Satisfying piecing-together and note-taking
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“I enjoyed scribbling down notes trying to get the story straight and slowly piecing it together.”
Steam review · 5.9 h played ↗
Her Story
Worth buying? What 300 Steam reviews say.Worth buying? Here’s what 300 Steam reviews actually say.
Very Positive · 89%Very Positive · 89%Sam Barlow2015Investigation · Interactive Fiction · Detective
$9.99
Open on Steam ↗US Steam price, checked 6 h ago
The verdict
A short, unique FMV mystery where you search keywords to piece together a woman's story, with great acting but little gameplay and no real ending. Skip it if you want a traditional detective game or play on Mac.
Great for
Story-focused players who like note-taking, piecing fractured narratives together, and playing on sale
Main risk
Little real gameplay and an anticlimactic, ambiguous ending; the story can be figured out quickly
What players love
Compelling story with twists
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 positive reviews
“Hands down one of the BEST stories in any game I've ever played.”
Steam review · 7.5 h played ↗
Original keyword-search mechanic
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 positive reviews
“It's wonderful that you engage with Her Story using natural language. It means that your particular strategies for narrowing down search results will be unique to you”
Steam review · 2.3 h played ↗
Excellent lead performance
Mentioned in ~1 in 9 positive reviews
“So much relies on the one and only acting performance by Viva Seifert, and she nails it.”
Steam review · 2.6 h played ↗
Cheap and worth it on sale
Mentioned in ~1 in 17 positive reviews
“I'd recommend Her Story on sale ($5 or less).”
Steam review · 3.9 h played ↗
Great with a friend
Mentioned in ~1 in 25 positive reviews
“I recommend playing Sam Barlow's games with someone else.”
Steam review · 7.8 h played ↗
What players complain about
Barely a game, little gameplay
Mentioned in ~1 in 4 negative reviews
“To call this a game is a stretch.”
Steam review · 0.4 h played ↗
Story solved too quickly or spoiled early
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“you can essentially piece together what happened at in about an hour, maybe two.”
Steam review · 1.4 h played ↗
Anticlimactic or no real ending
Mentioned in ~1 in 5 negative reviews
“You play until you are satisfied with the story (or have seen all the clips), and then stop playing. How... anticlimactic.”
Steam review · 3.5 h played ↗
Tedious guesswork to find remaining clips
Mentioned in ~1 in 7 negative reviews
“if you're a completionist, you'll find yourself stuck typing common English words in the hopes of hitting a one-second entry”
Steam review · 18.4 h played ↗
Clunky clip organization and note tools
Mentioned in ~1 in 11 negative reviews
“There's no way to sort it chronologically, or any other way”
Steam review · 5.2 h played ↗
Delete session data wipes whole save
Mentioned in ~1 in 19 negative reviews
“There is a button called "delete session data" which you would think would let you clear that list at least but it in fact deletes your whole game.”
Steam review · 0.9 h played ↗
System requirements
From the Steam store page
Steam Deck: Playable2 GB
Minimum
OSWindows XP+
Memory2 GB RAM
Graphics512MB
Storage2 GB available space
Recommended
OSWindows 7+
Memory4 GB RAM
Graphics1GB
Storage2 GB available space
OSWindows XP+
Memory2 GB RAM
Graphics512MB
Storage2 GB available space
More games to check
Other games we’ve read the reviews for
Unfortunate Spacemen
Very Positive · 82%
+ Great fun with friends
− Dead playerbase, empty servers
analyzed 3 d ago
Nobody Wants to Die
Very Positive · 83%
+ Stunning visuals and art direction
− Hand-holding, railroaded detective work
analyzed 3 d ago
The Case of the Golden Idol
Overwhelmingly Positive
+ Satisfying deduction puzzles
− Worse than Obra Dinn / shallow gameplay
analyzed 5 d ago
The Operator
Very Positive · 91%
+ Gripping story with strong twists
− Linear, hand-holding, more visual novel than detective game
analyzed 6 d ago
Weekly digest
Fresh games worth a look, in your inbox
The most interesting games we’ve just analyzed, once a week.Once a week we send the most interesting games we’ve just analyzed: the verdict, top pros and cons, and what changed. No spam.
One email a week · unsubscribe in one click