Evil School

A bloodstained list, and eight years of buried truth

Evil School casts players as a young woman whose sister disappeared eight years earlier, the truth of what happened buried by the power and status of those responsible. Now she returns, list in hand, to confront that truth and deliver judgment on the people who covered it up. Released on 14 August 2026 by CineGame Interactive at NZ$12.49, it's a serious, socially-minded full-motion-video thriller built around anti-bullying themes, and its Very Positive reception across more than a thousand reviews points to one of the stronger entries the FMV genre has produced this year.

Reviewers calling it a genre high point

The clearest thread across the sample is just how highly detailed reviewers rate the game against its FMV peers. One reviewer, disclosing they were bullied themselves and may be biased, insists "you only need to be human to appreciate this masterpiece," praising the writing, directing, acting and production as "all top tier" and calling it "easily FMVOTY so far" for them, specifically highlighting how the story guides players toward forgiveness by its conclusion. A separate, lengthy review independently calls it "a top-tier game in this genre," while another reviewer frames the whole experience through a genre-savvy lens, favourably comparing its revenge-thriller tone to films like Death Wish and I Spit on Your Grave.

Real investigation, not just video-watching

Beyond its production values, reviewers specifically praise how the game handles player agency within the FMV format. One reviewer, who admits going in expecting "an exploitation film" focused on objectifying its cast, reports being pleasantly surprised to find "a straight up revenge game" instead, specifically praising "actual detective work" and "tons of gameplay innovation" they hope becomes more common across the genre. Mechanically, that plays out through a mix of watched video scenes, narrative choices, and quick-time events used to avoid danger at key moments, a structure another reviewer describes as making the story "feel dangerous" precisely because of how directly choices are tied to consequences on screen.

Tense enough to finish in one sitting

Several reviewers describe the game's pacing and tension as genuinely gripping rather than merely watchable. One writes that the experience is "proper tense the whole way through cos everything hinges on your choices," reporting they finished the entire game in under a day because it "grips you so hard." That kind of binge-worthy pacing is echoed across multiple reviews in the sample, several of which specifically mention completing all seven of the game's chapters in a single extended session, a notable engagement signal for a genre often criticised for dragging.

Where the branching narrative shows its limits

Set against that praise, the sample's most detailed critical account pushes back specifically on how much player choice actually matters. That reviewer reports that "decisions don't matter too much" in practice, since taking a wrong path tends to trigger a bad ending almost immediately, effectively railroading players back onto the game's single correct path rather than offering meaningfully divergent outcomes. The same reviewer separately criticises a specific localisation choice, questioning why a Chinese production set its story in an overseas Chinese school in Japan, describing the choice as an odd fit that undercuts the story's sense of place.

The developer's own remarkably candid self-assessment

In an unusually direct public post-mortem published less than a week after release, CineGame Interactive's producer openly concedes several of the same weaknesses reviewers describe, stating plainly that the game's seventh and final chapter is "notably thin," that the overall runtime is "somewhat short," and that "some of the logic doesn't hold up to scrutiny." That same statement frames Evil School as a commercially underperforming but still "T1-level" work within China's shrinking FMV production scene, a rare level of self-critical transparency from a developer that lends real weight to the review sample's more specific complaints.

A disbanded studio, but a fully playable game

That same announcement confirms the studio's film-and-game production team has disbanded entirely, citing the FMV genre's shrinking commercial viability in China, exactly one week after Evil School's release. Crucially, the announcement is explicit that this does not affect existing owners: the company states it has already paid for 20 years of server hosting, meaning the game and its current in-progress in-game events will continue to function and pay out as promised, even though no sequel or major future content should be expected from the now-disbanded team.

What the disbandment post reveals about the production itself

Beyond its self-critique, the studio's announcement is unusually specific about the resources that went into the game, context that helps explain the level of polish reviewers praise. The producer states the total production cost ran to just over 7.5 million yuan, with roughly 4.5 million of that spent on filming and post-production alone, across a shoot lasting about 25 days with a crew of more than 100 people, followed by several more months of post-production and development work by a smaller team of 10 to 15 people. That's a genuinely substantial budget for a niche interactive- movie release, and it lines up with the review sample's consistent praise for acting, cinematography and directing quality well above what a budget FMV title typically delivers.

What the achievement data says about completion

Global achievement data offers a useful cross-check on how far the wider playerbase has pushed into the game's content. A milestone for solving all of the game's puzzles sits at a healthy 57.7% of the tracked player base, while fully completing every bonus objective falls to 27.1%, and the game's overall full-completion achievement sits at just 9.3%. That distribution is consistent with an FMV thriller whose main story is widely finished, given the earlier milestones in the high 60s and 70s, but whose more demanding side content and alternate-path exploration is engaged with by only a smaller, more dedicated subset of players.

Final verdict

Evil School backs up a serious, well-produced anti-bullying revenge thriller with real, specific praise for its production values, its tense branching structure, and unusually genuine investigative gameplay for the FMV genre, from a Very Positive reception across a large and detailed review base. Its acknowledged weaknesses, a thin final chapter, some overly-guided decision-making, and an odd localisation choice, are candidly echoed by the developer's own remarkably transparent post-launch statement. At NZ$12.49, this is a strong recommendation for FMV fans looking for a serious, well-crafted thriller, tempered only by the certainty that its now- disbanded studio won't be returning to expand on it further.