Her Story is a little bit of an oddity. It’s a FMV game where the player has access to a police database and needs to find out what happened.
It’s actually rather good. The whole game is limited to an old-style interface where you’re able to type in words and search for records. I’ve seen a few games that try to emulate old OSes and they lack a feeling of being a working interface. Her Story feels like a proper old computer you’re viewing. Though I immediately turned off the glare filter, it has a great old charm to the aesthetics with it on..
The meat of Her Story is watching these videos, and this gets into the crux of the big question of “Her Story”. It’s a game that involves watching videos and finding other videos to watch through text typing, mostly searching by keywords.
So ultimately the question will be asked. “Is this a game?” And it’s a shame it’s reduced to that, but ultimately your goal as a player is to see as much of the story as you want to see, and it’s a rather fantastic story at that. However it can also be dismissed as not having a well-defined win and loss states, and I think that misses the point. There is a specific video you have to see for the game to show you the credits. You can lose the game by not getting that, or giving up part of the way through. It’s like a puzzle game because if you can’t solve puzzle 4-4 you don’t get the ending. The puzzle here, however, is figuring out the keyword you want to use.
But let’s take a step back from the game question. Her Story is a unique experience, whether it’s a game or not. There’s a number of these interactive stories that aren’t interactive, but Her Story is only really interesting because of the method you use to access the videos. So while a game like God of War or Tomb Raider could be told through a movie, Her Story really only works through the system the game presents.
It’s not about whether this is a game, but rather is this an experience you’ll enjoy, and if you view it as that, we reach the more interesting point.
The entire experience is played through finding keywords as mentioned, and it’s mostly about watching fascinating footage of a single actress. The story is good, and I’ll avoid saying more because it’s a story you need to watch with fresh eyes, I’d recommend not looking up too much about the game if you intend to play it. I am trying hard not to include any hint because I enjoyed the discovery so much that I intend to make my wife play it, so she can experience it in the same way.
The whole keyword system though works because there are dead ends, there are little pieces of information and a couple surprises. When you get the right word you really feel a sense of accomplishment, and when you go down a dead end of information, you feel lost for a moment, and those feelings are excellent.
The only real issue I had is the game decided I had “finished” the game and I’d argue the full story wasn’t available yet. It’s a shame that the game told me the story was over because there was still meat on the bones, but the good news is the game allowed me to dive back into the archives by saying “I’m not done’ and even after the credits the game was still ready to give me more access and gave me a key phrase that allows me a better access, but not really “full access”.
That’s the one issue I really have with the game, I’d have liked a “full story” button at the end of the game to see the raw files, or at least see scenes filmed in the game in the correct order. You can do that by looking at the game files, or do it in-game but it’s a hack more than a legit way to view the story.
However, the story isn’t “complete” and it’s being discussed quite a bit, there’s definitely different interpretations but I am coming around to think the best stories are left open or at least wide enough to have a lively discussion, and Her Story focuses on exactly that, her story. There’s no evidence, there’s no explanation, there’s just videotaped interviews arranged by keyword. While I would have liked a little more, I like the ability to make my own decisions.
I actually applaud the game loudly for adding a new wrinkle to the discussion of “What is a game?” if you dismiss this as a game the question becomes “What is this?” Because it’s compelling and unique and definitely stands on its own merits.
It ultimately comes down to this. If you are willing to watch a woman act out a complex story and then have to prod a database to get answers for what’s going on, Her Story will entertain you for a couple hours. If you want action or a real battle of wits, that’s not what you’re going to get here, but it’s a new and innovative way to tell a story. For a price of six dollars, I have to admit, it definitely was worth my purchase.
It’s not going to be for everyone, but for those who give it a shot and really get involved in the story, it’s going to be discussed for a long time after the final video is viewed.
If this review has helped you or you want to see what games I would recommend, you can find my Steam curator page at this link.
http://store.steampowered.com/curator/31803828-Kinglink-Revi... 4.0