The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker
FMV games have made quite the comeback in the last few years, and The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker adds to the growing library of great titles in the genre. Of course, it’s not a perfect game (what game is?), but the quality of the writing, acting and production all place this murder mystery amid the cream of the FMV crop here on Steam.
Doctor Dekker has been violently murdered by one of his patients. As his replacement at the psychiatric clinic, you are now tasked with investigating his death while helping his patients navigate their various maladies. Toss in a little Cthulhu mythos, and you have a recipe for madness that’s altogether delightful to behold.
– Real player with 63.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best FMV Lovecraftian Games.
I thought you knew what you were doing, Doctor.
Once you find the genres you love, you absolutely can not get enough of them. Looking through pre existing games to see which ones you will most likely like and seeing if more are going to be released. Craving more and more as you become more aware of what makes a good game and a bad game in that specific genre. FMV games are one of those genres I adore but also look into them as it can frequently not work out.
In The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, you come in right after the events of a dramatic event. A psychiatrist by the name of Doctor Dekker was violently murdered in his office by one of his patients. But who? No one knows except the one that did the act. This is where you come in, not as some cop asking them questions but taking Dekker’s spot as a psychiatrist for the same patients he had. The same patients that hides the mysterious killer.
– Real player with 47.9 hrs in game
UnearthU
A strange experience, if you’re interested at all I’d recommend not reading much more about this
– Real player with 2.2 hrs in game
Read More: Best FMV Experimental Games.
This is a “game” much in the same way a walking simulator or a VN is, so just fair warning.
I am currently on Day 4 and will update again when I get to Day 7.
I will not spoil specifics.
The “game” is best experienced as intended: do each day without changing clocks or anything. Do Day 1, and then do Day 2 the following day when it unlocks. Complete all exercises with honest intent, to include the writing prompts and meditation exercises.
There is a narrative and character and background amidst what feels like real mindfulness concepts. The blend between the real and fictional is intriguing and keeps me coming back each day. The layout of the exercises feels intended, with the motivational video leading into the discussions/lectures by KARE, then a meditation/breathing exercises that inevitably lead you to ruminating about what KARE just talked about, a writing prompt that sometimes gives you pause about wanting to be completely truthful, and a final checklist of items that you’re more than likely just going to click through without actually implementing.
– Real player with 1.5 hrs in game
I Saw Black Clouds
I Saw Silver Linings
It doesn’t show its hand until it will have tested the patience of many, but I think in the pantheon of modern FMV titles it’s sufficiently interesting to recommend (with some caveats).
Consider me an avid indie FMV game dabbler . Over time I’ve realised that the real beauty of such interactive films, much like VR games, isn’t that they continuously break new ground towards some singularity future entertainment form. It’s that indie creator spirit that flows through their design and writing and all the quirks and eccentricities that come with that. I’m British, so I always love the underdog.
– Real player with 9.6 hrs in game
Read More: Best FMV Choices Matter Games.
As a big fan of FMV games, I give this a 6 out of 10. So a mild recommendation mostly for other fans of the genre. There are just too many elements here that could be improved on to rate it any higher, some of which have been mentioned in other reviews.
There are some tracked playthrough stats like tact and honesty that are poorly explained in relation to the game, to the point I don’t think they have any impact other than reflecting choices you’ve made. There’s no situation where you aren’t tactful enough to continue down a certain path or anything like that. But at the same time there are the stats of denial and acceptance that determine your ending. So some of the stats matter and some don’t and that’s never really made clear.
– Real player with 8.1 hrs in game
Interrogation Files: Port Landsend
I for sure would recommend this game to you if:
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You have already played Her Story, liked it, and would enjoy playing a similar game
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You wouldn’t be put off by lower production values (the acting, in particular, can be distracting)
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You can look past and put up with some minor but irritating design flaws
If the above describes you then I feel pretty confident that you would enjoy Interrogation Files: Port Landsend. It is clearly a small indie game, but it has an interesting story and I was definitely invested in the investigation to figure out what had happened. For me the good very much outweighed the bad, and I personally wouldn’t hesitate to play future games from the same developer.
– Real player with 15.1 hrs in game
I randomly came across this little gem while browsing through FMV games and jumped all over it. I like FMV and I like crime, mystery, and detective games so naturally it was right up my alley. It follows the same format as Her Story by watching clips and searching for keywords, but this game manages to take things a step beyond by introducing multiple suspects.
The case that unfolds is interesting and keeps you invested. The acting ranges from pretty good to some characters who talk while constantly staring off camera to read their lines. I think my favorite part might have been the built-in ‘hint system’ for lack of a better term, where you can click a button to get a undiscovered clip unlocked for you. It’s a big help if you get stuck and it makes going for the 100% achievement much easier than similar games.
– Real player with 11.3 hrs in game
Morph Girl
And now, once again, I bid my hideous progeny go forth and prosper. I have an affection for it, for it was the offspring of happy days, when death and grief were but words, which found no true echo in my heart. - Mary Shelley
Morph Girl is a FMV horror visual novel - since it is a story with various choices and their appropriate endings - and Jaydeb’s sole project so far. It most certainly bears some potential for a first trial yet bears some issues in the long run too. Still, I’d strongly recommend for you to give it a try, if you’d enjoy the artistic narrative of a tragedy of loss.
– Real player with 15.1 hrs in game
I do not often write reviews for games, but every once in a while I decide a game is worth a few moments of my time to write one.
Morph Girl is, as the store states, A Japanese horror inspired FMV complete with an Onryou. There are 6 endings to the game, with the typical good and bad outcomes you might expect. As others have stated, a run should take about an hour, with several choices sprinkled through. These don’t change the overall gameplay significantly, but it does change the ending. Additionally, you are able to watch TV twice in your playthrough. On the TV will be two movies, 1 hour and 2 hours in length, that must be watched in full for the achievements, but not for any ending. Overall, the rest of the achievements are easy enough to get, clicking through some items, playing the story, and reaching the various endings.
– Real player with 12.7 hrs in game
Murderous Muses
It’s a year to the day since controversial artist Mordechai Grey was murdered.
Now, a new exhibition has opened on the anniversary of his death, featuring six of his most famous portraits - each one a potential suspect in his murder.
You play as the night watch, exploring the gallery in the echoing hours to uncover clues about his death. Solve puzzles and use the Eyes of Mordechai to bring the portraits to life, restoring the past to find his killer…
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Solve a cold-case murder mystery that re-rolls every time you play
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Explore a procedurally-generated 3D gallery with shifting rooms and unexpected twists
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Uncover clues and use deduction to find the killer
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Solve puzzles and unlock secret locations!
From the creators of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, The Shapeshifting Detective and Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, Murderous Muses is an infinitely replayable supernatural whodunit where choosing how to investigate is an art form…
ROUGH KUTS: Night of the Living Dead
PUBLIC DOMAIN
res nullius, res communes, res publicae, res universitati
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no copyright notification on release material
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copyright renewal lapsed (up to 1978 release)
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95 years or older (USA) or 70 years after death (which ever is shorter)
great idea for public domain films. while they are free in many forms, this is another good option.
i have played through all the dlc currently. 10 dlc + base game = 11 films.
is it “horror” well, definition of horror extends greatly to many things
while some would be more considered “scifi” than horror, its more of the consensus that each film is categorized as horror film.
– Real player with 17.2 hrs in game
i love how they made these films interactive and my decisions actually made a difference, really awesome. 10/10 would definitely recommend.
– Real player with 8.6 hrs in game
Realms of the Haunting
Wow! What an amazing game! I’ve never played it before or back in the day so this was a first impression. It’s such a huge 20 chapter adventure of FPS, scares, puzzles, cutscene movies and story, that you get so engaged in it, it really feels like you are controlling a character in a movie.
The graphics are impressive for the time, the mapping especially is so well thought out and designed that I was always amazed whenever I arrived at a new location. It’s not all hallways and darkness, there’s such a variety of fantasy like locations that it never gets dull.
– Real player with 25.7 hrs in game
This game took me about 20 hours, I wouldn’t say it necessarily earns all of that length. You should know before you get into this that this is not really a horror game, it’s an adventure game where the first half has heavier horror elements than the second, which leans more into the surreal cosmic world that it builds up.
Most people’s gripe is with the controls, but honestly it only took me a little bit to adjust to the antiquated first-person movement, although you SHOULD absolutely read the manual before playing to get an idea of how to play.
– Real player with 19.8 hrs in game
Splinter
Splinter is a first-person movie/video game hybrid where the player explores the warehouse of a transhumanist hacker collective, watching full motion video clips that answer the question: What happened to Mason?
Splinter is an experiment with a new style of storytelling. A full playthrough is approximately 2 hours long, similar to a feature film.
Bloodshore
Just finished the first run, and got a well-deserved bromance ending. The production value of this FMV game is a lot higher than previous Wales Interactive games. We have certainly came a long way from their earlier works like Late Shift.
This game is exactly what I wanted from a battle royale movie - bloody, campy, morally grey characters, and full of plot twists. They must have a bigger budget this time because the camera work feel really professional, and the scenes are beautifully shot.
My first run took about 90 minutes to complete, and the final ending screen shows I saw about 60 scenes out of 250, so I am guessing there’s probably another two or three routes I can play through.
– Real player with 12.8 hrs in game
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The game of survival in some lost island-wooded area begins, and you are still its living protagonist. If we look for the closest comparisons, then not even the film “The Running Man” comes to mind, but the film “The Hunt” (2020), the mood of these two projects is quite similar. Although «Bloodshore» is less subtle in handling irony, preferring to use black humor in a more straightforward manner, overall it conveys very faithfully the analysis of social problems centered on a small piece of territory. FMV genre allows you to fully immerse the player in the atmosphere of survival, giving him the opportunity to fully choose his own path. And in terms of choosing a path, the game takes a big step forward compared to some of the latest projects of the publisher, here you actually feel the ramification of many plot routes, and the endings feel very different. Yes, it seemed to me that some of the script opportunities were not fully used (this concerns the breaking storylines of Otts and Gavin; the much larger use of a potential collision with “death row prisoners”; the greater influence of “cowardly” behavior on various events). The characters very vividly recreate the atmosphere of the B-movie, where deliberate grotesqueness is intertwined with swanky fun. The main character is generally very charming, playing for him is very exciting; the actor coped with his task cool. The plot twists are varied, several times I caught myself thinking that I am really surprised at some moments. As for the special effects and gunshots… Let’s just say, write off their nondescriptness to the fact that in this the game is trying to be similar to B-movies. I was glad that this time there is no need to wait for any patches to skip previously viewed scenes, the TAB key helps to significantly speed up replay.
– Real player with 5.7 hrs in game