Erica

'Erica (2019)' is an interactive live-action game, essentially a movie in which you control the narrative (or, at least, aspects of it). Using a mobile app, the piece allows you to interact with key story moments and make decisions on behalf of the protagonist, as well as perform smaller actions such as clearing mist off a window or flipping open a lighter. The choices are integrated in a relatively seamless way and the control scheme works surprisingly well, seeming intuitive in all but a handful of scenes. The plot revolves around a young woman who receives a gruesome package in the mail and is sent to her father's old place-of-work as a form of protective custody. Of course, strange things soon start happening and it's up to you to decide how you want to interpret them. The game is ambiguous throughout, with its choices mainly being based around who you trust and what you want to believe. There are no 'right' answers. This is rather refreshing, even if it makes for an intermittently confusing experience. The writing isn't phenomenal but it isn't weak, either. Once you buy into the central situation, it's easy to get caught up in it. The game will take you around 1 hour 45 minutes to finish, about the length of a regular movie. If you're so inclined, you can replay it as many times as needed to see every ending (I believe there are seven in total). You can't turn it off mid-game, though, so each playthrough must be done in a single sitting. To be honest, this is somewhat off-putting. It does seem like there are a variety of diverging paths that may be worth exploring, but I personally didn't replay the piece once I'd finished it. It's one that I might come back to in the future, however. In the end, the thing does a good job at being a movie/game hybrid and is intuitive to play. Perhaps this is a genre that will soon pick up steam. 7/10

Once upon a time I tried to play (watch) the game "Late Shift". It was terrible, I really didn't like it.

When I started playing Erica, I was counting on the worst. But the game turned out to be not so bad. Nice actors, little interest in the story.

I thought it was great apart from the phone part, also I think it's funny people are saying how good the graphics are when they filmed it with real people

This is the new way to play interactive games and we need more of this out there. So much better than that lame and weak bandersnatch episode too.

The game is pretty disappointing. I play this game for mainly the story but it lack clearly of depth and complexity. The plot was quite intriguing in the beginning with the dead body but the mysteries that they tried to install dont work. I didnt feel intriguec at all. Yes i want to find the murder and discover why they did this. But its pretty simple and i feel that the game dont have this mysterious part that keep an audience engaged in the plot. It dont work i guess and it feel very non sense at all. What i like in this FMV its the transition between live video and interactivity because we dont feel a rough cut in the editing and i felt that work pretty smoothly and dont break the immersion. The work with the ritual and the mother it was clearly boring and it felt very unbelievable in my opinion. The actors were pretty great. I found the play of Erica was good for this age. I. Wasnt put of by the actors performance at any moment. Thats a good point. I mainly play FMV games for their. Stories but in this game it was pretty disappointing and i didnt find very interesting.