Erica Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

Erica Free Download GAMESPACK.NET Erica never lets you feel at ease for long. In one scene, a character teaches Erica how to play a song on the piano–you’re encouraged to memorize the cute little melody and try to perform the correct timing. But just when you start playing along, somebody suddenly starts coughing up blood everywhere, it’s messy and gross, everyone starts screaming, and the vibe is killed. In Erica you have to treasure those sweet breaks before they’re swiftly swiped from your hands and replaced with a solid helping of worry, stress, and a side of confusion. A fully filmed playable thriller in which the titular character is on a mission to help solve a murder case that she has strange family ties to, Erica utilizes some subtle yet effective film-inspired techniques–like match on action and screen wipes triggered by touchpad interactions–to tell its enigmatic tale. To progress each scene, you choose dialogue options and make various adventure game-like actions. The game bounces back and forth in time between Erica’s childhood with her father to the mess that is modern-day life, in which she has to move to a strange hospital her late parents helped create for her own safety. Erica, played by real-life actor Holly Earl, is a relatable, if malleable, protagonist. Earl regularly looks like she’s bewildered or uncomfortable, exactly how you feel as a viewer in most of the situations. She seems thoughtful and patient, but other than that there isn’t too much of a set personality for her. TOP/BEST ADULT VIDEO GAMES IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA (USA)

Erica Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

You decide through your in-game choices if she’s more passive or aggressive or unhelpful during the case, and because of the high stakes murder circumstances, switching her attitude and approach never feels abrupt nor out of character. Even if you spend most of the game being rude, you can be friendly to someone and it doesn’t feel weird. Your reactions, and in turn Erica’s, are likely to change frequently during a playthrough every time new information pops up, objectives change, and new, incredibly peculiar characters enter the picture. Somehow, every new character you meet is more suspicious than the last. Everyone talks to you like they just poisoned the food you’re eating. There’s a sequence in the courtyard where you can choose a girl to hang out with and get to know better, and right after you pick a possible pal to spend the afternoon with, the head of the hospital says, “Just remember that some of the girls here… Uh… They can be quite manipulative,” and just walks away. The guy is nowhere to be found after that, and you’re left sitting there wondering why would he say that–and before you know it, you’re overthinking every interaction because you don’t know which person he was insinuating was going to manipulate you. All of the secrets, ulterior motives, and Erica’s own faulty memory cause for some very intriguing “Trust nobody, not even yourself” gameplay.

Ground-breaking live-action technology.

Perpetual disorientation is the central feeling of Erica, and it’s what keeps you searching for the truth no matter how many crooked obstacles stand in your way. The plot is ever-changing and chaotic; you’re attempting to solve a crime by talking to a plethora of weirdos in an unfamiliar, creepy place while having stifling flashbacks of your messed-up childhood. There’s so many forces clashing and intense situations going on that you find yourself yearning to make sense of even the smallest mystery just to feel grounded. There was a time where Erica was being gaslit by a character and I ended up shaking my fist and yelling “She’s not crazy, you’re just lying!” at my TV–but even though that character annoyed me I kept listening to them in case they accidentally dropped a small hint to steer me in the right direction, and they did. Erica is a striking example of a whodunit that’s heightened by its enthralling characters, shady occult science, and recollections of previous trauma. From the overall murder case to smaller questions like what kind of hospital you’re staying at, there are a number of mysteries weaving together concurrently throughout Erica. It’s easy to miss context that’s vital to understanding the full picture. You might get an answer to a question that’s been burning in your mind for the last half hour, but that answer could be a truth that presents new pathways to choose from or a lie that leads you astray. 60 Seconds! Reatomized

Erica Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

That mystery management is exciting and makes every experience with the game its own curious, isolated thriller molded by whatever answers and stories you care about at the time. You can use either a DualShock 4 controller or a companion phone app to play Erica; the latter is smooth and seamless for the most part, while the former is bogged down by a clunky implementation of touchpad controls and is the far less preferable option. As you move through the narrative, you alternate between selecting which areas to explore, choosing dialogue options like “contempt” or “desperation,” and performing no-stakes everyday actions like cleaning the fog from a mirror or turning on the sink. Potential actions are shown as silhouettes on-screen, and there’s also a mock trajectory of where to swipe your hand on your phone if you’re using the app. The inputs are all done by small, comfortable hand swipes, not extending to the full horizontal or vertical reach of the screen. Most actions are intuitive, and you feel like you know where to swipe and what you can do before the game even tells you. There’s a moment where you and a detective walk up to an empty reception desk that has a bell sitting on it, for example. I lit up when I saw it and I started tapping on the screen a bunch–Erica didn’t hesitate to mimic my actions in her world and ding away, so much so that the detective swatted her hand off of it because he got annoyed. The straightforward motions make navigating trouble-free, and being able to quickly deduce what moves you can make adds a connection to the moment-to-moment gameplay.

Make key choices via interactive storytelling.

It keeps your focus on the important things, like figuring out what the heck is going on in the story. Erica is a full-motion video game for PlayStation 4, a surprise drop at Gamescom last week that’s got an uphill battle to get people to care. But you should, because it’s good. At around 90 minutes in length it’s slight, and it’s very much in the vein of a game like Until Dawn – the kind of experience best played through with other people in the room. Indeed, that feels like part of the design, with decision points flashing up and you (and the people with you) deciding what to do, and which path to take. It’s less of a traditional game than Until Dawn. There aren’t any time-pressured, button-matching sequences, nor any reflex challenges really. You only ever slide a finger, sometimes two, along the controller’s touchpad, so it’s a very gentle kind of interaction anyone can cope with, whether they’ve picked up a PS4 pad before or not. In fact, the suggested way to play the game is through a companion smartphone app. The other huge difference is you’re watching filmed actors rather than digitally recreated ones, and the effect is superb – so much so I don’t know why more games don’t do it (although I realise Her Story and Telling Lies do, and they’re both excellent). There’s none of the hokey hamminess you might associate with the first big wave of FMV games in the 90s. Production values here are very high. Scenes are beautifully shot, colours and framing gorgeous, and the acting is strong.Craftopia

Erica Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

Erica in particular – played by Holly Earl – has a captivating vulnerability to her, but across the board there’s understated confidence in the performances and it smacks of quality as a result. The quality pulls you in, and it needs to because it’s a slow burner. Erica is a psychological thriller, not a horror game. It’s subtle, not brash. It doesn’t jump-scare, it occasionally startles. Erica’s opening is strong, building a yearning to know more and natural suspicion. All you really know is there is a motherless girl called Erica whose father suggests she’s special in some way. Then you’re caught up in a murder investigation – and things go south from there. An example of how you interact with objects. There’s a lovely stop-motion animation to each interaction. They’ve very pleasing. The story sagged two-thirds of the way through, when the path seemed clear and the mystery all but solved, but then it ended in such a way, I’m still in three minds about what was going on. Who was the real danger? I have my theories, and I’m not going to share them here, but I’m not certain about any of them. Were it a film, I’d probably feel it a bit abrupt, the ending, and too open ended – though I love a good ponder. But this was a game I picked my own path through, after all, so the conclusion was my doing, and I could as easily go through it again and answer the questions I have, even though that’s cheating, isn’t it? I made my choices. As a game, it also brought me closer to Erica. I was Erica – I was in her head.

A filmic score filled with tension

There was a moment, late on, when I felt exactly as confused as she obviously was. It was very powerful – it worked very well. I personally won’t go back to Erica, then, but I will find any excuse to have someone I know play it while I watch. I enjoyed Until Dawn, especially the social aspect, but Erica makes it look wooden, bloated and overly complicated. Erica is exactly the right length, pitched superbly in terms of what it demands of your hands (ie. not much), and natural to watch in a way even the most cinematic games still can’t match. It’s part of a new dawn for FMV games. Enjoy it. Had Erica been released a year ago, chances are it would have made quite a splash. An interactive, full-motion video thriller where you control the decisions of troubled youngster it is as a brave, bold experiment in storytelling. But then Bandersnatch came along, and then Telling Lies. Now Erica feels like old news. The game itself isn’t necessarily to blame. Without similar competition, Erica would have still found a small, passionate clutch of fans eager to discover non-traditional gaming experiences. But Telling Lies is more complete as an interactive adventure, and Bandersnatch is bigger and more mainstream. Plus – as much as I hate to admit it – it was better. Bandersnatch branched off with just enough regularity to keep its users on their toes; scenes would often play out uninterrupted, but you never lost the feeling that you were in control. Erica, meanwhile, refuses to give it a rest.

The story – a young girl confronts her violent past in a supernatural dance of the occult – has the potential to be truly fascinating. But it’s stymied at every turn by endless back-breaking chores. The game opens with you flicking open a lighter by swiping at the motion pad of your controller. Then you have to light it with another swipe. And then you have to light a lamp, then put a stylus on a record player, all with swipes. When you encounter a door, you have to turn the knob. When you find curtains, you have to pull them back. Misted windows have to be thoroughly wiped clear before you can see what’s behind them. Boxes have to be laboriously opened latch by latch. None of these actions have any real effect on the story but you’re forced to perform them anyway, over and over, until your bones creak. In one early scene, I found myself confronted with a chest of drawers; the thought of having to swipe to open, inspect and close each drawer in turn made me audibly groan. The mark of success for interactive narratives is how often you want to replay them. With Bandersnatch, the end of one story was simply an excuse to jump back in and explore other options. But it’s different with Erica where the amount of busywork means you’re rushing to the end to be done with it. There’s plenty of intrigue here, and in better circumstances you’d want to spend more time with the characters in order to understand their perspectives.

Erica Free Download GAMESPACK.NET

But by the fifth time you’ve opened a lock that could have so easily have opened automatically, all you really want to do is find the quickest possible route to the exit. It’s a shame, because the other elements of Erica are pleasingly robust. Holly Earl – who you might recognise as Agnes in Humans – plays Erica: it’s a thankless task, since her role amounts to adopting the expression of a worried deer and repeating dialogue picked by the player. But she manages to achieve a baseline of charisma that other performers would struggle with. The same goes for the peripheral characters, who all have to maintain a low-level ambiguity in their delivery, on the off-chance that the player will make choices that radically alter their personality. This could be frustratingly vague, but it’s sold with real menace. There’s a good game at the heart of Erica. But it’d be so much better if the interactive elements were reduced considerably. For an interactive story, that doesn’t bode well. Immerse yourself in a feature-length cinematic experience where you affect the action playing out on-screen, merging high-fidelity Hollywood production values with engaging, tactile gameplay. Alter the path of the game’s branching narrative by making meaningful decisions that have a profound effect on how the story plays out. Choose how Erica interacts with other characters through conversation, and shape her relationships with them. Super Meat Boy

ADD ONS/PATCHES AND DLC’S: Erica