For those of us who believe in the still largely untapped potential of Full Motion Video, the release of Sam Barlow's intricate and fascinating new adventure game "Her Story" is great news indeed. The unique premise of the game is that the player character is given access to a database of fragmented old police recordings originating from a murder investigation. By watching the videos (which have been conveniently transcribed/subtitled as well as "tagged" in the database), new keywords naturally present themselves and it becomes possibly to delve ever deeper into the database and discover as many clips as possible. The overarching objective is of course to piece together what actually happened, while being constantly on the lookout for discrepancies in the testimony which might shed some light on whether the suspect (intelligently played by actress Viva Seifert) is lying or not.

Even on the surface level this is a clever and innovative approach to the whodunnit adventure, but Barlow doesn't stop there. Partly a commentary on our media-fuelled voyeuristic fascination with spectacular court cases, "Her Story" also turns the player's inquisitive gaze back on itself and explores (among other things) our tendency to squeeze an often messy reality into neat little narrative constructs and reduce real people to mere heroes and villains.

Developer interview with Rock Paper Shotgun:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2015/01/23/text-lies-and-videotape-her-story-interview/

Offical website:

http://www.herstorygame.com/

Steam page:

http://store.steampowered.com/app/368370/

Definitely gonna give this a go next week.

I hadn't heard of this game previously but having read two threads on it here I am now incredibly fascinated. I realize it came out today but I would love to hear thoughts from people who have played some of it.

Saw the PC Gamer review of it, and they really liked it. Seems like a really cool way to use FMV, and a pretty clever way to do a narrative in a game.

This sounds right up my alley. Gonna dig into it this weekend. I'm honestly surprised there aren't more games like this.

Well.. I just brought it. Apparently it's a 1.5-3 hr game so I'll let you guys know how it goes.

I've got to wait until payday next week, but this is definitely on my list of things to buy.

I grabbed this today with the 15% off sale at Steam, but I think I'll hold off until I get back from a trip next week because I think my wife would really dig sitting in on this.

Sounds interesting!

Yep, really into it so far. And yes, it's the best use of live acting I've seen.

If anyone has played through this, how much of the horror vibe is in there? I played about 15 minutes and got to some clips where there was a creepy figure in the screen showing up after they ended, which successfully freaked me out as I don't play horror games very often. Are there any jump scares or anything of the sort?

@elvicerator: Didn't finish it but so far so good. The figure made me freak out too, I'm someone that can't stand horror at all, especially jump scares. I'm nearly two hours in and there's nothing else that is scary except that the story itself can get pretty tense.

Oh, by the way, very minor spoiler: the creepy figure is simply your reflection.

Never heard of this one before, looks pretty cool. Thanks for bringing it to my attention.

Acting seems a little flat but, other than that its a neat idea that's good for one run.

I've finished it at 3 hours. It's very interesting. I don't really think it's anything more than that but it was a cool way of unravelling this odd tale. I'm glad I played it.

@elvicerator: No scares. Just a small interesting story.

I've played it for about three hours, and I haven't finished it yet. It's good. I was lying awake last night thinking about the story I've put together so far.

GB are gonna do a quick look. Anything more than 5 mins long is gonna be a spoiler so I hope they keep it shorter than usual... It's gonna be 30 mins isn't it...

I played this pretty much all the way through last night. I have a few clips left unearthed that I'm going to go back and try and find tonight. It's very very interesting as an experiment of story telling. I'm always fascinated by unreliable narrators. There is a twist kind of which is kind of insane and I guess the non-linear nature of it may mean you stumble upon it earlier or later than I did but just as I was starting to piece together things it really hit me for six. In terms of the "end" I'm not sure I picked the right choice...I said Yes but not I'm sat pondering on it all I'm not entirely sure I meant to say yes. Did I truly understand why she did it? I thought I had but now I'm certainly second guessing myself and wondering if No might have been a better option.

I have to say a massive thanks to @austin_walker his tweet about an upcoming interview here on Giantbomb inspired me to sit and play in one session and I'm really glad I did. Finally the game alludes to the fact it's set in and around Portsmouth my hometown which makes me happy perhaps the first game to be set in Portsmouth?

@flameboy84: There is no difference between the 2 choices. I made sure I got everything before S.B. asked if I understood why she did it. I said No then S.B. said something like "That's understandable. Well, meet me across the road when you're done."

@cirdain: ah ok. Still though removing myself from being Sarah and thinking if I actually 100% understand why Eve did it and if she even did is still causing me the same conflict.Which I suppose shows the game has got it's teeth into me.

I don't know how to spoiler tag from my phone, so hey, gigantic spoiler here. Though I would advise not reading anything at all about this game if you're even on the fence. It's 5 bucks and a few hours. [Edit: Austin here, I just went in and added spoiler tags for you!]

@yi_orange: You should over to this thread;

http://www.giantbomb.com/her-story/3030-49898/forums/speculation-impressions-thread-spoilers-1774521/#19

The very same conversation is taking place...and I don't know where I sit with it all!