I have just finished one of the games cited in the first post: Late Shift.
I have to confirm that my first impression was correct and that the game is a well-crafted interactive movie, if you compare it with other similar “games”. Production values are very high, the actors are quite good and some choices had actual consequences on parts of the story.
Being just an interactive movie, the “gameplay” is very thin: you watch the movie and every now and then you have to take a decision that usually leads you to a different branch of the story.
This is a screenshot of my stats:
I have seen only one ending, so far, and probably I’ll play the movie again to get a different ending. Replayability is somehow debatable, because to reach a part of the story that you never saw, you still have to watch large parts of the movie that you already saw.
As a game it can be a bit boring, but as an interactive movie it does a good job, if you don’t expect a Hollywood blockbuster.