycle. This relationship that seemed so idyllic at first, turns out to be abusive, manipulative, and controlling.
In my opinion, Laura’s Story is a fairly nice representation of the issue at hand. By no means is it perfect - just like ANLP wasn’t - but it makes a decent attempt at discussing a topic that’s difficult to represent accurately, especially if you haven’t been through it yourself. Most developers would never even try to make a game about such a grave matter, so I give the team props for that alone.
But, as I’ve mentioned, my main problem with the story is how clinical its writing feels post-reveal. ANLP had the same issue, where parts of it read like an information-dump, rather than organic human interaction. It’s neither immersive nor fun.
Something else I noticed was the lack of hints towards abuse within the texts. As I said, they always seem totally happy together. There are a few red flags, such as Ben faking a migraine to convince Laura to not go out with friends - but nothing that reads as 100%, undeniable mistreatment. I think there’d HAVE to be much bigger indications of the truth in a real chat history between abuser and victim.
You could make an argument that Laura deleted the upsetting texts to try to forget them, but that’s never mentioned in-game - in fact, quite the opposite. Towards the end, Laura is asked if she has incriminating evidence of his behavior to launch an investigation, and she responds that she does. So there’s really no reason for their texts to be as ‘clean’ as they are.
Of course, the devs most likely did this to stall the realization of the twist. ANLP had very good pacing in this department - Laura’s Story, not so much. To be fair, it makes sense that incriminating messages to friends, where she is questioning her relationship, would be hidden so Ben couldn’t find them easily. But there’s still almost nothing to provoke a sense of caution early on.
That being said, I do think one particular conversation was done well; Laura is talking to an ex-friend of Ben’s, who had been pretending to be a work-related contact of hers. It’s someone Ben had previously claimed is a crazy and jealous creep with a crush on him. However, said ex-friend tells Laura that Ben treated his last girlfriend very badly, that she was worried about Laura, and that she had no other way of contacting her without Ben knowing.
It’s a great turning point. After all, you can understand Laura’s feeling of betrayal when she finds out that the ex-friend had been lying about her identity. It’s executed in a realistic manner, with Laura denying the ex-friend’s points despite them being logical. It would be hard to believe someone who’d just been caught lying, over the words of your own partner.
Besides that, the one thing I think Laura’s Story does particularly well is the ending. Laura directly emails the player, explaining her situation and asking whoever finds her phone to ping the GPS app to send Ben on a wild goose chase, then erase the phone’s data. I infer that she wanted to be far away before the ping, so I think this is a sensible ending - and it’s much better than reading a conversation between two people who tell you what to do indirectly and unnaturally, like in ANLP.
Ultimately, there are a few things to appreciate about the story. Although it turned out average at best, I still respect its existence. I hope other games similar to it surface, ones that are willing to talk about real-life problems in a respectful and insightful manner.
Overall, 2.5/5.
GAMEPLAY
There are actually a few challenging puzzles in here. ANLP’s passwords were all based around dates important to Samira - they were never too hard to guess. Meanwhile, Laura’s are more complicated and unpredictable. I admire this new layer of creativity. However, some of them end up being a bit convoluted. I even had to use a guide at one point!
To be fair, though, many screen simulators put little to no effort into their mechanics - if they do include puzzles at all, they’re rarely good. These certainly aren’t the best, but it’s nice to see the thought and effort put into them, just like with ANLP.
Overall, 3/5.
WORLDBUILDING
One of my biggest problems with Laura’s Story is the lack of characterization, both in terms of Laura herself and the people around her.
Sam was a pretty in-depth character for how short the game was; we knew her hobbies, her dreams, her family life, her views, and her personal relationships. Sure, some of that HAD to be included to set the stage for the story, but there was a lot to learn and like about Sam as a character.
Meanwhile, Laura has almost no personality. All we know about her outside of her love of Ben are some of her personal relationships, her job, and that she used to go out to drink with friends. There’s little to make her a three-dimensional character. Again, the visual and sound design play a part in this; despite a phone being someone’s most personalized object in many cases, it holds almost no clues to what Laura is really like, or her background.
And everyone around Laura is just as flat. We know nothing about Ben, not even what he does for work. All of Laura’s friends type and act the same, as opposed to ANLP, where many of the side characters had their own texting style and disposition. I wish more time had been put into making each character stand out from each other more.
Overall, 1.5/5.
Overall score: 2.5/5. Even though it’s not as good as A Normal Lost Phone, I still like Laura’s Story. The plot, worldbuilding, and presentation are much more mediocre - but it’s still a decent story for a one-hour game, with relaxing music and some fun puzzles. Most importantly, it has a good heart, just like ANLP.
If you enjoyed ANLP, I’d recommend giving this one a try too. If you haven’t played either, choose ANLP over Laura’s Story.
Besides their identical formula, the two games share another important similarity; both focus on different - but comparably serious - themes. They discuss subject matter that almost no other game will approach. Yet, this duology does so happily, with the aim of informing their players in an engaging way.
This ends up being a blessing and a curse in both cases. The good intentions are evident, but ANLP and Laura’s Story both feel clinical and impersonal at times. Ping put it well when they said the writing reads like a PSA, especially post-reveal.
Still, I admire the utilization of this unique aspect of video games. It’s an advantage that they have over every other entertainment medium - the inherent immersiveness and direct involvement. There is something emotionally stirring about controlling the flow of your experience, something that you don’t get with anything else. Even if you have little choice in what happens, you’re still making the story move forward. ANLP and Laura’s Story are good examples of the unique ways this can be put to use; even if they’re far from perfect in execution, they aim to put the players directly in the shoes of suffering people. It’s a powerful tool.
Yet, I still find myself disappointed by this game. It’s not like ANLP was perfect, either, but it had a lot of heart and love put into the story, presentation, and character interactions. Meanwhile, Laura’s Story has almost nothing that made ANLP memorable. I feel the need to compare the two throughout this review to properly express why I’m so disappointed by the sequel’s shortcomings.
SHORT REVIEW
Visuals: 2/5
Sound: 3/5
Story: 2.5/5
Gameplay: 3/5
Worldbuilding: 1.5/5
Overall game score: 2.5/5
IN-DEPTH REVIEW
VISUALS
To start with, ANLP’s art direction is warm, inviting, and colorful. It sports a hand-painted feel, with simple - but charming - icons and interfaces. It was one of my favorite things about the game, and something that I still remember months later.
Unfortunately, Laura’s Story is the stark opposite. There are no pleasant color palettes; instead, the phone is largely an impersonal, cold ‘white and pink’. There’s no background photo, no appealing app homepages/icons. The phone has almost no personality at all; it feels so generic, totally unrelated to Laura. There’s barely even any pictures to be found, whether in the gallery or in her messages. It’s a pretty big letdown, because Sam’s phone in ANLP felt like a real slice of her life, tailored to her specifically.
On top of that, the interface is a confusing mess. ANLP’s setup is simple, but it still sets itself apart from any boring real-life phone. Meanwhile, Laura’s Story tries too hard to be unique. There’s too many ways to get to the same places, poorly-designed navigation buttons, and a perplexing home screen.
I will say that the one thing Laura’s Story has over its predecessor is the character art. While the pieces in ANLP were charming too, the ones here generally feel less rushed. The profile pictures for each character, as well as the gallery pictures, are really well-made.
But besides that, ANLP’s visual design is just better. The devs wanted to make their sequel stand out so badly that they hurt the functionality of the navigation - while at the same time removing all of the personality that made the first game feel special.
Overall, 2/5.
SOUND
ANLP’s soundtrack is made up of relaxing acoustic pieces accompanied by pleasurable vocals; the lyrics often fall flat, but if you don’t overthink it, it sets a really nice atmosphere. And just like the visuals, it feels tailored to Sam. Not only do these songs feel like what she’d be into, but they discuss themes pertinent to her and what she’s been through (such as being a misfit or wanting a happier life.)
Meanwhile, Laura’s Story takes a different approach; it focuses on lyric-void lo-fi beats. It still manages to add to the atmosphere a lot - but it feels much less personal to Laura. The only song that holds any meaning to her arc is ‘True Love’, a romantic piece with a few generic lyrics. Besides that, there’s nothing that connects to her.
It’s good music, don’t get me wrong. I found it very calming. But it just feels much more low-effort when compared to ANLP’s soundtrack.
Overall, 3/5.
STORY
[Spoiler warning for this whole section.]
Laura’s Story is about the relationship between the titular Laura and her boyfriend Ben. They’ve moved in together five months before the start of the game, and things seem to be going very well between them. Both parties always appear ecstatic to be together through texts; they’re sickeningly sweet to one another, and always doing things for each other.
However, as the plot progresses, there are more and more clues that something isn’t right between them. Laura suddenly doesn’t talk to or go out with her friends. She works from home due to an embarrassing video sent to coworkers by an anonymous person. You discover that Ben is prone to jealous rages and perpetuating the abusive cycle. This relationship that seemed so idyllic at first, turns out to be abusive, manipulative, and controlling.
In my opinion, Laura’s Story is a fairly nice representation of the issue at hand. By no means is it perfect - just like ANLP wasn’t - but it makes a decent attempt at discussing a topic that’s difficult to represent accurately, especially if you haven’t been through it yourself. Most developers would never even try to make a game about such a grave matter, so I give the team props for that alone.
But, as I’ve mentioned, my main problem with the story is how clinical its writing feels post-reveal. ANLP had the same issue, where parts of it read like an information-dump, rather than organic human interaction. It’s neither immersive nor fun.
Something else I noticed was the lack of hints towards abuse within the texts. As I said, they always seem totally happy together. There are a few red flags, such as Ben faking a migraine to convince Laura to not go out with friends - but nothing that reads as 100%, undeniable mistreatment. I think there’d HAVE to be much bigger indications of the truth in a real chat history between abuser and victim.
You could make an argument that Laura deleted the upsetting texts to try to forget them, but that’s never mentioned in-game - in fact, quite the opposite. Towards the end, Laura is asked if she has incriminating evidence of his behavior to launch an investigation, and she responds that she does. So there’s really no reason for their texts to be as ‘clean’ as they are.
Of course, the devs most likely did this to stall the realization of the twist. ANLP had very good pacing in this department - Laura’s Story, not so much. To be fair, it makes sense that incriminating messages to friends, where she is questioning her relationship, would be hidden so Ben couldn’t find them easily. But there’s still almost nothing to provoke a sense of caution early on.
That being said, I do think one particular conversation was done well; Laura is talking to an ex-friend of Ben’s, who had been pretending to be a work-related contact of hers. It’s someone Ben had previously claimed is a crazy and jealous creep with a crush on him. However, said ex-friend tells Laura that Ben treated his last girlfriend very badly, that she was worried about Laura, and that she had no other way of contacting her without Ben knowing.
It’s a great turning point. After all, you can understand Laura’s feeling of betrayal when she finds out that the ex-friend had been lying about her identity. It’s executed in a realistic manner, with Laura denying the ex-friend’s points despite them being logical. It would be hard to believe someone who’d just been caught lying, over the words of your own partner.
Besides that, the one thing I think Laura’s Story does particularly well is the ending. Laura directly emails the player, explaining her situation and asking whoever finds her phone to ping the GPS app to send Ben on a wild goose chase, then erase the phone’s data. I infer that she wanted to be far away before the ping, so I think this is a sensible ending - and it’s much better than reading a conversation between two people who tell you what to do indirectly and unnaturally, like in ANLP.
Ultimately, there are a few things to appreciate about the story. Although it turned out average at best, I still respect its existence. I hope other games similar to it surface, ones that are willing to talk about real-life problems in a respectful and insightful manner.
Overall, 2.5/5.
GAMEPLAY
There are actually a few challenging puzzles in here. ANLP’s passwords were all based around dates important to Samira - they were never too hard to guess. Meanwhile, Laura’s are more complicated and unpredictable. I admire this new layer of creativity. However, some of them end up being a bit convoluted. I even had to use a guide at one point!
To be fair, though, many screen simulators put little to no effort into their mechanics - if they do include puzzles at all, they’re rarely good. These certainly aren’t the best, but it’s nice to see the thought and effort put into them, just like with ANLP.
Overall, 3/5.
WORLDBUILDING
One of my biggest problems with Laura’s Story is the lack of characterization, both in terms of Laura herself and the people around her.
Sam was a pretty in-depth character for how short the game was; we knew her hobbies, her dreams, her family life, her views, and her personal relationships. Sure, some of that HAD to be included to set the stage for the story, but there was a lot to learn and like about Sam as a character.
Meanwhile, Laura has almost no personality. All we know about her outside of her love of Ben are some of her personal relationships, her job, and that she used to go out to drink with friends. There’s little to make her a three-dimensional character. Again, the visual and sound design play a part in this; despite a phone being someone’s most personalized object in many cases, it holds almost no clues to what Laura is really like, or her background.
And everyone around Laura is just as flat. We know nothing about Ben, not even what he does for work. All of Laura’s friends type and act the same, as opposed to ANLP, where many of the side characters had their own texting style and disposition. I wish more time had been put into making each character stand out from each other more.
Overall, 1.5/5.
Overall score: 2.5/5. Even though it’s not as good as A Normal Lost Phone, I still like Laura’s Story. The plot, worldbuilding, and presentation are much more mediocre - but it’s still a decent story for a one-hour game, with relaxing music and some fun puzzles. Most importantly, it has a good heart, just like ANLP.
If you enjoyed ANLP, I’d recommend giving this one a try too. If you haven’t played either, choose ANLP over Laura’s Story.