A series of brutal murders, a psychiatric clinic lost in the hills of southern England, a frightened young girl fleeing a too heavy past, a constant climate of paranoia. These are some of the main ingredients of Erica, the interactive thriller launched on the market as a surprise two days ago, in the middle of Gamescom, after a year of announcements, vlogs and references from the developers. Attracted by the interesting plot and the evergreen charm of the mystery, we embarked on this investigation hoping to find ourselves in front of a good story of investigation.
Well-placed expectations? Let's find out together!
An interactive mystery
Although it is a game with mechanics strongly rooted in the most modern traditions of the investigative genre, dominated by titles such as Until Dawn e Hidden Agenda, already at first glance Erica, developed by the British flavorworks and produced by Sony, is a title that with its visual sector could startle even the most elderly fans of the genre: following in the footsteps of titles such as Black Dahlia o Phantasmagoria, Erica turns out to be a real interactive film.
The game, as it might already be clear, will see us take on the role of Erica, a girl like many others with a memory very painful on the shoulders: the death of the father at the hands of a ruthless murderer. After an interesting tutorial structured in the form of a prologue, the story will come to life with a new fact of blood that will force the police to put Erica under protection, leading her to a place familiar to her: the Delphi House, or the experimental psychiatric clinic once run by the girl's father, a respected luminary, and which seems connected with the threat that, re-emerged from the past, seems to haunt Erica.
Once in the idyllic setting of the clinic, the player will find himself having to lead our heroine in search of the truth by interfacing with patients and with the clinic staff, the investigators and other key figures, but this will be only the beginning. of an adventure dreamlike and full of tension.
Dangerous games
Let's make one point clear right away: Erica is a game conceived and structured to offer an experience brief, intense and almost entirely based on a dynamic story-driven. So, if you are looking for a title that will accompany you for weeks, you are probably in the wrong game, because we are facing one of those stories designed to be concluded in a couple of hours, perhaps with a view to an evening with friends in front of the television. From this point of view, however, the price of the game seems more than honest: only ten euros. Not excessive spending, in theory.
To tell the truth, when we approached the game, mindful of other examples of titles based on the technique of the film / interactive story, we were hesitant. The story-driven landscape of this type, in fact, is dotted with titles that often turn out to be a little disappointing, sometimes due to the lack of attention to the narrative (often a little static or unable to be truly innovative), other times, something much more serious, due to the absence of a real possibility of influencing the events of the story (in spite of the proclamations of the authors).
Well, we're happy to say that not the case with Erica. In fact, in the two runs that we completed in a few hours (highly replayable: they are the endings of the adventure are well seven), this investigative gave us a great impression of solidity as regards the possibility give to the player to be able to change the course of events. In at least four points of the game, in fact, we came across some choices whose outcomes change significantly if not the actual course of events, at least the amount and quality of information in our possession, coming to provide us with new elements to face the rest of the adventure. For example, at some point, choosing to answer a phone call instead of following threatening shadows completely changed the course of the game, allowing us to be more aware of our subsequent choices and to arrive at a different ending.
A feeling of control of our fortunes really nice.
A mysterious (and well-directed) story
The convincing structure of the game, however, is only an excellent basis, which supports the real flagship: a valuable combination of a script capable of thrilling (even with some limits), a soundtrack able to accompany the player within the narrative thanks to the dark atmospheres it is able to transmit and, above all, a film direction that left us speechless.
Unlike other titles with still some difficulties from this point of view, the direction of the filmed sequences and editing of the different scenes manage to build a unique narrative in this genre: the events flow fluidly before our eyes, the barriers between cutscenes and interactive sections, many of which consist only of small narrative pretexts for do not get bored the player (such as drawing on a sheet), are practically non-existent and the programmers have even managed to implement theoretically very complex directing techniques such as the transition from one temporal plane to another in a natural way, without forcing.
A feature that almost obliges us to recommend it to all lovers of narrative games and, moreover, to serial addicted: if you are looking for something that can create a union between your desire for binge-watching and gaming, then Erica is really for you.
What is wrong
Obviously, being an ambitious title, not everything in Erica is going as it should. For example, even if there are no really frustrating moments, some gaming sections require the player to perform actions that are somewhat end in themselves that risk being almost superfluous virtuosity, Besides divert attention from details of the story that may be important. However, the brevity of the story makes these obstacles very negligible, especially if you face the adventure in company.
However, one of the main components of the title raises some doubts, namely the film script. Everything works, everything seems to fall into place, but, to be honest, with the exception of the recovery of the atmospheres from esoteric thriller, the topics covered from Erica (first of all the sense of paranoia and constant threat that we will experience inside the clinic throughout the adventure) seem really too much based on the stylistic features of any summer detective and, therefore, certainly not original. It is true that the focus of the project lies in replayability and therefore in the combinatorial game between different possibilities, but we would have preferred a little more courage on the part of the authors.
In conclusion:
Thanks to one technical realization and to one Artistic direction truly remarkable as well as at a high replayability, Erica succeeds as a party thriller indeed interesting, able to make the players spend several pleasant evenings. However, if these characteristics, aided by one good quality soundtrack and from a very spot on cast, they did breccia in our thrill-hungry hearts, the script turns out in some cases enough already seen, as well as the topics covered. For the future we would therefore like more courage on this front: the potential of the team is all there.
