Developer : Flavourworks, London Studio
Publisher : Sony Interactive Entertainment
Platform : Ps4
Release Year : 2019
The Modern FMV Game
Way back when, in those ancient and archaic days of the early 1990s, the Full Motion Video Game was going to be the future. We weren’t going to be fawning over sprites anymore, no, it was time for live action people to take the stage! It’s funny looking back on it, but it was mind blowing seeing real people in a video game back then; going from sprites and basic polygons to real life people moving about on screen was pretty crazy. The digitization of people looked to be the future of gaming!
And then it wasn’t. And thank God for that, because wow, those FMV games were something else.
The FMV game went from being the future of gaming, to something old and antiquated right before our young eyes. With computers and home consoles seeing massive leaps in quality and power during the ‘90s, and 3D graphics becoming the norm, the FMV faded away, remember only as a curiosity and as one of those things you just had to be there to really appreciate. Now, I bet there have been live action games/interactive films since then, but nothing really jumps to mind, so it was neat jumping into the interactive film video game Erica, and taking a peak into a world of gaming that never was.
It’s Like a Movie…But Not?
When my girl and I booted the game up for the first time, it told us that the best way to play was by downloading an app to our phone, so, like any good gamer, we did what the screen told us. It’s a shame then that the whole “playing the game with the app” thing doesn’t work on the Ps5, which seems like something that should be an easy fix, but what do I know? So instead, you use that stupid touchpad on the Ps5 controller to make the motions needed to do things in the game like selecting what you want Erica do to, or opening books and the like; think of it like Heavy Rain and other modern ‘adventure games’, but instead of using the two perfectly good joysticks to open and door and whatnot, you use the stupid touchpad.
Yeah, I don’t get it either.
The control scheme isn’t terrible, but I just find the whole touchpad thing dumb as shit. It’s not a knock against the game, but it is a knock against the controller, because I have yet to see any game make a good case for the touchpad’s existence. Erica, despite working just fine with it, still hasn’t made me fan, and like I said, the two joysticks would have worked just as well, if not better.
So yeah, that is the gameplay loop such as it is. You watch the story play out and make selections from time to time using the touchpad. What is really cool is that your choices actually matter and have really consequences, which really surprised us. We only played through the ‘game’ twice so far (it’s not particularly long), but by making different choices, the story changed quite a bit; like, I was shocked by how different each of our playthroughs were, because I was expecting the choices to be nothing more than fancy set dressing, and nothing more. With a runtime of an hour and a half or so, playing through the game multiple times, making different choices, is very much what you’re meant to do.
With that replayability in mind, the developers really should have added a new game+ to Erica. The repetitive nature of the experience lends itself so well to the whole new game+ thing, and it could have been a cool way to show different sides of the story. Playing through the ‘game’ multiple times is already something you are intended to do, so why not play with that feature? It would have added so much more to the game, and I think it would have elevated the whole package from a neat little curiosity to something genuinely awesome.
Real Life Graphics?
It’s hard to talk about the graphics here, because it’s a movie, ya know? Sure, there are a few scenes and moments when you are looking at a good ol’ 3D model, and they’re fine, but that is not what the game is about. I can’t say much about the sets, costumes and what not, as I have no real idea how to critique that side of film making, but it all seemed fine to me. If this was an actual film, I don’t think it would hold up, but by being a piece of interactive fiction I think Erica can get away with some lackluster sets, lighting, and acting. It does not have the best of both worlds, but neither does it have the worst. It’s just okay, and there is nothing wrong with that.
The acting is also kind of hit or miss. Erica, our titular main character, who is played by Holly Earl, is fine. I found she is lacking a bit of character, but I feel that is because she is meant to be a bit of a stand in for the player, and not because she is a terrible actress or anything like that. A lot of the other characters you meet are a lot of fun, and while I think we are meant to take the story seriously, it’s hard when Erica is straddling that line between B-moive gem and terrible shlock. I think we laughed more than a few times when we weren’t supposed to, but honestly, that just added to the charm of the whole experience for me. It’s like watching a B-movie, and instead of just sitting back and laughing, you get to influence the show, which is kind of awesome.
I don’t want to give anything about the story away here, because experience the narrative is basically the whole point of the game. It is a story that is not going to change your life, but I thought it was a good time all the same, and not every piece of fiction needs to be some grand and life altering work of art. Sure, the story is not about to blow anyone away, but I thought it was a lot of fun and appropriately serious for what it is trying to be. It was worth the price of admission, which was free by the way, but stand by that statement.
What Else?
I don’t really have much else to say about Erica; it’s an interactive movie for better or for worse, and at the end of the day, I feel that it was fairly well done. Now, would I recommend you go and get a copy of Erica right away? Not at full price, but I would recommend buying it if you can see it up for a couple of bucks (or free, which is even better), because there are definitely worse ways to kill a couple of hours. Needless to say, I am glad this was not the future of gaming, and that these interactive movies have stayed niche; if you love them, more power to you, but I am not about to go out of my way and look for more of them, ya know?
I know I haven’t uploaded anything in a while, and it’s not like anyone reads this, but I have been playing a shit load of Neverness to Everness, No Man’s Sky, and Metaphor: ReFantazio. All three of these games are massive, and the first are damn near never ending, so that is why I haven’t blogged much. That, and I have been doing a lot of work for the upcoming DnD campaign I’ll be running for my friends sometime in the near future, which does take up a lot of my time; I love doing it, but holy moly, is it a lot of work.
