For a (presumably) late-night show, at least one scene in the studio appears to take place in broad daylight. On the other hand, I do have a few issues with the FMV. The episodes are short and replayable, so picking an option without necessarily realizing what it means isn’t too much of a problem, for once. I can forgive some of the choices you have being a little unclear. It’s a pleasant mix that goes along with the varied tones of the episodes.īut some of the more technical aspects don’t work quite so well. The acting is, from everyone, decent at worst: Some are delightfully cheesy, while others are more serious and sinister. They’re eminently believable as a pair of colleagues and secret lovers, with one flirty but sharp and the other more morbid and serious. There’s a natural chemistry between the duo, some delicious melodrama, and a lot of sassy-but-flirty back-and-forths. Your actions might lead to the saving of lives, or possibly the taking of them.Ī lot of the game’s weight rests on the shoulders of leads Klemens Koehring and Leah Cunard (Poe and Munro, respectively), but they carry it well. It’s also pretty much the only one that really unsettled me. It’s maybe a tad self-indulgent, but it’s easily the single creepiest episode of the lot, with some of the finest acting. It’s the same mechanics, but used in a more traditional “adventure” way.Īnother excellent episode is a massive call-back to Doctor Dekker, in which you interview a new patient. Rather than proceeding on rails and having you make snap decisions, it has you choose the order in which the duo follow leads and how they interrogate and investigate. One episode has the pair investigating a kidnapping in August, the town in which Dark Nights is set. But some of the others are far more fascinating. Some are short, tight vignettes, like a potential murderer breaking into the studio. The episodes themselves vary wildly in tone and – to some extent – quality. The Doctor Dekker-themed episode is legitimately kinda disturbing, and it gives Leah Cunard a chance to show off a very different side of her acting. It’s the sort of horror that amuses and delights, rather than tries to leave you unable to sleep. Still, Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is rarely “scary,” usually opting to be unsettling and leave you uncertain. But the story is generally left up to your own interpretation, which is fitting for short-form horror of this nature. Things are almost never fully explained, and there are usually hints of some deeper horror or supernatural element. That says a lot for how much I wanted to explore each episode. And some of the possibilities do offer up some unique twists on the tale. Before unlocking the skip function (after finishing all six episodes), I was spending over an hour on each just to see the different ways things could play out. While they’ll always come to some sort of conclusion, there are plenty of alternate paths, endings, and extra details to uncover, some of which can comprehensively change your understanding of each story. That episode length probably doesn’t seem too long, but each of them begs to be played more than once. Werewolves, past-lives regression, and wish-granting paintings are all in full effect. Rather than a longer, overarching plot, you’ve got six ghoulish mini-stories. Most of the six episodes are around 20 minutes in length, and barring the eponymous characters and a few references, each is also self-contained. Perhaps fittingly for a pair of macabre radio hosts, Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is an anthology series of spooky stories. (Actual quick-time events are mercifully rare.) A series of dark nights A video plays out, and you occasionally make a timed choice to decide what actions the characters take and where the plot goes next. The Shapeshifting Detective was more adventure-y and had you tracking down a murderer by changing into other characters to eke out bits of information.ĭark Nights with Poe and Munro is closer to a traditional interactive movie. The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker had you interviewing psychiatric patients (and murder suspects) using a text parser. It’s a bit of a shift from D’Avekki’s other two games, but that’s perhaps to be expected. Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, focusing on the two radio hosts from The Shapeshifting Detective, has a pedigree to live up to. So the modern resurgence has pleased me, and D’Avekki Studios has made a few actually good FMV games. From Voyeur to Frankenstein: Through the Eyes of the Monster, I’ve played and “enjoyed” far too many. I say unhealthy because, historically, most of them are crap. I have a mildly unhealthy love for FMV games.
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