Erica (PS4)

Are you one of those who gets annoyed when characters in movies make bad choices? Would you like to see what would happen if the protagonist made different choices? Erica is an interactive thriller that blends cinema with gameplay mechanics. It's watching a movie where you are in control of the actions that take place. 

Choice based interactive experiences are not new. Heavy Rain, Until Dawn as well as The Walking Dead has been around for years, but these have all been games with no live actors. Erica and Netflix's Black Mirror: Bandersnatch are both live action experiences. Characters are not digitally created but filmed. These kinds of experiences are still in their infancy, but it will be interesting to see if we get more of them in the future.

Erica is a decent attempt at the format, however, after just one playthrough it felt a bit lacking. The game has 6 different endings so I think I should give it at least one more go to see what more there is to find.

One playthrough of Erica is about 2 hours, so about as long as your average movie. The beginning felt a bit odd and I almost stopped playing because it looked so bad and the controls were really awkward. I recommend downloading the Erica companion app to your smartphone because playing on the Dualshock touch pad is not great. After the not so great beginning I gradually started to enjoy it.

I liked the main actress, the music and the visuals, but as I mentioned,  wasn't a big fan of the controls. I also felt that one playthrough is not enough to understand what is really happening. That might be the point though, to get you to play it multiple times. Erica was free in July 2020 if you had the Playstation Plus subscription. I have had my eyes on the game before when I've seen it on sale for 5 euros, which I would say is a decent price for this kind of game.