History VideoGame / HerStory

* AntiFrustrationFeatures: For those going for OneHundredPercentCompletion, [[spoiler:after "finishing" the game, you are taught the search string "ADMIN_RANDOM" to help you further in finding more videos]]. This is particularly helpful for the lie-detector test videos.
** Similarly, [[spoiler:since all videos are tagged with the tag "BLANK", the player can just search for "blank" and erase the tagline from all the videos they see. This might not be intentional, however.]]

* GenreSavvy: [[spoiler: Eve, who has a tattoo where Hannah doesn't, wears a short sleeved shirt in the beginning of the interrogations. After one of the officers inquires about it, the following interrogation videos all have her in long sleeved shirts, or at least, long enough to cover up the tattoo.]]

* ImpersonatingTheEvilTwin: [[spoiler:Hannah wears Eve's blonde wig when she goes to confront Simon about his affair with Eve, pretending to be her just long enough for Simon to give her a mirror that was identical to the one he gave Hannah when they first married. [[AxCrazy She doesn't take it well.]]]]

* GreenEyedMonster: [[spoiler:"Hannah" killed Simon because she was jealous of "Eve" stealing her perfect life together with him]].
* IdenticalStranger: [[spoiler:Eve was supposedly Hannah's twin, kidnapped at birth, and lived across the street from Hannah until she was eight years old. Of course, that might [[UnreliableNarrator all be in her head.]]]]

* IdenticalTwinIDTag: [[spoiler:Hannah wears her hair up while Eve wears her hair down. In addition, Eve has a rather prominent tattoo of [[RuleOfSymbolism a snake and an apple]] on her arm (although considering both Hannah and Eve are wearing long sleeves in most of their interviews, the SplitPersonality theory is still plausible).]]

* LettingHerHairDown: [[spoiler:"Hannah" wears her hair tied up while "Eve" lets it down. Notably, she lets her hair down after having to leave the room at some point, which serves as another piece of evidence for the SplitPersonality theory.]]

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: [[spoiler:Eve seems to genuinely believe there is a magical connection between her and Hannah. Assuming they're [[SplitPersonality not just the same person]], there are certainly more than a few eerie parallels in their respective lives.]]

* OccamsRazor: {{Averted|Trope}}. There are three primary explanations for Hannah and Eve's activities. All are highly implausible, and require a certain amount of contrivance to make sense.
** [[spoiler: You can take them at their word and believe that the two are identical twins that were SeparatedAtBirth. However, for their story to make sense, they would have needed to conceal Eve's existence ''for a decade,'' while she was living in the attic of Hannah's house, all the while Eve and Hannah were pulling TwinSwitch shenanigans on their parents and on the community as a whole. It does explain certain physical inconsistencies, however, like Hannah's bruise disappearing over the course of a single day, or Eve's tattoo seemingly disappearing between interviews.]]

** [[spoiler: It's revealed that the woman doing the interview is possibly a pair of twins, Hannah and Eve, that switch roles on different days. Or maybe she has a SplitPersonality. Or maybe ''both.'']]
** [[spoiler: Hannah killed her husband accidentally by swinging a broken mirror at him, which causes the shard to cut his throat.]]

* SplitPersonality: [[spoiler:There are a ''lot'' of hints that Eve is a split personality of Hannah. Then again, the implausibility of a split personality is equaled by the implausibility of Hannah having a secret twin sister. Although based on the bruise that Hannah received and tattoo that Eve had in separate interviews, it's much more likely that she has a twin sister]].

* TwinSwitch: [[spoiler:Hannah and Eve, both several times during their lives and, it seems, the interrogations themselves. Although that depends on whether you believe they are twins or two halves of a Split Personality.]]
* UnreliableExpositor: The game is primarily about figuring out which parts of the woman's testimony you can trust, so you can piece together the events that unfolded. [[spoiler:Ultimately, you can't trust ''anything'' that Hannah/Eve tells you throughout the game, because both of the most likely explanations ("I have a split personality" and "I have a secret twin I kept in my attic without my parents finding out.") are equally ridiculous and none of her statements (like her "alibi" in Glasgow) are confirmed or refuted by the interrogating officer. As "Eve" says in the final video clip: "You have nothing. And all these stories we've been telling each other? Just that: stories."]]

* WomanScorned: [[spoiler:If one believes that Hannah and Eve are separate people, Hannah's reason for accidentally killing Simon was rage at him telling her (posing as Eve) that he wanted to be with her, and presenting her with an identical mirror to the "unique" one he'd given Hannah earlier.]]

** Fairy Tales. Specifically {{Rapunzel}}.

In the year 1994, a woman (Viva Seifert) was called in by the police to give a number of interviews considering a recent disappearance. Your challenge is to piece together the facts of the case despite the limitations of the aged database software you are using.

** [[spoiler:Hannah's teenage pregnancy]].

** [[spoiler: Although you do at least learn exactly who is searching the database and why.]]

* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Heavily implied. Eve's mother died after falling down the stairs. Later, Hannah's parents both died from food poisoning by eating Death Cap Mushrooms, despite her father being an expert. Eve comments that the police never checked the attic, as though the reason for the deaths was up there, where Eve lives.]]

** The song that Hannah sings is about [[spoiler: two sisters who fell for the same man]].

* Wham Line: "So... [[spoiler: you think you understand why your mother did what she did?]]"

* Wham Line "So... [[spoiler: you think you understand why your mother did what she did?]]"

* Wham Line "So...{ [spoiler: you think you understand why your mother did what she did?]]"

* Wham Line "So... [spoiler: you think you understand why your mother did what she did?]]"

* ExcusePlot: [[spoiler:The game starts off with clips of the woman/women being questioned about Simon's disappearance. However, as you search more, it becomes clear that the game is less about Simon's disappearance/murder, and more about the lives of Hannah/Eve.]]

*** Unfortunately, if the twins story is to be believed Eve also [[spoiler:took [[Twincest Hannah's virginity]] (or '''innocence''') with a hair brush.]]

** Mirrors and reflections.

* NoEnding: [[spoiler:At some point, a chat box will appear on the screen, asking you if you're done searching and are satisfied with what you've learned. Answering "yes" to both questions will take the game to the credits, and teach you the "ADMIN_RANDOM" command to help you should you choose to continue. However, aside from that, nothing happens even if you manage to view all 271 videos on the database]].

* RepeatingSoTheAudienceCanHear: Hannah speaks like this, since the audience can't hear the detective's voices (this is explained by the detective's questions being in a separate volume of the database that was since damaged by a flood).

* SelfMadeOrphan: [[spoiler:Heavily implied. Eve's mother died after falling down the stairs. Later, Hannah's parents both died from food poisoning by eating Death Cap Mushrooms, despite her father being an expert.]]
* SeparatedAtBirth: [[spoiler:Hannah and Eve (allegedly). The midwife had told their mother Eve died and raised her as her own.]]

** [[spoiler: The blonde wig, worn by the woman when she wants to be in disguise.]]

* InterfaceSpoiler: After certain videos are played for the first time, the lights behind the PlayerCharacter would flicker for a bit, or police sirens and accompanying blue and red lights would sound. [[spoiler:These tend to happen whenever the videos are very close to the truth behind what happened]].