PixlBit

Should've been #11 but...

As I continue my quest for Halloween Gaming goodness I find myself trying out a game that is rather unorthodox in choice. I have to blame last year’s game choice of Sam and Max: Beyond Space and Time for this interesting choice of games this year. I kind of caught the “adventure game” bug when I chose that game last year. It seemed fitting that it worked out so well as a Halloween title that I thought I’d try it again this year. And since I’m going thru an “X-Files” binge right now on Netflix and placed a prior X-Files game on my list in the past (X-Files: Resist or Serve) I thought why not, let’s do it. So here’s game #10: The X-Files Video Game for the PSOne.

 

It might be hard to believe but there is a prior game to the PS2’s release of “The X-Files: Resist or Serve”. And it might be even hard to believe that unlike the more “survival horror” game play of the PS2 title, this X-Files Video Game is an FMV game! That’s right. This game is straight from the PC release. The odd difference is that unlike the PC title consisting of 7 CD-ROMs, the PSOne version is only on 4. I’ve always known about this game but never got around to trying it back in the day. Little did I realize that unlike most FMV games I’ve played before, this game plays more like point and click adventure game. The game does it’s best to play out like an actual “lost episode” of the X-Files. It has a cold intro just like the show and sets the mood much like any other episode from the series. But more on that later…

So what’s good about this game? Well just like the series the game does it’s best to get you involved with the X-Files mythos. You play as Special Agent Craig Willmore of the FBI Seattle Field office as he teams up with series stable Assistant Director Walter Skinner to investigate a case involving Agents Mulder and Scully. As Agent Wilmore you get to perform various investigate and interactive measure to crack the case that Agent Mulder and Scully were working on in Seattle. You get to use a variety of tools that the FBI uses in the field like in any other point and click adventure. (I still get a kick of the fact that you get to use an Apple Newton PDA) as well as interview/interact individuals to progress the story. The best way to describe the investigative/interactive process is that it’s like the current crop of games like CSI and the “Condemned” game series. You get to search a room, figure out the piece of the puzzle and progress onward thanks to the forensic tools at your disposal. Though you could go in blind in trying to figure out the clues there is a nifty box on the upper right that shines bright if your cursor lands on the right item to progress the story. Or if you get stuck you can just click on it and it’ll tell you exactly what you need to interact with.

What makes things different when it comes to Agent Willmore is that you actually get a choice in certain parts of the game on how you’ll interact with individuals either in conversations and investigations. Besides going thru a dialogue tree in what Willmore can ask people, there are certain points where he can choose what kind of response he gives to certain individuals ranging between sarcastic to serious to angry. By choosing any one it can alter the events to the game. It could make a suspect be more compliant or upset people to no end. This gives the game some replayability in more ways than one.

 

I wasn’t sure if this game would be a “one and done” type of game given the style of the adventure game, but I’m not sure if that’s the case. When I tested out this game for backwards compatibility (plays on PS3 but very buggy, plays on PS2 but still a bit buggy) the game seemed to throw me some different scenarios in each playthrough. When I arrived at the hotel room scene when playing on the PS3 there was a woman and little Asian girl in the hotel’s lobby but they were missing when I played on the PS2. Though I reacted differently to my partner back at the Seattle Field office he still seemed to treat me the same, yet there was a subtle change of Agent Willmore having a mysterious envelope on his desk that I swear wasn’t there before when I played on my PSOne. There is even an added bonus that depending on your reactions you’ll suffer from either “eternal darkness” like moments of paranoia, kinder moments with your ex or given more details that dive deeper into the X-Files mythos.

Because of all of this different game variations Mes get the feeling that there are multiple endings…

I bet your wondering why I say “me thinks” instead of “me knows” there are multiple endings. Did I beat the game? No actually. Here’s where I come to the downside to this game, and why it ranks as #10. Despite the game having the X-Files name and X-Files feel, it feels like it falls short. Case in point with the aforementioned “cold opening” of the game: it does start out like you would see in an X-Files episode. Mulder and Scully investigate a warehouse and are jumped in a shootout. After a blinding light takes out the shooters, Mulder pops his head out from cover only to look at an unknown individual confused followed by a fade out and the typical X-Files intro to the TV show begins. During all of this you get that X-Files vibe of a cold opener yet one major thing is missing: Mulder and Scully don’t talk. At all. There is literally NO INTERACTION between Mulder and Scully. I can understand they were busy at the time (the making of this game takes place just before production of The X-Files movie.) That’s one of the downers to this game; you don’t get to play as Mulder or Scully. The game consists of you playing as Agent Willmore trying to FIND Agents Mulder and Scully. It’s nice that you have Skinner working with you (and occasionally hand-cuff for laughs) but it’s a real bummer you don’t get to play as them. You do eventually find them during your investigation, which leads you the next phase of the game. It’s just too bad I haven’t gotten that far yet.

This game also suffers from being set directly into adventure game territory. As in you’ve got to be in the mindset to play an adventure game. If you make one mistake, forget to get one item at the right time, or not use the right item at the right time its game over or if you don’t know what item interacts with any given scene your possibly stuck. Despite there being that nifty help box it doesn’t always work out for you. Case in point: Before I left for the motel scene I made sure to gather my investigation equipment out of the conference room, but I forgot to get my service weapon and FBI badge out of my desk drawer.  So I had nothing to show people that I was FBI when I was asking questions. At the same time if I flash my FBI credentials too much people start wondering if I was “off”.  I had to know specifics of what I found inside Mulder and Scully’s hotel room but once I found them I didn’t know what to do with them. Skinner’s only clue for me was that we had to go back to the field office to analyze all that we gathered. There was the opening of a new location, the FBI crime lab, but nothing I hand them would work. Despite my interacting with these said items I still got nothing.

 

By all rights and purposes this game could be considered a dud as a Halloween game. It’s not as forgiving as current adventure, point and click titles out there. And despite the fact it plays like an X-Files episode its slow going in uncovering the mystery into what Mulder and Scully were investigating. (Here’s a hint: it deals with aliens, shocking no?) This game should be a #11 on this list. So why didn’t I make it a #11? It’s because I’m simply being a big “fanboy” when it comes to the X-Files series. I’m still hung up on the show and what it created when it came to not just government conspiracies but with the concept of extra-terrestrials, the various monsters (both mythical and human) they encounter and of course their run-ins with the supernatural and the paranormal. That’s what makes this game a #10 in my list this year. Despite “The X-Files Video Game” being as it is, it still holds the pedigree that is the X-Files. The story was written by Chris Carter himself, it uses assets from the series and still feels like a “lost episode”. Chalk it up that I still have warm fuzzies over “The X-Files: Resist or Serve” or the series itself but I really wanted to try out this relatively unmentioned FMV, PSOne title this year.

This game might be a hard sell for the most diehard X-Files fan or be a good fit for anyone’s idea for Halloween gaming, but it fits for me just fine for this year’s Halloween Gaming choice. It fits well for me in between watching certain X-Files episodes that fit in with the Halloween theme. It gives me the motivation to keep trying despite still being stuck on disc one. Thus why “The X-Files Video Game” makes it on my list this year at #10. I found this title on amazon, complete in box, for $10 with shipping so it shouldn’t be too hard to track down at a decent price. Though I’m not sure many of you out there might give this a try, it wouldn’t hurt to give this throwback a chance. Especially when there is plenty of chances to have fun in this game.

My Top 11 Halloween Games for 2013

#11) Resistance Retribution – PSP: $8 used.

#10) The X-Files Video Game – PSOne: $10 used.