Her Story, created by Sam Barlow, is a game where you try to solve the mystery of a husband’s disappearance through a series of short interview clips of his wife. It is available on iOS, Android and Windows, and it is recommended for a more mature audience, approximately 16 and up.
In Her Story, the narrative is broken up into disorganized snippets, where the player is responsible for figuring out the mystery by piecing the snippets together. The setting of embodying a detective searching on a desktop sets a sinister atmosphere and guides the types of information the user can access. The game contains both loops and arcs to create surprise and resolution.
When you log into the game, you find yourself at a desktop of South East Constabulary, with a database tab open. There is a search bar allowing you to search for videos based on what words are mentioned inside them. There are 271 total videos, each one being relatively short – about 10 seconds to a minute long.
In this game, the narrative is essentially synonymous with the mystery, since the majority of the game is to listen to the wife Hannah Smith’s narrative and watch the mystery unfold.
The contents of the story are cleverly distributed across all 271 clips, creating an embedded narrative. Using the mechanic of searching within the database, the player will gradually watch more clips and uncover more information as the game progresses. Since the videos are short and have varying relevance, they can only provide a small snapshot, encouraging the player to explore thoroughly. However, this does not mean that the player is expected to watch all 271 clips. Initially, I was discouraged and felt like the process would take forever. However, only halfway through, I could understand most of the story. The key was that in the videos, essential information is presented redundantly. For example, in a certain interview featuring the wife’s identical twin Eve, she mentions multiple times that they are sisters, and that she is not actually Hannah (plot twist!).
The setting of investigating the mystery on a desktop literally confines the player to that space such that they can only solve the mystery with the limited information on the computer screen. They cannot exit the screen and talk to someone in real life, or explore a physical space. This setting also defines how the story itself is presented – as a series of interview clips in the police database. Since the wife is likely speaking with an investigator, she has to explain her perspective in a certain way. She is cryptic, defensive and omits crucial information to protect herself. In this sense, the player needs to account for her behavior and recognize that she is in a setting where she cannot be fully candid, affecting how the story is told.
In general, the setting architecture effectively creates an evocative space by providing a simple detective mystery setting and letting the player use their imagination to fill in the gaps. The player takes on a new persona, and becomes determined to find out the truth. The creepy music and crackling of the old-timey screen is ominous and sends a shiver down the spine. I believe that the unique setting is what differentiates Her Story from other games in the genre, such as Gone Home and Virginia.
The storyline of Her Story contains loops because for most of the interview clips, we are hearing about Simon’s death from Hannah. However, in the last interview, it is revealed that Hannah has a secret identical twin, Eve. The story returns to the beginning as we hear the entire story again from Eve’s perspective, creating a shock factor. The story also contains an arc as we do finally reach some sort of conclusion about who killed Simon. However, the game does not do a big reveal at the end, it only alludes to the truth.
To build on that, I felt like it was hard to tell when I was “done” with the game. The ending was vague and slightly anti-climactic. The person in the chat reveals you are Sarah, Hannah’s daughter and immediately rolls the credits. It left me with a slight sense of dissatisfaction – Did I get it right? However, leaving the ending open-ended may have been an intentional decision by the designer – to leave you wondering about the many possibilities.
Another critique I have is that the game felt overly reliant on the story rather than the actual mechanics. The search mechanic felt like an annoying barrier from seeing the full picture, and there were not any other mechanics to help the player make progress or confirm their suspicions. I thought that the other apps (trash, clock) on the desktop might offer more clues, but they were not of much use. It would be interesting to have more (and unexpected) ways to source information.
