Erica: Game Review

Hey everyone! I hope each and everyone of you had a lovely, socially-isolated weekend! I’ve spent my time playing quite a few video games, especially after I found out that the game I wanted to finish isn’t releasing its last episode until May. 

Background

 I just finished playing Erica, which was released August, 2019 by Sony and developed by Flavourworks. It is only available on Playstation 4.

Flavourworks is a relatively new developer and this is their first and only game currently. It was co-founded by Jack Attridge and Pavle Mihajlovic in 2015 and their mission was to “create the most interactive video-based game experiences in history”. 

Plot

Become Erica, a brave young lady plagued with nightmares of your father's murder. With the traumatic events that have haunted you as a child dragged back into the light of the present day vis grisly new clues, it's up to you to unearth the shocking truth behind this devastating tragedy. Every choice you make influences how the game develops, with multiple endings awaiting you at the finale of the emotional branching narrative. – PS4 landing page for the game

Overall

At first, I was a little wary of this game when I started playing because it prompted me to download an app to play it. I guess you were supposed to use the app to make your choices/actions in the game while still watching it from your TV? I opted not to and gave it a run through using the controller’s touchpad instead. Luckily the game didn’t truly have any quick-time-events so, despite the awkwardness of using the touchpad, it didn’t negatively impact the game. This was probably the only major downside in the game, I felt.

Generally, the only actions you take, as a player, are to make dialogue choices from a menu and take next actions. It’s very much like a movie rather than a game. Your choices do matter though and there are several endings you can achieve.

The cinematics were entrancing. The game is all live action, so it has a ton of atmosphere and tension. The game itself is very short, but it suits the story, and fits with the overall theme of being more so a movie than a video game. The story was incredibly well-written and I definitely got pulled in emotionally and was invested in keeping Erica safe, trying to save other characters, and achieve an ending I thought made sense. I also really liked the strong themes of paganism and Greek history that were woven into the story to make it stronger.

As a first game for Flavourworks, I thought this was a strong step into the market and I would love to see what they come up with next. However, if you’re not a fan of a 100% interactive story video game, I doubt you’ll enjoy this. However, fans of beautiful cinematography, world-building, and character development should definitely check this out!

8/10

x P.L. McMillan