This is going to be a little bit of a strange post.
I want to talk about a couple of games I’ve played over the weekend, Herstory and Assassins Creed Syndicate. I will be doing a more in depth post on ACS at a later date, but today I’m going to write about a very specific section of the game.
But first….
Herstory.
What can I say about this game. I’ll do my best not to include spoilers, because that is partly what makes this game so amazing.
I’m calling it a game, but there is very little of what most gamers would call gameplay. The basic premise is that (somehow) you end up sat at an old, 1990s PC, complete with screen glare and Windows 95 style desktop. You have access to the collected recordings of a police interview regarding the mystery surrounding a disappearance.
I’m not going to put anything more than that to keep the plot a mystery, as exploring and discovering that plot is a major part of the game.
Anyway, at the start of the game you have a basic database system open with a single video clip. You can click on the clip to watch it. Once you have watched the video you
then have a basic text parser to type your search terms into the database, which will return more video clips for you to watch. That’s all there is. Except it isn’t all there is because the story is brilliant and if you have a crime / mystery reader with you then it becomes even more fun.
Type in your search term, watch the video, discuss where to go next, write down your keywords, then start down a rabbit hole. That’s what we did.
“We should look up ********** next” “Write it down we are looking at this first”
Now this is a good place to say that after (according to Steam) 4.2 hours, we felt we had seen enough and decided to call it an afternoon.
Claire was hooked however, and we discussed what we thought happened, piecing together the interview tapes into a coherent whole. Except we both had different wholes. Well, kind of. We both agreed on what actually happened but the why of the incident and the who… Well, that is a little more complicated, and we did not agree.
We had exited the game with maybe 20 / 30 video clips still to find and so, the following morning I was awoken to this…
“Did we look up *****? Or what about ****?”
Clearly this had got under Claire’s skin. So back we went into the game to find those last video clips, and discover if they held the clue to the final answer…
Oh, and because there were two Steam achievements we could get. My girlfriend had suddenly turned into an achievement to hunter.
We found all the extra videos, and did they clear up the matter? Well I’m going to leave that up to you. Go and buy this game. If you have even the slightest interest in mysteries, games or old school FMV. It’s well worth the £5 entry fee, trust me. £1 per hour, you don’t get much entertainment for that nowadays 😉
Next up… The Secrets of London.
A little background. ACS is set in London, in Victorian times (short review – Brilliant, I’m loving it) and as ever there are a massive number of hidden collectibles. this is the first AC game in a while where I have gone completely klepto on collecting them. A series of these collectibles are hidden music boxes (Nope, I don’t know why) but there is a short poem style clue and a screen grab to help you find them.
Now until yesterday I had figured I’d just collect everything else and then unlock the map for these so I could find them all. However, Claire as was over for the weekend, I had a quick run around London while she spent 3 hours reading a web forum about Herstory, looking to see what other people thought about the game.. I introduced her to the hidden secrets…
“Oooh, it’s like a treasure hunt! I love treasure hunts”
So, iPad in hand, we began taking photos of the TV and actually reading the poems. Turns out that Claire is a bit of a genius when it comes to working these out. Picking upon the clues within the poem, and pointing out the parts of the image that allow us to get a rough idea of the locations. (And she even knows the parts of London they are in!) I then jump and run and
generally stab my way to the location (with Claire complaining every time I barge past someone). We then explore the area listening out for the audio clues that we are close.
Again, Claire was completely immersed and decided to stay another night (it was too late to travel the hour and a bit home). Trophies were collected and music boxes were found…
We still have more but I am saving them for another weekend.
So, if anyone asks how to get their girlfriend gaming, the best answer is to find something they are actually interested in, and get them involved. I loved sharing my hobby with her this weekend, and I think she might have finally understood the appeal…
maybe…