For this critical play, I downloaded Her Story for IOS.
HerStory revolves around a series of police interview videos featuring a woman named Hannah Smith. The game presents you database interface, allowing you to search for keywords within the transcripts and videos. By piecing together fragments of dialogue, you can uncover snippets of information, gradually constructing what has happened. The target audience for this game is adults ages 16-50. Given some of the heavier themes of crime and intricacy of exploring the data, it seems like this game is not best for children.
The narrative structure of HerStory relies on an overall story arc that is shown in loops. These loops effectively engage players in the process of discovery. The database interface encourages you to explore different keywords and revisit past clips, creating a loop of investigation and revelation. You cannot find out the final story only watching things once, so these loops are built into the game play. Watching a video again after gathering more context from an alternate artifact allows you to gather more information with each watch, making you feel like a real investigator.
One game mechanic that supports this mystery is the limited search feature and the old computer aesthetics. This forces players to think strategically about the keywords they choose, emphasizing the importance of context and subtlety in detective work. Another key part of the game that leads the narrative is the fact that the majority of information is in video form. This makes the game on that is played over a long period of time, and something you cannot exactly “speedrun.”
