Her Story (video game)
| Her Story | |
|---|---|
 |
|
| Developer(s) | Sam Barlow |
| Publisher(s) | Sam Barlow |
| Designer(s) | Sam Barlow |
| Writer(s) | Sam Barlow |
| Composer(s) | Chris Zabriskie |
| Engine | Unity |
| Platform(s) | Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS, Android |
| Release |
Microsoft Windows, OS X, iOS 24 June 2015 Android 25 June 2016 |
| Genre(s) | Interactive movie |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
| Aggregate score | |
|---|---|
| Aggregator | Score |
| Metacritic | (iOS) 91/100 (PC) 86/100 |
| Review scores | |
| Publication | Score |
| Adventure Gamers |   |
| Destructoid | 10/10 |
| Game Informer | 8.5/10 |
| GameSpot | 8/10 |
| Giant Bomb | |
| IGN | 8.5/10 |
| PC Gamer (US) | 90/100 |
| Polygon | 8.5/10 |
| VideoGamer.com | 8/10 |
| Digital Spy | |
Her Story is an interactive movie video game written and directed by Sam Barlow. It was released on 24 June 2015 for Microsoft Windows, OS X and iOS, and the following year for Android. In the game, players search and sort through a database of video clips from fictional police interviews, and use the clips to solve the case of a missing man. The police interviews focus on the man's wife, Hannah Smith, portrayed by British musician Viva Seifert.
The game is Barlow's first project since his departure from Climax Studios, after which he became independent. He wanted to develop a game that was dependent on the narrative, and avoided working on the game until he was settled on an idea that was possible to execute. Barlow eventually decided to create a police procedural game, and incorporate live action footage. He conducted research for the game by watching existing police interviews. Upon doing so, he discovered recurring themes in the suspects' answers, and decided to incorporate ambiguity to the investigation in the game.
At release, Her Story was acclaimed by many reviewers, with praise particularly directed at the narrative, character performance, and unconventional gameplay mechanics. The game has sold over 100,000 copies, and was nominated for multiple year-end accolades, including Game of the Year awards from several gaming publications.
Her Story is an interactive movie game, focusing on a series of seven fictional police interviews from 1994. As the game begins, players are presented with an old desktop, which contains several files and programs. Among the programs are instructional text files, which explain the game's mechanics. One of the programs automatically open on the desktop is the "L.O.G.I.C. Database", which allows players to search and sort video clips within the database, of which there are 271. The video clips are police interviews with a British woman: Hannah Smith. The interviews are unable to be watched in their entirety, forcing players to view short clips. In the interviews, Hannah answers unknown questions to an off-screen detective, prompting players to decipher the context of the answers. Hannah's answers are transcribed, and players find clips by searching in the database for words from the transcriptions, attempting to solve the case by piecing together information. As players select clips, they can enter user tags, which are then available as searchable terms. One of the files on the desktop is a database checker, which allows players to review the amount of clips that have been viewed; as a clip is viewed, the red box in the database checker changes to green. The desktop also features the minigame Mirror Game, based on the strategy board game Reversi.
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