During this summer's Not-E3 festivities, the 2022 PC Gaming Show announced that the highly anticipated FMV mystery game Immortality will finally be released on July 26. This game, which has players uncover what happened to a missing actress, is being developed by British video game designer Sam Barlow, who is best known for creating Silent Hill: Shattered Memories and a 2015 FMV game titled Her Story.
Though Her Story caused a resurgence in popularity for FMV games, these games have existed as a niche genre since the 1980s and include some fantastic titles like Chip's Tips and the popular Yorudora Series.
Chip's Tips (2020)
Created for the Dread X Collection 3, which is a compilation of short horror games created by 12 indie developers within 10 days, Chip's Tips is a surreal point-and-click horror adventure inspired by the children's series Blue's Clues and the historic FMV horror game Harvester. Developed by Torple Dook, who also co-created the fishing horror game EARL'S DAY OFF, the game follows a young man named Skip and his dog named Chip as they prepare to host a Halloween party.
To help Skip and Chip prepare for the party, the player controls Skip as he explores the house in order to find supplies and remember the phone numbers for his friends. But, as the player completes tasks, the house slowly becomes darker and more distorted, and certain horrifying secrets are revealed.
Yarudora Series (1998-2000)
Developed by Sugar & Rockets, who also worked on the 2005 PSP RPG PoPoLoCrois, and Production I.G, which is one of the most well-known anime studios, Yarudora is a series of six FMV anime visual novels. Unlike most visual novels that simply use static images, these games are almost entirely composed of high-quality animated scenes with only a few still images. At certain points in each game, the player is able to make choices that lead to one of many unique endings.
Although each game in the series has completely different plots, characters, genres, and art styles, the first four games each correspond to a particular season and focus on an amnesiac heroine. While these games were only released in Japan, the PSP re-release of the first installment, Double Cast, does have an English fan patch. Years later, the series inspired the 2018 game Steins;Gate Elite.
Phantasmagoria (1995)
Created by the historic video game designer Roberta Williams, who is best known for co-founding Sierra Entertainment and creating the King's Quest series, Phantasmagoria is a 1995 point-and-click adventure horror game that follows a mystery novelist named Adrienne Delaney. When her and her husband move into a remote mansion, she begins having horrible nightmares and soon discovers that the house was once owned by a famous dark magician named Zoltan "Carno" Carnovasch.
After discovering a secret chapel and unleashing Zoltan's ghost, Adrienne will need all of her wits in order to escape the mansion alive. Along with titles such as the FMV Tex Murphy games, Phantasmagoria proved that video games could be more than what they were, even though the game hasn't aged well.
Realms of the Haunting (1996)
Released for MS-DOS in 1996, Realms of the Haunting is an obscure horror game that uniquely combines the point-and-click adventure, FMV, and FPS genres. The game follows a young man named Adam Randall who decides to visit a mysterious old mansion in order to investigate his father's death. But, once he arrives, he is immediately trapped inside and discovers that the building is filled with monsters.
After teaming up with a psychic named Rebecca Trevisard, Adam slowly discovers that the house contains portals that lead to other realms, and that he is the chosen one that is meant to determine the fate of the universe. Despite receiving critical acclaim and the developers originally intending to make a sequel, the poor sales numbers sadly led to the story never continuing.
Dark Nights with Poe & Munro (2020)
Developed by D'Avekki Studios, who also created the FMV game The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and co-created the FMV game The Shapeshifting Detective with Wales Interactive, Dark Nights with Poe & Munro is a 2020 supernatural mystery game inspired by The X-Files. The game follows the titular duo John "Poe" Pope and Ellis Munro who are local radio hosts of the town of "August" that analyze people's dreams.
During the six in-game episodes, Poe and Munro encounter various supernatural mysteries while also dealing with the secret romance between them. While this game can be played on its own, it is within the same universe as the other D'Avekki Studios games.
Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus? (2022)
Besides co-creating The Shapeshifting Detective, Wales Interactive has also developed many of its own FMV titles like The Bunker and Late Shift. Their latest game is the 2022 murder mystery game Who Pressed Mute on Uncle Marcus?, which stars Andy Buckley from The Office as the titular Uncle Marcus. Similarly to another previous Wales Interactive FMV game Night Book, the game was filmed by each of the individual actors during lockdown.
In this game, players take on the role of a young woman named Abby whose mother always has a family quiz on her birthday. But, this year, Uncle Marcus reveals to Abby that he has been poisoned by one of the other family members, so now she needs to figure out who did it before it's too late.
Death Come True (2020)
Directed by Kazutaka Kodaka, who created the iconic Danganronpa franchise, Death Come True is a 2020 mystery adventure game that lasts about two to three hours long. The game follows a young man who wakes up in a hotel room without any of his memories, and he discovers that there's a tied-up unconscious woman in the hotel room's bathtub. When he turns on the TV, the news reveals that he is supposedly a serial killer named Makoto Karaki.
To recover his memories, Karaki begins exploring the mysterious hotel that has cops searching for him and a mysterious person stalking him. Mysteriously, every time he dies, he simply wakes up in the hotel room again with his memories of the previous loops.
Not For Broadcast (2022)
Released towards the beginning of 2022, Not For Broadcast is a dystopian political satire broadcast simulator that improves the gameplay mechanics of '90s FMV games like Night Trap. Taking place in an alternate 1980s, the game follows Alex Winston who works as the broadcaster of Channel One's National Nightly News. During the broadcast, the player chooses the camera angles, censors inappropriate words, adds sound effects, and selects which advertisements to play.
Outside of the broadcast room, the player will also need to make choices in their private life. Eventually, it's revealed that a political party called Advance has surprisingly won the election and is slowly implementing more authoritarian policies. Depending on the player's actions and choices, they can achieve one of 14 different endings.
Telling Lies (2019)
Created by British game designer Sam Barlow as a spiritual successor to Her Story, Telling Lies is a 2019 award-winning investigative thriller where the player uncovers the secrets of four individuals by watching private video calls. Similarly to Her Story, the game takes place on a virtual desktop and the player finds information by searching key words found within the footage.
After the protagonist steals a USB drive filled with footage recorded by the NSA, she begins watching the private voice calls between four individuals. As the story progresses, the player slowly uncovers who the protagonist is, why she's watching this footage, and what happened to these four characters.
428: Shibuya Scramble (2008)
Before merging with Spike and becoming Spike Chunsoft, Chunsoft had created many significant visual novel games including The Portopia Serial Murder Case, which is one of the earliest visual novels, and the Zero Escape series. But, one excellent title from the company that's often overlooked is the critically acclaimed 2008 adventure game 428: Shibuya Scramble.
Taking place in Shibuya, the game follows five main characters who must work together to solve a mystery within 10 hours. Despite the characters not interacting or knowing each other, all of their actions affect each other, and the player's choices lead to hundreds of unique paths and 87 possible endings.