Her Story Review

Putting aside whether this is a game or not (I think it is and I don't care what you say), this is an experience like nothing I've ever seen. The player is put in front of a 90s computer, with full 4:3 resolution (*gasps*), ancient desktop icons and that immersive glare (*oohs and aahs*). 

You progress through the game by searching keywords from short clips of a series of 7 police interviews with a woman regarding the murder of a man named Simon. For each search term, the first 5 video clips in chronological order are displayed, and from these you pick up new possible keywords to try. The 7 interviews in full only span 1hr30, but they are split up into short 15 second(ish) clips and so the game provides a few hours of entertainment, with plently of time spent mulling over possible clues.

Firstly, the story: clearly, in a game like this the story has to be complex and interesting, as it is the sole motivator for continuing, since the gameplay itself consists of just typing words and clicking, and in this respect Her Story is a success. The story is well-crafted, with the kind of devastating revelations required to keep it engaging, and there are enough leads and red herrings to keep the story from being a matter of typing in important words without thinking, over and over again. That said, in a game where the way in which the story unfolds in entirely dependent on the user, there is always the possibility that you might accidentally stumble across some highly revealing clips early on and have it all worked out within 30 minutes through no fault of your own - imagine if the final few cutscenes of The Last of Us had a 10% chance of playing whenever you reached certain points early on in the game. However, the game does prevent this well. The limiation of your search results to the first 5 in chronological order means that it is very difficult to get the final few important clips accidentally at the start.

Furthermore, once you 'have it worked out', there's still more to do. While I understood what had happened within 150 clips or so (a couple of hours of gameplay), I continued to search until I had found every single clip of the over 350. The fact that the story was so interesting that I felt compelled to understand every single moment of the interviews says a lot. In fact, continuing to play after you know what happened is effectively replaying the game. You notice all of the little references and bits of foreshadowing you would when reading a book or playing a game for the second time. The game also has tools to aid the completionist, as you can increase the amount of clips displayed to 15, and view a random clip at any time in order to complete your database.

The feel of the game is excellent too. With suitable sound effects and music, an immersive interface, and the poor video quality and subtitle font that perfectly emulate that of a 90s videotape, this game really keeps you encapsulated. The acting of Viva Seifert is also good as she portrays a diverse and wide range of emotions without seeming like she's overacting or spelling it out too much, and the fact that the videos are of police interviews helps this, as she needs to be thorough and describe everything in enough detail, so the game doesn't feel like it is giving you the answers too easily, retaining that immersion.

Overall, my favourite thing about this game was that it could only be a game. Some have said that this game could just be watched on Youtube to get the full experience, but I disagree. This is not a game that stops when you step away from your computer. You continue questioning, reasoning and deducing, even when you've completed the game, trying to fully get to the bottom of the characters' motivations and stories. Having literally watched a movie version of this game, with all of the 7 interviews run together and in order, I can safely say that this is not something that would be 'better as a movie'. You can imagine many fantastic film adaptations of videogame stories, but this would not be one of them. Linear games with the same story however you play would make good films, but this game is different for everyone who plays. Your road to finding out what happened is entirely based upon what you find important in clips, and with so many no two people will do it alike. The fact that they can only be portrayed in this form is something not a lot of games do, and it's something I think is a real hallmark of success.

The only negative I can think of associated with this game is that there could have been more than just videos. At some points, it would have been nice to have a picture related to the case from which you could extrapolate relevant search terms. However this is a minor qualm, and I think this game is a must-play for people who enjoy these 'experimental' games, especially at its relatively inexpensive price, though it's maybe not for those accusing it of being 'Polygon-bait' or 'not even a game anyway'.