Cross the X-Files with Twin Peaks and add a huge dollop of Garth Marenghi, and you’ve conjured up the delicious FMV Dark Nights with Poe and Munro. It’s not always pretty, it doesn’t often make sense, at all, but let me tell you, these two could have a future.
Today's review is the FMV, that’s Full Motion Video game, Dark Nights with Poe and Munro from D’avekki Studios. It’s the first FMV game I've played since the X-Files game in the late 90’s and there are 1 or 2 similar themes between these two, but only on the surface. Essentially Poe and Munro are two inquisitive characters, not detectives, just a pair of radio hosts on their show 'Dark Nights'. The station in question is Radio August based in the small town of August, somewhere in England, the location isn’t really specified.
Poe, played by Klemens Koehring, is an articulate, somewhat pompous goatee-sporting guy, who always seems to be the one calling the shots. Munroe, played by Leah Cunard, is a sultry, doe-eyed woman who flits between deer in the headlights to tour-de-force depending on, well, not much really. The pair work best when they're together with a sense of tension that’s always present, as it’s hinted (heavily) they’re having a lucid affair. Poe is married but doesn’t really seem that bothered about the marriage, but hasn't got the guts to leave his wife. The game isn’t centred around this storyline but it does seem to frame a lot of the episodes. There are 6 episode in total and the entire lot of it took me between 3-4 hours to complete.
Staying on the theme of the X-Files, I’d say half the episodes fit in the supernatural genre, as the pair investigate everything from a weird painting that might be haunted, their past lives and time travel. The other half of the episodes are more the thriller types, with a missing person, a creepy caller (we’ll come to that in a minute) and a gun toting buffoon. These episodes do also have tinges of the supernatural too but they're kind of in the periphery.
So Poe and Munro have a late night radio show and talk nonsense about, well, anything they feel. The show doesn't really seem to have any direction whilst they’re on air doing their thing, but they seem to have a healthy listening audience regardless, who constantly phone in. August seems to have a 'Royston Vasey' sense, where all the creeps and weirdos hang out, and our hapless duo seem to be the conduit into which they communicate. Although there are 6 episodes, none of them really have a continuous thread of a story, they're all pretty much self contained. At a push you could say that one or two have things that mention similar callers, or events, but there isn't a big story here. At one point there may be a small mentioning of a person they spoke to or an action that occurred, but it doesn’t affect the episode we’re in at all. It makes it a fun game to dip in and out of, with each episode hanging at about half an hour depending on the choices you take. And here’s the main, and only, game mechanic. Choices.
There are points dotted throughout where we get to decide what direction to take. They range from decisions that could alter the entire story, or one’s that seem pretty pointless. These are timed events but the majority last around 10 seconds so there's a small amount of time to think. One or two sometimes pop up so quick with around 3 seconds to decide so if you’re not ready for them, they disappear and your path is decided for you. It got to the point in some episodes that the story being told was captivating enough for me to forget I was playing and, I just sat and watched it without hitting an option. Some of the scenes can go several minutes without the option to choose your fate. There’s a stack of replayability here, especially in the episodes where Poe and Munro split up.
In one episode you can go and question a few different people, so I chose Poe to go and question a school teacher whilst Munro went off somewhere else. By the time we met up again, both meetings had taken place so I couldn’t then decide I now want to question the other person, because Munro had done that already. The next time I go to play that story I could play it the other way around.
The game really lives or dies on the acting and characters and, even though the pair are fairly thin character wise, what they do have they work with remarkably well, and the chemistry between them is scintillating. You could be forgiven for thinking that they’re a couple in real life.
The stronger episodes for me are the ones where there are more characters to play off, especially when they finally leave the studio as we see who these guys are when they’re apart. Munro is almost always submissive when they’re together, but apart, she stands strong and confident. Poe on the other hand seems the total opposite. In the studio he speaks his mind often but when he’s alone all he pines about is the fact he’s not with Munro. This yin/yang relationship ultimately left me a little annoyed as it doesn’t get tied in a nice bow at the end of episode 6, but as I said right at the start of this review, I’d be happy to spend more time with them.
The majority of the stories told were fun, almost kitsch, with very little real fraught moments. Once or twice though it does seem to tip over the edge into Alan Partridge territory, especially with Poe so if you head into the game thinking it’ll be a tense psychological thrill ride, then you may be in for a surprise there. There’s even a moment of rock paper scissors where if we win, we get to disarm a guy with a gun, which I did, and he just, gives us his gun. Don’t get me wrong, I think from start to finish, all 6 episodes, I had a good time, heck, a great time, but shifts in tone from dry comedy to serious friction happened so quickly, and frequently, that I never felt entirely comfortable what the aim of the developer was. Going into this, I was expecting a semi serious look at small town mysteries, but coming out the other side, it’s more a hodgepodge of styles, unable to pin down exactly what it wants to be.
The visuals are constantly shot with heavy shadows, something that thankfully IS constant throughout. The town of August, or rather the outskirts (we never see much of the town itself) is regularly hidden in dark shadows leaving a menacing aura throughout. It’s filmed well and has nailed the aesthetic. Klemens Khoering and Leah Cunard are fine actors and this helps for sure as some of the dialogue can be underwritten. There seems to be a big back story there that’s only ever hinted at and I’d have liked to have seen it being dug up more. Really getting some flesh on those pasty white bones. As my first venture into FMV since the 90’s (side note: That X files game is still a banger), I’m glad it was Dark Nights with Poe and Munro that reintroduced me to it.
Get your copy of Dark Nights with Poe and Munro from Fanatical.
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Michael
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