Her Story
Main game
3.72 average rating based on 1055 ratings
- Developers
- Sam Barlow
- Publishers
- Sam Barlow
- Platforms
- Android, Linux, Mac, PC (Microsoft Windows), iOS
- Genres
- Indie, Point-and-click, Simulator
- Themes
- Drama, Mystery
- Steam
- View on Steam
Release Dates
User Stats
How Long Is Her Story?
Shakespearean
Her Story uses one of the most unique mechanics I've ever encountered, to tell a completely traditional story, in a compelling and totally original way. Its mechanical simplicity is like a poem, truly being distilled down to only the necessary. And by necessity, the story is predictable -- after all, playing the game itself involves predicting the story -- but perfectly executed.
This is Shakespeare for the Digital era.
Extremely creative detective game where you actually feel like you're solving something
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
Her Story is one of the best detective games I've ever played, second only to Obra Dinn when, at least when it comes to the mechanics.
The method for finding out information is a bit contrived, but it's very effective. My main problem with detective games is that they either allow you to 'cheat' your way to a solution or the solution/presentation of information is so obtuse that there's no way you could actually solve it for yourself before making it to the end (Ace Attorney, Danganronpa). This game doesn't have that issue. It makes you want to get out a pen and piece of paper to write things down, with the only confirmation that you're making progress being a flickered reflection and a music change.
My only complaint is that (SPOILER WARNING) the apparent 'answer' felt a bit overdone or cliché. It was disappointing.
Lygodesma's review of Her Story
A very well designed indie game with a super innovative idea. It truly feels like detective work and that just by your choice of search terms in the computer which is fairly surprising I think. Her Story is a perfect example of how game design can feel new and fresh just by having one simple mechanic at its core that's simple but feels well.
Unique, non-linear story
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
Can take some blind guessing at common words to progress, and I accidentally got to the end/twist pretty early on, but it's a fun few hours.
Knock, knock...
Minimal, repetitive, mysterious and voyeuristic, Her Story really stands on its own among adventure games. Viva Seifert delivers a stellar performance, which is very important... anything less, and the game would have quickly devolved into CD-ROM FMV-style cheese.
As a whole, I feel slightly conflicted about the experience. On one hand, the lack of traditional mechanics (or really anything approaching the complexity of a traditional puzzle) makes Her Story very accessible and allows the player to focus on the footage alone. On the other hand, I wish the game offered a greater outlet for the player to express the conclusions they'd reached by its end.
3.5/5
A very Unique concept with an Excellent story.The only issue is that the gameplay (which is just searching for keywords and finding clips) isn't for everyone.But i highly suggest everyone to atleast give it a try especially since its now available in GAMEPASS. Its only 2 hours long (thats the time it took for me) and was very fun to unravel the story.Another issue i found (dont know if it can be said as an issue) is that its very open ended.Which means u can interpret the story in different order since theres no given order to find the story thus leading to ur own conclusions of the story,in my case i had to watch a youtube video to get the complete picture of the story.
Anyways worth giving it a try.
Interesting idea, looking forward to the future
Pros:
-- (As far as I know) New, innovative method of telling a story through video game
-- The main actress does a good job of playing her part, aside from a few cheesy parts
-- Engrossing, as you dig deeper, trying to figure out what is actually going on
Cons:
-- The game leaves a little too much open in the end, leaving you unsure when you are actually "done"
-- Can be a little difficult to continue forward when you aren't sure what terms to search for
-- There is a nice desktop built into the game that could be fun to play around with, but there isn't much to do with it
Check out my full review at TheKlotzNet
Walki...er...Clicking Simulator
Another in the growing catalog of passive “experience” games, Her Story is a short, interesting little thing. If Gone Home was labeled the once-pejorative-but-now-kosher “walking simulator,” then Her Story would be a “clicking simulator.” Your character sits in a UK police station (constabulary?) in present day looking through a database of videos. Centered around one specific incident, you must file through the videos in order to uncover the story. This is done by the use of keywords. Each video is subtitled, and these subtitles are part of the database as well. When you load the game up the word “murder” is in the search bar already for you. Click the search button and five videos where the interviewee says “murder” appear. You then watch these videos and uncover new keywords. For example, if the subject says “So I drove North, to Glasgow” you might then try searching for “drove,” “North,” or “Glasgow” thus uncovering more of the story. You can then pull anything of interest into a time line on the bottom for later viewing so you don't have to keep searching keywords to find videos you'd like to review. The videos, of which there are around 250, range from …
Another in the growing catalog of passive “experience” games, Her Story is a short, interesting little thing. If Gone Home was labeled the once-pejorative-but-now-kosher “walking simulator,” then Her Story would be a “clicking simulator.” Your character sits in a UK police station (constabulary?) in present day looking through a database of videos. Centered around one specific incident, you must file through the videos in order to uncover the story. This is done by the use of keywords. Each video is subtitled, and these subtitles are part of the database as well. When you load the game up the word “murder” is in the search bar already for you. Click the search button and five videos where the interviewee says “murder” appear. You then watch these videos and uncover new keywords. For example, if the subject says “So I drove North, to Glasgow” you might then try searching for “drove,” “North,” or “Glasgow” thus uncovering more of the story. You can then pull anything of interest into a time line on the bottom for later viewing so you don't have to keep searching keywords to find videos you'd like to review. The videos, of which there are around 250, range from five to ninety seconds generally, and you can scrub through them though there is no pause function (a minor detail that only might come into play in two of the videos). The game “ends” when you close the program. Yes, you can trigger credits but you can then jump right back in where you left off. There is a story to be told here, and the game is completed only when you feel that you understand the story.
Her Story is worth playing for anyone who enjoys the new wave of passive experiences that have hit Steam in the past couple years. Just one thing: Do NOT under any circumstances click the “Delete Session Data” button. It will delete your save file. I thought it would clean up the time line I had created on the bottom of the screen. It does not. It deletes your game. The Steam community forum agrees that this is cruel and stupid. But Her Story, aside from that one snag, is not.
A Very Different Type of Game
The game is a mystery that is solved by you putting in your own time and effort. The story is pieced together as you watch each video and look closely at the context. I only watched up to the point where I couldn't make any more useful searches. By that point, I had an idea of what happened. You must be satisfied with what you discover because the ending is not conclusive.
A lot of video
I was expecting to really like this game before playing it - An actual puzzle, needing to write notes, compare versions and make deductions. In reality I found it tiresome. I did not have the patience to write all those notes or compile leads, and watching all those hours of interviews kind of bored me.
I could just be that I'm disappointed with myself more than with the game.
This is not a game.
It is an interactive movie trying to sell itself as a game. It is a gimmick to sell to people who don't play video games or don't know what a video game is. If you enjoy crime fiction and believe a single actress will be enough to entertain you in this in this low-budget interactive movie, then you might enjoy Her Story. If you are wondering if this fits the definition of a game or not, just ask yourself what the replay value is of a murder mystery might be when you already know who done it. Also, is it fun? Sure, it might be, but don't expect it to last longer than your average film.
lance20000's review of Her Story
This review is for the PC (Microsoft Windows) version
A game I respect more than I enjoy playing because you don't do much playing. I wish there was SOMETHING to hang the emergent gameplay on. Sure, the idea of "you are done with it when you say you are" is admirable, but let's be real here. Players are lazy, stupid, looking to optimize all the fun out of a game, or all three. The developer needs to rein us bastards in a little bit.
Disappointing
I had this game on my PC for 2 years then 2 days ago I found an article how awesome the story is and here I am😩 disappointed. Yes, the game is unique:] but I wouldn't say I enjoyed it... It was confusing.
Hmm
Just finished this game and got all the achievements. Admittedly, I had to cheat a bit at the end to find keywords that I must have missed (I was about 8 away from completing the database). It was definitely an interesting game to play, a very passive style of playing. I'll have to think more on how I would want to review this properly.
I got Her Story in a Humble Bundle back in 2016—I rarely play games that necessitate KB/M control, but I felt in the mood for desk-based gaming today and started this. I'm about 45 minutes in (after my first session) and finding it intriguing and well-implemented so far.
Neat, pretty, moving. A few back and forths through the story, the acting is not perfect but does the job in a beautiful little package.
A nice short game with a multi-layered narrative that is best completed in one sitting. I did just that last night and I have to admit that I'm a little hung over today. Now I'm going to watch all the scenes in order here:
And then all that's left to see is whether I can figure out the mirror minigame.
I don't really know what I thought about Her Story, and frankly I don't have the TIME to figure out what I thought about Her Story. It was a thing, then I finished it, then it was no longer a thing. Enjoyable while it lasted with absolutely zero reason to go back and experience it again.
Is it actually a game? Is it an interactive movie? I don't know, and I don't really care anymore. On to the next one.
So far, this is pretty entertaining, but a little bizarre. I look forward to more.
Got bit mixed feelings.
Storytelling and story itself is quite well done, and interesting. So is the way it's being told, by series of police interviews recorded on old vhs camera.
But that's prolly what everyone here expects.
What is bad is the way it's being served.
You have no goal, in the begining, don't know if you're supposed to search for some clues or whatever, only crappy search engine and hint that involves a murder. Engine that displays earliest 5 results which are searched on the words said in the video. Might be a social commentary on how governments waste a money on crap software and nothing works.. or it might be a cheap way to prolong the game.
Still it's easy to override using one same keyword once you figure it out. There's no reason to looking up videos based on mechanic since it makes you feel like some database input slave hired for cheap change.
The player is slow, takes a bit to load each of over 274 clips. You're supposed to watch, another crap mechanic that seems to be there only to prolong the time you spent inside the game (which is few hours).
Overall game …
Got bit mixed feelings.
Storytelling and story itself is quite well done, and interesting. So is the way it's being told, by series of police interviews recorded on old vhs camera.
But that's prolly what everyone here expects.
What is bad is the way it's being served.
You have no goal, in the begining, don't know if you're supposed to search for some clues or whatever, only crappy search engine and hint that involves a murder. Engine that displays earliest 5 results which are searched on the words said in the video. Might be a social commentary on how governments waste a money on crap software and nothing works.. or it might be a cheap way to prolong the game.
Still it's easy to override using one same keyword once you figure it out. There's no reason to looking up videos based on mechanic since it makes you feel like some database input slave hired for cheap change.
The player is slow, takes a bit to load each of over 274 clips. You're supposed to watch, another crap mechanic that seems to be there only to prolong the time you spent inside the game (which is few hours).
Overall game part is total junk.
Still story part itself is quite interesting and revelead in interesting way.
If only it was served with a better mechanic...
A fascinating mechanic. Good game at a good price. The story ends up being convoluted, and I'm torn on whether the lack of clarity serves or hinders the story. We resolve so little.
*SPOILERS*
What about those mushrooms? Is Eve the culprit for the parent's death? And the midwife's? Are we dealing with a psychopath or should we take the story at face value? Did she off her sister or allow her sister to run away? And what about the ongoing debate between the twin theory and the MPD theory? We are given enough to draw our own conclusions, but only barely.
Then we have the sheer unbelievability of much of the story. I just don't know. I enjoyed my time with the game and thinking about it after, but I can't say it's stellar writing or a stellar story. The way the mechanics moved things forward worked very well, however, so I remain happy to give the game a strong recommendation despite my conflicted feelings.
Her Story is my #3 favorite game of the year. Enough said. Play it. It's short. It's simple. It's worth it.
*Score isn't an actual review score. Just a representation of how I feel right after playing. I would have liked to review this game, but I didn't.