Her Story is an interactive mystery game on mobile and desktop, published by Sam Barlow in 2015. The entire game consists of a computer desktop with a few files and an automatically opened application called the L.O.G.I.C. Database. The objective of the game is to piece together the story and reason behind “Simon’s” death by watching short clips of “Hannah’s” (Simon’s wife) interrogation at the police station. The game is bare bones, with minimal mechanics as to not detract from the narrative. The main mechanic is the database search, where users search through the database of videos by keyword, and can also pin videos with key notes. The game also keeps each clip very short (10-30 seconds), a mechanic that forces the player to watch many clips (since the story is incomprehensible otherwise). These mechanics lead to the dynamic of the player actively participating in uncovering the story by watching the videos and interacting with the database.
The game covers a few different types of fun: discovery, challenge, narrative and expression. All the clips are shortened and completely out of order, so the player is forced to watch many clips and thus becomes immersed into the narrative, so they feel like they are actually searching through a police database and not just playing a game. The non-linear element of the videos also helps with this, as players uncover the story themselves and use their intellect to piece it together. Lastly, the game’s “end state” is open to interpretation—it ends with a popup asking the player if they are finished without double checking if the player interpreted the story correctly, so players leave with individual understandings of the game.
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Something that didn’t tie into the narrative for me was the presence of the “MIRROR TILES” game, a 1-player version of the game Reversi. The player plays as both P1 and P2, and from what I could tell, there wasn’t anything making this addition relevant to the mystery element of the game—it just seemed to be added on in case players get stuck or bored watching videos. However, something I really liked about this game was its accessibility. Players have the option of turning off the “arc glare filter” on the computer screen, which takes a little bit away from the realism and immersive narrative, but is still a good option to have for accessibility reasons.
