Reviews

• gamedeal user

  Apr 23, 2022

  One of the unexpected pleasures of the pandemic era was the continued rise of the FMV Interactive Drama as a medium of gaming. Following on from the success of games like "Dark Nights With Poe And Monroe" and "The Complex", the prevalence of games featuring green screened movie performances in place of CGI only seemed to mushroom in volume during the lock downs, contrary to expectations of the opposite. The sheer volume of games belonging to this category are far too numerous to list here. However, I will argue that the results have been a mixed bag at best. "The Dark Side Of The Moon" is a prime example of this principle as it highlights the both the best and the worst of the FMV Interactive Drama genre. One of the glaring problems of the game is that it highlights how with the prevalence of authorial game development, much like with authorial cinema or web series, the performance quality falls victim to the constraints of the pandemic. In layman's terms, this simply means that the devs are obliged to stand in front of the camera as well as behind. Not always a wise choice. In this instance, while the distinctly Yorkshire accents and the familial relations of Darren and Lindsay Hall give the game a distinct sense of place and an authenticity of sorts (the devs' kids and marital home are both prominently featured in the game), it CAN often cause the drama to at times slip into amateur theatre. This again proves to be a mixture of good and bad, given that some scenes/scenarios are better performed than others. These 'non-actor' scenes (if you forgive the term) work best during sequences of interpersonal domestic drama. Here, the rapport between the characters seems at it's most genuine. In particular, the warmth between Hall's protagonist Dean and his long-time friend Julian. The opposite, however, can be said of the genre sequences acted in front of the green screen. Having acted on a green screen sound stage myself, I can tell you with 100% honesty that without experience in one of those environments - i.e. a largely empty space with only minimal set pieces and no real way of determining spacial awareness - the chance of producing a convincing performance is slim at best. Thankfully, these scenes come toward the end of the narrative, so their clunkiness is minimal, even if they DO cheapen the game's climactic payoff. In saying this, the game does benefit from it's one saving grace (or rather two) in the form of FMV Interactive Drama A-listers, Rupert Booth and Anarosa Butler. Having long since become old hands at this gig from their stellar turns alongside one another in "Contradiction: Spot The Liar" and "The Shapeshifting Detective", the two stars continue their usual brilliant form and their weird-yet-wonderful performances are easily the strongest of the whole cast. Butler seems to have a lot of fun as an over-exuberant neuro-diverse conspiracy theorist; while Booth chews up all the scenery as a villain that toys with the hapless protagonist with all the sadistic glee of an Ancient Greek God. As for the game play itself, the game plays very much like it's aforementioned predecessors. It mixes the optional action style of "Shapeshifting Detective" (and at one point uses a variant of it's soundtrack) while also drawing on the item and puzzle segments of "Contradiction" while featuring the game's thumbnail as a visual Easter Egg. These little conscious nods to previous games is a bit on-the-nose for seasoned genre veterans but can nonetheless provoke a smirk. Lastly, the game wins a point for decent production values. The editing and VFX are very impressive, especially given the restrictions that probably came from having to use home editing and FX packages. There is a little bit of dodgy CGI in some areas, and one or two of the exterior shots look like they were done with an iPhone, but otherwise it was an impressive effort nonetheless. So what's the final verdict on this game? As I said earlier, it showcases real potential in a lot of areas in spite of the many creases which need to be ironed out. As a first-time effort, the game more than qualifies as respectable with it's lenient learning curve and heavy character-driven narrative. Whether the Halls go on to become Northern England's answer to Tim and Lyn Cowles (of D'Vekki fame) remains to be seen, but in that regard I wish them luck in that venture. Granted, this isn't the best FMV Drama on the market, but one could do much, much worse (believe me, I know). - 3 out of 5.
• gamedeal user

  Apr 23, 2022

  pros + a intriguing and engaging sci fi story about a single dad who's children kidnapped, alien abductions and conspirancy theories + well quality FMV + speaking and action choices can affect your story progress and character's fate + mostly well acted by real actors + some quirky side characters + beautiful rural English village setting + nice background musics + there is auto save + there are steam achievements cons - lack of interaction and challenge - lack of gameplay elements like puzzles and mini games (except two easy puzzles towards to end) - some campy acting from side actors. - general B movie and cheesy feeling - there are some backtracking - no cards Overall this is an interesting and fun to play/watch interactive movie. to be honest i m not biggest fan fmv/interactive movies because i ve never considered them as actual video games but i liked this one.
• gamedeal user

  May 2, 2022

  I actually don't remember such bad FMV game as this. Poor acting could have been tolerable, but gameplay sometimes leaves you lost in visited scenes and even in the end, the whole plot is rather insulting. I'm sorry, but it's plain dumb.
• gamedeal user

  May 10, 2022

  I only played a few retro FMV games before so I dont really have much of anything to compare to, but I enjoyed this game. The story was really weird but fun to follow, and I was quite impressed by the performance of the different actors. For not professional actors, this was quite good acting. And the main antagonist was so creepy, it was funny. The game has 6 possible endings. The game only autosaves, so I made manual saves to be able to explore the consequences of the different choices without having to replay the whole game. I think I can recommend this game to you if you like FMV games or just sci-fi/visual novels. This game was a fun play.
• gamedeal user

  Jul 24, 2022

  The Dark Side Of The Moon is a full-motion video game, and shouldn’t be confused with either the Pink Floyd album or the PC adventure game from 24-odd years ago. Playing as an apparent widower called Dean Hamilton, who has two young children, things take a turn for the worse when they mysteriously disappear during the night. Soon, the local police detective shows up at Dean's front door, and proceeds to take a very keen interest in the case, after which things take a turn for the worse. Simultaneously, a total solar eclipse is coming, and the local news services are making a big deal of it. The majority of the time in this game is spent watching the protagonist and associated characters act out scenes – much like a movie. You do get choices (and the chance to interact – to some degree – with the current environment) every so often. These choices can lead the story towards one of the several endings. The story takes place mainly in a fictional Yorkshire village (complete with a red telephone box, pub and flint walls), of which a fair few locations can be explored. Moving from location to location is easy enough (when presented with the option): just select the relevant option at the bottom left of the screen, and the “film” continues. Whilst not advisable on the first play-through, most animated scenes can be skipped by pressing the space bar. The film is presented in widescreen, which isn’t too bad as the top section is taken up by the inventory system, whilst the bottom is for subtitles. However, it would have been nicer to have a full-screen video, with subtitles within the film. Oh, and be prepared for a fair bit of background swaying when it comes time to make a choice. Some backgrounds are CG instead, and whilst they aren’t terrible, they don’t appear realistic. Gameplay-wise, for the most part, it’s simple making progress. However, there are several places where it’s not intuitive about what needs to be done. You’ll be visiting all locations multiple times before something happens for some unknown reason. Some sort of hint at times would be useful. You do need to be careful with some choices - there are various places where you come to a sticky end, and then have to restart everything from the beginning - resuming from the last checkpoint isn't an option. The characters you meet are certainly quite colourful – the local news reporter Huw Chadwick (a southerner who has dared to travel north - that was particularly amusing to me) who reports on the solar eclipse; Alyx is the local (and possible) crackpot, who also happens to be an expert hacker; Julian who has known Dean for years and the increasingly belligerent police detective. Then there is Sarah, Dean's wife and his two children. They only have parts near the end of the game, but are the most important characters in the game, despite their general non-appearance. The music is pretty good, especially the end credit score. Sound effects are correct and present, but are limited to selection clicks and so on. Story-wise, don’t expect anything particularly original – it’s blindingly obvious who the antagonist is, as soon as he shows up (it's also surprising Dean doesn't query why only one police officer arrives), and the skittish hacker who can control a news station's satellite system, is a rather convenient way of solving the protagonist's final problem. The acting itself isn’t too bad. There is some emotional disconnect between the dialogue and what a person would be feeling like, though. In addition, Dean snapping at both a dog walker and Alyx, just after things kick off, was more weird than understandable, especially if you wanted information. At the standard price of £10-odd, I think it’s worth getting for 4 hours of one pass-through, especially considering there are multiple endings. During a sale, it’s certainly worth whatever price is being offered.
• gamedeal user

  Oct 17, 2022

  Probably the worst FMV game i've ever played. The acting is insanely annoying. The plot is embarrassingly horrible. Even Michael J. Fox could film that with less camera shake.
• Apocalipstyx

  Mar 13, 2023

  Awful
• gamedeal user

  Sep 19, 2023

  Sorry, but honestly, I'm not really enjoying this one. There's too much faffing about and the story isn't particularly engaging. Anarosa Butler and Rupert Booth are great acting, and Yes, I know its a family effort, but the acting of others is quite ropy. I do want to enjoy this game, but sorry nope, I doubt it will pick up the pace.
• gamedeal user

  Mar 13, 2021

  Pros and cons are down below) If the comment will be useful - don't forget to drop a like so it can be useful to other ppl as well) Check out the first hour of the game here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t44D8SioyU0 Advantages: 1. The acting is great! It is the most important thing to achieve in FMV/Interactive Movie genre in my opinion. I really like looking at all the characters and I feel them. They are bright and interesting, I can't wait to play more of the game and finish it) Also, I really liked that the main character's (Dean's) family is the actor's actual family (I might be wrong but seeing the credits I thought that this is the case). That's so awesome! 2. The game has 5 endings and your choices matter. The best part is that not only those choices from the very end matter, but the ones from the start as well. Makes you want to replay the game) I haven't reached all of them yet, but I'll definitely try to) 3. The story is very entertaining. I loved all this alien conspiracy stuff and OP Alyx. You'll definitely have fun playing the game! I had tons of fun! 4. The puzzles are very cool, I loved that sometimes you had to think outside of box and look for clues yourself. The puzzles aren't too difficult and pretty logical. I was very afraid that my smol russian brain won't be able to solve them but I managed and it felt good)) Disadvantages: 1. As the person with (not diagnosed) ADHD, I felt that some scenes are pretty dragged-out. Example: before getting an important piece of information, you have to hear Alyx say 40 times (I exaggerated) that she's about to say something important... I got it, you don't have to build the tension so much... I know that it sounds nitpicky but I've experienced lots of moments that frustrated me a bit for being slow or/and unnecessary so I felt that I had to point it out in my review. 2. Your only job is to press 2/3 buttons that appear on the screen and they are positioned in a counter-intuitive way. I have nothing against the gameplay, I don't like that an option to go back where you came from always switches position. Just let it be the lowest option. I've been walking back and forth in between 2 sections so much cuz the button would always switch position. You get used to that after a while but it's also pretty frustrating at the start. 3. Sometimes I feel like some moments doesn't really make sense, but then I think that maybe main character just doesn't pay attention to the stuff happening around him in his everyday life... I don't want to give examples as I don't want to spoil anything but you can check out my vids to see what I mean (tho there's hours of footage... hm... well, you can dm me)) Overall: I recommend the game! As you see, the only things that I pointed out in the disadvantages section are pretty nitpicky and don't relate to the story or the acting (the stuff you buy FMVs for)) I rate the game 8/10. A lot of effort was put into this project, it was very entertaining but there were a number of tiny moments that didn't quite make sense for me. Don't hesitate to drop a like on this comment if it was useful to you so it can be useful to other people as well) Hope my feedback was useful! Thanks for reading till the end)
• gamedeal user

  Mar 13, 2021

  If you enjoy FMV games, than this one is fantastic. The storyline keeps you wanting to play, and some familiar actors from other FMVs are seen. This one is not only mysterious, but different from what I'm used to having. Things aren't what they seem!