Her Story is an interactive FMV game where you take on the role of an (initially) unknown person who is sifting through video footage at a police station. Throughout the duration of the game, you sift through a little over 300 video clips of several interviews from 1994 of a British woman named Hannah, who is overly obsessed with fairy tales. By the end of the clips, the player will have a full understanding of what event had transpired, and also who they are within the game.
I'll admit, the main selling point of this title for me was the fact that it was made by Sam Barlow. I'm a huge Silent Hill fan, although Shattered Memories is far from my favorite. Unfortunately, Her Story does not live up to even a fraction of the hype that has surrounded it since its release date in 2015, nor has it lived up to the potential of Sam Barlow. The title is little more than a glorified movie on Steam, masked as an FMV game. "But Splattered Brains, it's full motion video you idiot!" you may say, and I get that; I've played my share of FMV games, emphasis on the word game. Her Story barely qualifies as an FMV game, and the content that you acquire for the price is not justified.
You will begin Her Story with no direction on where to go or how to play. Basically, you will type "keywords" into a search bar to load up videos of the several interviews that are present. The title limits you to only having access to 5 videos at a time, so you must either delete or modify the keywords in order to filter them out of a certain search term. However, this only true game play element is voided by the fact that you can access every single video in the database by using the keyword "blank", and it's easy to figure this out early on. Once you're done watching every single video clip, which range anywhere from 1 second in length to 2 and a half minutes, the game is over.
Yes, so once you've watched the whole movie within the game, the game itself is over. There's no piecing together evidence to try and convict this woman of murder, there's nothing else at all. The "add to session" feature, which will add clips of your choosing to a timeline of events bar, is completely useless and unnecessary; it's only there to try and make the player feel like they have something to accomplish when they actually don't. This game is being marketed as a "detective" game, but you do not even play as a detective; nor are you solving any crimes or mystery! A good half, or maybe even more, of the video clips are useless, even in terms of building a character-audience relationship.
The more I think about it, the more I honestly feel like I was scammed by Her Story. I paid for a detective game, not a glorified movie with a search box that will give you every single video off of one keyword. The title literally has no point whatsoever, other than making it to the end of the clips; to which the entire plot is ultimately revealed with a slight twist. I will give the title this, though, the main actress does a fantastic job. That is the only positive thing that I can take from Her Story. Beware the hype and positive reviews, purchase now if you want a 2 hour movie.
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