Writer, Gamer, and Lifelong student of Game Design. Former General Manager of All Platform Gaming.

Aug 12, 2016

The David Perry Challenge 002- Her Story

Sam Barlow’s Her Story is an incredibly experimental work of interactive fiction, and it’s no wonder it was on the tip of everyone’s tongues when it came time for Game of the Year awards this past year.

It’s hard to talk about Her Story without completely spoiling it, but in a nutshell you play as a detective scrubbing an authentically primitive 1990s computer database for clues in an unresolved murder case.

Her Story reveals its charms slowly, insidiously, cutting under your skin and residing there long after you’ve finished it.

The tale focuses exclusively on one woman as you piece together the mysterious circumstances revolving around her husband’s death. Actress Viva Seifert gives one of the most arresting performances video games have ever seen in a challenging role that requires her to be the game’s lone fixed point of interest.

The game calls back to the (mostly terrible) FMV (full motion video) games of the early ’90s, when the industry was fascinated with the storage potential that then-sparkling CD technology provided. Developers sought to fill up that extra space with live actors delivering “real” performances, to largely mixed and often very gameplay-lite results. Her Story successfully takes this archaic model of game design and runs with it, delivering a surprisingly deep interactive experience in a genre that often lacks real gameplay.

In an appreciated touch of authenticity, your typing in the game is accompanied by heavy, meaty clicks.

Her Story has you typing keywords or phrases into a database in the hopes that they will be spoken aloud in any of the hundreds of video clips on file. Players use their own real-life detective skills, listening closely for hints and bits of dialogue that stand out. The search engine only turns in the top 5 most relevant results, forcing players to dig deep and really focus on the specifics of what’s being shared in each clip.

Due to the completely nonlinear nature in which its plot unravels, Her Story places complete trust in the player’s real-life listening, observational, and reasoning skills. This is a game that is constantly rewarding your hard work with compelling new narrative breadcrumbs, and it is truly the kind of experience that gives back only as much as you put into it.

Every detail is important: clothing, body language, etc. Success in Her Story requires more than just listening.

Aesthetically, the game is brilliant. It uses an archaic, glare-ridden ’90s computer monitor, complete with authentic UI elements and even font from the era. It’s easy to be immersed because the exact same ways that you interact with the game in reality are the methods that your detective avatar uses to resolve the case. In a rather brilliant detail, that immersion is periodically broken as you catch a glimpse of your avatar’s face in the glare of the computer screen, adding one more layer to the game’s complex and satisfying mystery.

For all of its design successes, the greatest lesson that Her Story has to offer is the complete confidence it has in its players. It respects their intelligence and ability. It gives them the tools they need to solve its myriad mysteries, and then sets them loose to do just that. No game will make you feel as much like a detective as Her Story, and few games will haunt you for as long as this one.