2015 Gaming Odds & Ends Awards | GameSided Recap

2015 Gaming Odds & Ends Awards – Get Shorty Award: Her Story

The Get Shorty Award is given to the best example of a video game that contains a very short run time. Her Story is possible to complete in minutes or several hours, depending on what you input, although it does not capture the wittiness behind the game, itself.

Her Story sees you looking over video interview clips of a young woman, being questioned about a brutal murder. You can draw up clips by searching key words voiced by the subject, although only the first five chronological choices will appear at first. This means putting on your private investigator’s hat in order to find the clips necessary to come to a narrative conclusion.

Because of this, many players will experience Her Story in an almost unlimited number of ways. The “story” can be told to completion, be fragmented in missing clues, or even produce misguided or incomplete frames of what happened. There’s no “win” or “lose” state; there is only a “do you feel satisfied in the conclusion” state.

While some may argue the merits of it actually being a video game, I would argue that you manipulating the clips of what you see based on gameplay inputs made by the player turns it into a game. Whether or not you accidentally discover the truth right from the get-go or uncover it over hours of delightfully acted exposition is up to fate. No matter the end result, Her Story is a short, but enthralling gameplay experience.

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