Erica

To put it simply, Erica was a disappointment--this is what I get for being attracted to excellent cover art! Admittedly Erica is the first full motion video (FMV) game I’ve ever played, so it’s possible I might take issue with the genre as a whole instead of this particular title. Upon booting up the game you’re prompted to download the companion “Erica App PS4” on your smartphone which simply acts as a larger touchpad for your experience. This is a Playstation-exclusive so the other option, the one I chose, is to use the touchpad on the Dualshock 4 controller. Sometimes I wished I had more touchpad real estate but I preferred the small annoyance of occasionally having to repeat an action, over having to download yet another app onto my phone. The good: I enjoyed the sound design and the videography which was artful and full of deep, rich colors. The bad: The acting was a mixed bag but thankfully Holly Earl’s portrayal of the titular character, i.e., the character you spend the most time with, was one of the better performances. The ugly: The story, or lack thereof, suffered from jarring pacing and a slapdash rush job to roll the credits, resulting in a final, defeated utterance of, “What? That was it? *That* was the game?” Upon completion, it seems the intention is to have players play through the game multiple times to discover the various endings, but for me, one playthrough was enough time spent with Erica. I made it through the game in 1.5 hours so the lack of a chapter structure and/or a rewind/fast-forward function makes searching for different paths more of a repetitive chore than a form of entertainment. Recommended only for people that are passionate for FMV games, and even then you’d be best off waiting for a deep discount.