10 Times Gameplay Directly Informed The Narrative

Before going any further, I'd like to advise that you check out Hamish Black's video on Her Story and it's relation to Vladimir Nabokov's Pale Fire on his YouTube channel Writing On Games. It's pretty phenomenal.

Her Story made the bold move to embrace the oft mocked FMV format, or in part at least. What unfolds is a story that is equal parts compelling and frustrating. The player is tasked with simply typing keywords - or what they believe could be a keyword - into a search bar in hopes of elucidating the mysterious murder at the heart of the game.

There's no real clear cut solution or conclusion by the game's end - whenever you decide that is. What you often find yourself doing later on is desperately typing any word that was mentioned even in a cursory manner in hopes of figuring out what happened. Her Story's creator Sam Barlow has even said that although he has a clear cut conclusion in his head... that isn't necessarily the correct one.

The result is a wonderful commentary on many gamers' - and most people's - need for closure at the end of a story when it simply isn't there, and maybe doesn't need to be.