Erica

Erica is built around full-motion video and quick decisions, so it suits people who want an interactive thriller that plays more like a guided drama than a traditional game. By our assessment, the strong point is the performance-driven format: live-action scenes, closeups, and branching choices give it a very specific kind of tension. The downside comes from the same place, because FMV stories can feel constrained once the branching has to stay under control. In use it is mostly about watching, choosing, and letting scenes fold into one another, with little of the usual movement or systems work. It sits closer to late-night interactive cinema than to a standard narrative adventure, and that difference is the whole appeal. Erica asks for attention to faces and pauses, not fast hands, and that is where it works best.