Welcome to the Platformer where we talk about games in an extremely amateur but fun way! This post is in regards to my Metroid (me) & Vania (girlfriend) series where I introduce my girlfriend to video games! We recently played the interesting Her Story.

Her Story is a detective game where the player investigates a murder, but not how you might think. There’s no one to interview, no clues to find, technically all the work has been done. The player must go through hundreds (possibly thousands, I didn’t count) of clips from several interviews about the murder of a man. It is a story with constant twist and u-turns, even some loop da loops but gripping none the less and Vania loved it. Where did Her Story go so right? Through a combination of simple gameplay and an explorable, well told, story.

You play as a detective going through an old computer tracking down banked video clips. How do you find these clips? You search the tapes through words that may have been said in the clips. Easy right? Just search for murder or the victim’s name and surely the video will pop up. Well no, because only the first 6 videos containing this word appears so you must find and search specifics. This is where the game comes in because from one clip you learn:

• new information
• the murder weapon
• what hair colour the victim likes
• why his left pinkie was blue! (One of these may be a lie).

Luckily Vania was all over it! She didn’t find it frustrating because she could work on the game in real life (she did this by creating a huge list of possibilities and links between them, basically)

Controlling the game was as simple as using a computer to look through documents, no learning curve. Therefore, again, she felt at one with the game. What made this better was the game wasn’t fighting her and she treated it like a real-life puzzle. Which she loves. (How lucky am I?!)

This means nothing without the story, luckily it’s excellent! Firstly I have to give huge credit to Viva Seifert for her incredible performance that would fit right on a cinema screen.

Movies are one of Vania’s true loves, along with TV and Theatre (hopefully games will be on this list soon) as a result of growing up wanting to be an actress. Therefore, she took Her Story seriously and allowed herself to get pulled into the drama. It’s even more impressive the deeper you go into the rabbit hole.

“I felt intrigued the whole time as each video brought new information. However, I did get a little unnerved at times”

Vania recounting fond memories

I don’t want to reveal any spoilers, playing the game would be pointless otherwise, so I want to describe what we felt. One word. Unnerving. Not scary but uncomfortable watching the story unfold, but we also got excited (comically so) at a breakthrough in the investigation. It was like we were exploring an ancient tomb, finding the history that lay within.

Vania said that she wouldn’t play it alone because it was ‘creepy’ and there was one ‘jump scare’ that caused us to shut the screen and throw the laptop. (My blogs should not be costing £100 already!). Never the less she recommends this game to everyone, even her mother, and she’s terrible with horror (Vania had to get it from somewhere).

After that rough ordeal, I do feel like I was onto something with a journey of discovery. Perhaps I will give another indie game a chance but one that will provide a similar environment for her, being a detective. So next time let’s learn about…

God of War III

Thanks for reading! Feel free to subscribe like this post because it helps believe it or not and feel free to tell me your experince with Her Story below.

1. […] Sebastianlondono96 from The Platformer […]

2. 

   Thank you 😀😀 it was great fun to write!

3. 

   Great post 🙂

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