As somebody who grew up gaming in the early ’90s, it’s been fun to see the resurgence of full-motion video games, or FMV games, in the past several years. It’s not just that technology has evolved and become much more accessible to your average creator compared to back then, but those who pursue making an FMV game also think of clever ways to use the format beyond just splicing live-action cutscenes into typical video games, as was often the case in the early days of FMV. One of the more interesting takes on the FMV genre launched as a PlayStation 4 exclusive back in 2019, but has made its way to iOS this week, and it’s called Erica – Interactive Thriller from developer Flavourworks.

Erica features extremely high production values, excellent acting, and a compelling story. You slowly unravel a suspenseful mystery by choosing branching paths and dialogues, which can result thousands of different variations and multiple outcomes to the story. All of this is very good, but also pretty typical of most modern FMV games. What really sets Erica apart is something the developers call Touch Video. This means that there are certain scenes or objects in the game which you can directly interact with using the touchscreen. This could be flipping the lid and lighting a Zippo, unfolding the flaps of a box, or flipping through the pages of a journal. The Touch Video aspect is a bit gimmicky, but also really compelling, especially on the iOS touchscreen (com...