Dark Nights With Poe and Munro

Genre: FMV Game

Players: 1

.

Review:

Dark Nights is an FMV Game released on PC in 2020 and ported to PlayStation 4, Xbox One, and Nintendo Switch in 2021. The game follows the two titular characters, radio hosts in the small town of August, as they try to present their darkly-themed radio program but repeatedly find themselves facing dark real-life events and seemingly supernatural occurrences that threaten their lives.

This game basically plays out like a “Choose Your Own Adventure”, with players watching the characters go through their story until coming to a point where they must decide between two or three options. This is a time-tested formula, but Dark Nights messes it up by making it unclear what each of the choices are. You’ll see multiple objects or people to select while a timer ticks down, but it’s not made clear what you’re instructing the characters to do when selecting these.

Making matters worse, every now and then you encounter a “Quick Time Event” of sorts, where instead of selecting between multiple options, you must repeatedly tap a button within a short time limit. Unfortunately, the icon indicating that you should do so looks the same as the icon to select between options, meaning that it may take players a few seconds to realize they’re being expected to quickly tap a button, and by that point it may be too late to do so.

However, I can’t help but think that the biggest failing of Dark Nights is possibly the video clips themselves. This entire game is full of absurdly unnatural acting from the characters on-screen, particularly the actor for “Poe”, who over-acts virtually every single line he has. This makes it difficult to tell just how seriously we’re supposed to take anything that’s happening, especially given the radio hosts seem to be putting on a show that may be fourth wall-breaking. Whenever something unusual happens, it’s hard not to wonder whether the characters are actually worried, or putting on an act for the show, whether the threats they face are real, or imagined for the show’s “dreamy” aesthetic. The plot and acting is practically begging players to disengage with it.

FMV Games are such a niche genre, I have to give some credit to any game developer still trying to make it work, but Dark Nights With Poe and Munro fails on pretty much every level. The story is based on choices that players make, but it’s often unclear what those choices are. Players are often expected to quickly tap a button, but the icon to indicate this looks much the same as one where you only have to press the button once. And the story and acting is cheesy to a point where it seems to try to break immersion at every turn. Even the niche target audience who enjoys this genre will likely find Dark Nights to be a disappointment.

tl;dr – Dark Nights is an FMV Game about two hosts of a radio show who find dark events seeping out of their radio program and into their lives. Unfortunately, the acting is extremely unnatural and breaks immersion, the choices players are given are unclear, and players are often prompted to quickly tap a button in a confusing manner. Even if you’re a fan of FMV Games, I can’t recommend you play this one.

Grade: D

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