Her Story: review and search terms

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So I couldn't sleep and REALLY felt like playing the new game Her Story, and since it's only $5 I bought it.

It's a game about database searching, woo! WAIT NO IT'S ACTUALLY GOOD. Like a more non linear Analogue: A Hate Story, you are puzzling through a mystery via old logs. In this case, they're videos of a woman being interviewed about her missing husband. As you watch new videos you get new search terms to try, which leads to more videos. I haven't managed to get them all, but it's pretty easy to get the basic gist of the story. Really, I got the basic gist a few videos in, and the rest was just figuring out the (sometimes quite interesting!) details.

This very positive review is what inspired me to buy it, and I have to say I was a bit disappointed with the cheesiness of some of the twists, they allow for interesting story telling but I was expecting something more plausible and less "Oh I've seen this movie". But once I got over that I really enjoyed the game: the underlying story has issues, but it's told REALLY well. The non linear, player controlled aspect is very cleverly done, and the actress makes you care about not only her but the characters you never meet. Since I wasn't overwhelmed with admiration for the plot I haven't bothered untangling all the complicated clues that might clarify some of the ambiguity. But there's definitely some sneaky clues to puzzle out if you're inclined that way.

But I CAN'T FIGURE OUT HOW TO FIND ALL THE VIDEOS. I'm stuck at around 75% /o\ For anyone else in this boat, here's my search terms thus far, roughly categorised by number of videos returned. I'd ignore the one video words unless you get REALLY desperate, most of the time they were the already seen video where I'd heard the word. EDIT: Have seen them now, wasn't missing anything significant.

Note: without spoilers, the game deals with some heavy subjects. I mean, the first suggested search term is "murder", and it goes on from there.


Luckily the first few terms aren't very spoilery, but it gets worse as you go on! If you play the game, get as far as you can by yourself first, it's much more fun that way. Asterixes are next to interesting looking words with lots of videos I really wish I could figure out how to narrow down :/

Attempts to get to the hidden videos in the 6+ column by combining words have failed entirely except for "simon phone". Reading the list gives you a linearised version of my brainstorming process, including the (quite productive!) point where I just started counting out numbers.

6+:
*Hannah
*simon
glazier
diane
eric
seventeen
phone
eve
florence
*mother
diary
eight
papers
princess
princes
prince
attic
school
*argument
baby
watch
glasgow
wedding
*parents
keys
*married
body
different
pregnant
birthday
reflection
dead
fairy
family
doug
eleanor
blonde
cut
wig
book
glasses
sex
stories
own
two
dad
mum
police
night
happy
sad
hair
tea
know
sleep
slept
read
good
never
husband
wife


2-5:
murder
smith
fell
letters
war
rock
helen
friend
accident
friday
coat
diana
hate
kill
enough
carl
twin
mirror
brighton
present
throat
rapunzel
dollhouse
cat
domino
odeon
blood
bedsit
summer
funeral
cremation
poison
photo
tv
affair
secret
oxford
conference
february
lawyer
lie
witch
suspect
question
fingerprint
guitar
detective
broken
food poisoning
bag
death
mushroom
tattoo
shy
bruise
beach
kiss
bar
singing
job
miscarriage
infertile
three
four
six
eight
nine
ten
blonde hair
long hair
evidence
crying
woman
seeing
brother
sister
coffee
sugar
drink
road
bin
morning
saturday
god
pub
sense
rain
alone
guilty
rules
bad
wallet
test
shower (nothing new but compare the videos if you haven't already)

1:
gladstone
ernst
rome
mobile
stairs
tin
eagle
divorce
widow
plumber
rockington
peter
black eye
amstrad
eye
dance
drown
cavalier
van
visa
bob dylan
boyfriend
fiddle
sing
nursery
brighton
portsmouth
sarah
moth
knock code
cheat
vase
cigarette
spring
heat
slut
rehearsed
double glazing
weapon
yesterday
rubbish
apple
snake
individuality
father
bone
empty
intruder
five
voice
milk
drunk
truth
london
fault
scared
identity
strong
suicide
plans
simon phone

EDIT: So Cam found a way to cheat and I saw the last few videos that way. For anyone who would rather only SEMI cheat and use a word list, here's my last few search terms, ending with some chosen to hopefully catch the final few videos. Except for a few which are just "yes" and "no", probably indicating that "cheating" is expected.

Words:
never simon
ouija
dreams
board
bell
hotel
river
church
romantic
strange
help
money
bills
sure i think
games
page
crazy
house
story
hospital
door
bedroom
special
kids
hurt
fuck
children
cute
passionate
camera
ticket
arrest
yep
innocent
wedding ring