Dark Nights with Poe & Munro | Nintendo Switch Review
Updated: Nov 19, 2021
Dark Nights with Poe & Munro is the third interactive FMV game developed and published by D'Avekki Studios. It is the first game of theirs that I have played myself, but having now spent some time with this one, I really want to take a look at the previous two games: The Shapeshifting Detective and The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker. My review copy was on the Nintendo Switch, with the game officially being released on July 15th. The game is already available on Windows PC, PlayStation and XBox having been released during 2020.
I am still fairly new to the full motion video game scene, my first experience recently being with She Sees Red, so if you are also unfamiliar with this genre of game, I will explain the basics. The game itself plays out like a movie and at certain points in the story, you get to chance to make choices via on-screen prompts. The decisions you make and the choices you go for will select which branching storyline you follow, with different outcomes affecting the movie, unfolding as you watch and participate. You really do get very engrossed into the whole story as you are watching, and the fact that you help to create the outcome to a certain extent really does add to the overall experience with games like this one.
There are six full episodes here with almost five hours of full screen FMV video. All six of the episodes are available to you upon purchase and you unlock each subsequent episode upon the completion of the one before it. There are multiple endings for each episode and you have the option to go back and replay each one after you have completed them. Also, after you complete each episode, you are shown a stats screen, which details in percentages just how well your decision making was against others who have played on the same platform.
The acting and the direction are both great, and the on-screen chemistry between the two leads, Klemens Koehring as John 'Poe' Pope and Leah Cunard as Ellis Munro, the hosts of the late night radio show, really could not be any better. Dark Nights with Poe & Munro was directed by Tim Cowles, as were the previous two games by D'Avekki Studios, and also both the main actors, Klemens Koehring and Leah Cunard, were in The Shapeshifting Detective. The controls in the game are just thumbstick or D-Pad to select with the A button to action, and the Y button to pause/unpause the video. There are options for audio and music levels, with a nice subtle and atmospheric soundtrack playing. You also have the option to add in subtitles and you can make them bigger or smaller as per your preference. There are also mutiple language options, a tracker freeze which gives you infinite time to decide, a stats sharing option, and finally an option to skip videos. For reference I had the subtitles turned on and at the highest level, which is setting 3, and they were very clear to read on screen.
Each of the six episodes in the game will give you between 20-30 minutes of video and story, and the stories themselves play out like six different TV episodes with a varied mix to keep you entertained. There are knife wielding stalkers, vengeful ghosts, kidnappings, past lives regression therapy, time travel, and talking paintings, so pretty much a whole host of things and something for everyone. I found myself playing through some of the episodes a few times each, just to try out different options and choices to see what the outcome was, so there is plenty of scope for replay value when you're playing Dark Nights with Poe & Munro.
Would I recommend Dark Nights with Poe & Munro... ABSOLUTELY! Whether it's your first adventure with an FMV game or with one of the three games from D'Avekki Studios, or even if you've played The Shapeshifting Detective or The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker already, you really need to give this one a go. As you can probably tell, I absolutely loved this game, and I will play through it again, just to try out more options. The stories are great, the acting is great and the atmospheric supernatural elements all add to the experience. I will definitely be keeping an eye out for more from both the Studio and from the characters, and yes I will be (at the earliest available opportunity) delving into the previous two games. g1a5w3g1an's Rating: 4.5 ominous callers out of 5.
For more information on Dark Nights with Poe & Munro please use the following links... D'Avekki Studios - Developer | Publisher | Twitter | Website
Dark Nights with Poe & Munro | Steam | PlayStation | XBox | Nintendo
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