Game review: Playlink's Hidden Agenda is a bleak serial killer romp for you and your friends

Hidden Agenda puts you and your friends in charge of a serial killer cop case.

"Every choice you make affects the future," warns Hidden Agenda, a game that asks you to gather your mates, download apps to your smartphones, get in sync then start making some tough group decisions. "Choose carefully."

It's a well-worn refrain from a host of recent games in which every decision you make affects future outcomes, from Heavy Rain's ambitious slog to Xbox's underrated time bender Quantum Break and Until Dawn's gory thrills.

Playstation's Detroit: Become Human looks like it's trying to take that concept to the next level with its controversial robotic vision of the future, due for release this year.

Until then we have Hidden Agenda, a different entry to the genre of games ruled by the butterfly effect.

Released before Christmas, it's also the latest addition to Playlink, Playstation's umbrella for a series of games that wants you to stop playing online and start playing with your family and friends next to you on the couch.

That line-up started with That's You, a hokey but surprisingly fun party game that's a mixture of Cranium, Pictionary and Cards Against Humanity, best played in a group of four for maximum lols.

It's recently been joined by Knowledge is Power, a kooky arcade game show for up to six players, the latest incarnation of its karaoke powerhouse SingStar Celebration, and Planet of the Apes: Last Frontier, a surprisingly well-animated piece that links the last two films in the series.

But with its moody graphics, gritty cop feel and serial killer storyline, Hidden Agenda seems to be the stand-out title for the Playlink canon. It's definitely ambitious, requires interactivity, and lands with a pretty brutal opening burst that the rest of the game can't quite live up to.

You play as a cop on the trail of the "Trapper" murderer, a serial killer named for his trademark calling card: putting bombs on the bodies of his victims. To track him down, you and your friends influence outcomes by interacting with the game through the app, choosing dialogue and decisions by moving a pointer into boxes.

Yes, Hidden Agenda is a little bleak. It's also a little joyless: after that all-action opening, there are long periods of police procedural dialogue that may have you wishing for another screen to go with the TV and smartphone you're already using.

But Hidden Agenda gets better as it goes along as the real killer, and their motives, are uncovered. It has more going for it too, including some double-crossing shenanigans you can play out with your friends.

At $25 it doesn't look cheap, with great graphics, moody set pieces, gloomy and sinister scenarios and a story that, mostly, makes sense. But the lack of an off button for the subtitles frustrated my first playthrough.

But for a short all-in experience that manages to involve six players, Hidden Agenda gets a pass mark. Put that down to the experience of Supermassive Games, the UK team that delivered Until Dawn.

Here, they've delivered a tantalising taste of what Playlink could become. More, please.

Hidden Agenda
Platform: Playstation 4
Rating: R13
Stars: 3.5
Verdict: Gather your friends for this bleak serial killer romp