Platform: Abandonware
Genre: Adventure
Completed: 10/05/2024
I had not realized just how hard it was going to be to find a game for this letter. I do have a few titles in my library - the Xcom franchise and XIII (both the original and remake) - but I wasn't going to go through the same few games over and over again. That way madness lies! So I decided I would see what is out there, focusing on games that I may have come across in the past and wanted to play, but never picked up. Or ones that I played previously, but were long enough to warrant a re-play.
The X-Files Game falls under the latter category. I had received a copy for the PlayStation either for Christmas or my birthday when it first came out. Now I was never a massive fan of the TV series, but I knew of it. So I was still interested in the game back then. Since then, I watched the first 3 seasons of the series, but then life got in the way and I never really went back to it. After replaying the game, I really should. It reminded me of what I was missing.
While I still have the original PlayStation CD (somewhere), the version I played was the PC one, courtesy of The Collection Chamber. They do amazing work in getting older games to run on modern computers. In fact, this is not the first game I downloaded from the site. Previously I played Dark Seed and wrote my impressions on it.
The game came packaged with a built-in Windows 95 emulator to get it to run. I suppose it was an improvement of swapping between 7 game discs. The PlayStation version only had 4! There was some stuttering with the videos, but not enough to be off-putting. The only thing that did cause me some frustration was that every now and then, the resolution would misalign, so your mouse pointer would suddenly not be able to reach the other side of the game screen. A quick shake of the pointer across the screen generally fixed the issue. However, if that annoyance hit me in a crucial moment where I needed to do something or I would either die or fail... yeah, that got very frustrating. Thank god there weren't that many.
The game style is of those old FMV-type games, a style you don't see much of anymore. With today's advancement in graphics, it's no surprise that the genre is mostly dormant. For its time though, the quality of the video was quite sharp and, while there were some flaws, the general cohesion of the scenes was quite good as well. I liked how they also added some slight differences in dialogues depending on certain actions you took. For example, early in the game, you hand in some evidence to the crime lab. Originally, I started with some small items (blood sample; cigarette butt, and a vial of lead) before handing in a bullet. The technician commented that "finally [he] had the good stuff" and thought we had been dumpster diving. I didn't think anything of it until I died (after forgetting to save) and had to start from an earlier save and return to him. This time, I had given him the bullet first and he was straight to business. So it made me wonder, how many other conversations were there that had slight variations that made them more natural.
However, this is also where the game slightly falls short. While there are choices that may affect dialogue, that is all there is. The game gives the impression that you can make some rather important choices but the truth is, nothing really has any major bearing on the game. There is a pre-determined outcome for the whole thing and you will get there regardless of what you choose. Sure some choices might get you killed, but if they didn't then there was no real consequence, which is a shame, because the whole experience could have been a lot more interesting. Should I trust my partner and tell him the details of the case? Should I let the PD detective translate the logbook? Etc... Honestly, it felt like a missed opportunity.
Another issue I found with this game, is that you need really good eye-sight. In some areas, you need to find clues to be able to progress. However, they don't stand out unless you hover over them and your icon changes. Trying to find a copper-colored bunch of pixels embedded in a dark pillar in an even darker warehouse was not easy. It makes it even harder knowing there is no brightness setting you can adjust. The good news at least, is that there is an "intuition" system, which is basically a blue orb in the top right corner. When you are on a screen with an item of interest it glows bright and is animated. Otherwise, it's dull and dormant. It doesn't tell you though WHERE the point of interest is, just that it's somewhere near you.
If you find things like that frustrating, then this game is not for you. While the majority of the game wasn't too annoying with this obscurity, there were a few areas that had you exploring wide areas looking for an item or two, before you could progress. Then there was the last area. That was in a league of its own and was beyond frustrating. This section is an even BIGGER area with a lot of winding paths, and a lot of it is there just to get you lost and disorientated. In that section, you need to navigate the area and examine items or go down paths to trigger events to be able to progress, but it is never made clear that you have to do this. On top of that, there are some areas and items that will get you instantly killed. What fun!
Overall though, I don't regret playing the game again. I still enjoyed it and it brought back fond memories. If anything, I probably appreciated the story more because I was aware of the subtler clues that only a second playthrough might uncover. It did help that I watched some of the series, because some characters make an appearance in the game without any introduction (for example, the image on the right), but are probably prominent in the show. I was surprised that the game ended with an ominous hinting towards a potential sequel. I didn't remember that during my first playthrough. But, sadly, the game was not that popular and by the time it came out, the FMV genre was all but dying out. I am curious to know where they could have taken this series if the game had done a lot better.
Well, enough about Xs. Time for a little action with... Yakuza 0
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