Despite plenty of fans (me included) and a pretty long history, there aren't many FMV games out there that are based on the performances of real actors: such games are harder to make than typical video games and the developers often face all kinds of additional production problems (higher costs to make, larger sizes for the download kits, etc.). Also known as interactive movies, FMV (“full motion video”) games were deemed forgotten until the release of the highly-acclaimed Her Story.
However, Her Story is quite different from the majority of FMV games, as it's not based on the typical selection of action options or dialog choices to make your character progress through the story. In fact, as far as I can tell you, the only thing that Her Story has in common with other FMV games is the fact that it relies on the video footage of the live action performance of a real actor.
Her Story is actually quite simple. The player has to watch the clips from a video database that contains recordings of interviews of the main (and only) protagonist, excellently played by the British musician Viva Seifert. By using various search queries, more videos are returned and offered for watching. Therefore, you won't watch them chronologically but as you figure out suitable keywords in your mind. After watching plenty of videos, you can put the info you get from them together, in your head, and figure out why is the protagonist's husband missing, and what's actually, her story. It's, in fact, a puzzle game, but clearly not a typical one. In this game, you have to listen attentively and follow the narration carefully, but once you understand what should be understood there and realize what the truth and the catch are, it will definitely take you by surprise.
Her Story is an awesome game for many reasons: the brilliant narrative, the excellent actor's performance, the uncommon game concept that makes it a unique FMV-based puzzle, and more.
I also like in this game the fact that it comes with few yet handy additional settings that let you turn off or on the subtitles, and enable or disable the glare filter which greatly affects the quality of the video footage. It's also a indie game with a really appealing price.
In conclusion, Her Story truly deserves all the praises that it got. It's a unique, highly-rewarding FMV game experience for anyone, not only for the fans of interactive movies or mystery solving, detective puzzle games.
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