I Got My Non-Gamer Roommate To Play “Her Story” And Here’s What Happened

A few days ago, I posted a list of videogames that I think are perfect for non-gamers. Today I tested it — for science!

“ Her Story grants players access to a police database of archived video footage that covers seven interviews from 1994 in which a British woman is interviewed by detectives about her missing husband. Players take on the role of the person sat before a police computer terminal, their own computer or device playing the part of the fictional computer. They type search queries and the database returns clips of the answers where the woman speaks those words.” — from www.herstorygame.com

Since its release in June 2015, Her Story has been praised by the audience and critics. Described as “a bold experiment in interactive storytelling” (Pocket Gamer), “a superb detective game” (Rock Paper Shotgun) and “the computer game where True Detective meets Google” (The Guardian), it holds a 91% positive rating on Steam.

But would my roommate — who hasn’t played any games since Super Mario Bros. — like it?

Luckily for my credibility as a list-writer, she loved it.

And more interestingly, she had almost the same positive and negative comments about the game that I’ve read in professional reviews, despite her near-zero experience with the medium.

Pros:

• A captivating story. In her words: “if I hadn’t had a date for dinner, I would have probably continued playing all night”. I know the feel, sis.
• The gameplay is based on logic and finding clues. Many casual gamers get frustrated when confronted with puzzles they simply can’t pass because they are not experienced enough with the controls. All the same, they may worry to be “not good enough” and just give up games in general. Titles like Her Story offer more than button mashing.

Cons:

• Lack of instructions and information about the setting, making it difficult to understand the objective from the start. While this feature is perceived as a breath of fresh air from gamers, tired of tutorials and fairies that tell you always what to do, it can cause confusion and disorientation in less-experienced players.
• Almost no feedback on how your investigation is proceeding and “how well you’re doing”. But she also clarified that this gave the game a sense of realism, because “the rules are the same as the rules in real life, it’s doesn’t feel like a fictional world”.

In general, what striked me most during the “experiment” was seeing how heavy is the expectation for what video games should or shouldn’t be, even in people with little experience of them.

Special thanks to my roomie Francesca, test subject extraordinaire! If you liked this post of think I got it all wrong, please let me know in the comments below and thank you for reading.