Who's Lila?

Who's Lila? is a psychological horror point-and-click adventure game from Russian indie studio Garage Heathen, released in February 2022. It is often called a "reverse-detective adventure" because its core mechanic involves controlling a character's facial expressions to communicate, rather than gathering clues.

The game uses a split-screen interface: the left side lets the player move and interact with the world, while the right side shows a close-up of the character's face. During conversations, the player must manually drag facial features with the cursor to form expressions. A neural network reads these adjustments and classifies them into one of seven emotions: happy, scared, surprised, sad, angry, disgusted, or neutral. A time limit and moving facial features add difficulty, though an easy mode removes these constraints. The game also includes alternate reality elements, requiring players to use external social media pages for fictional characters and a separate program to unlock events. Nonlinear storytelling forces multiple playthroughs, with each ending represented by a tarot card that can be shown to a character for extra insight. There are 15 main endings, plus hidden ones.

The story begins with William Clarke, an 18-year-old living alone, who tells the player he struggles to express emotions and must consciously control each facial muscle. The plot branches into surreal, Lynchian scenes and out-of-order flashbacks. The main route involves William being suspected in the disappearance of classmate Tanya Kennedy, as he was the last person seen with her at a party. Though the player initially thinks William is wrongly accused, it becomes clear he is guilty: he kills Tanya's friend Martha to silence her, and is arrested after Tanya's remains are found in trash bags outside his apartment. Clues reveal the player is not controlling William, but a malevolent entity named Lila, who possessed William before the game began and likely caused Tanya's disappearance. After a certain ending, Detective Yu contacts "William"/Lila, curious about Lila's nature and role. Each subsequent ending unlocks a bonus cutscene where Yu and Lila discuss the central mysteries.

Development included a demo on August 11, 2021, and a release date announcement on February 2, 2022, with the full game launching on February 23. A soundtrack was released on March 25.

Critics praised