Dark Nights with Poe and Munro

We've all heard of interactive movies, but what about interactive TV? That's the best way to describe the new game Dark Nights with Poe and Munro, an episodic paranormal series that mixes mystery with humor. It looks and feels like a television show, but is this new full-motion video game worth tuning into? That's what I intend to find out.

This is the story of John Pope and Ellis Munro, two hosts who work together on a paranormal talk show in the not-so-sleepy town of August. This fun conceit allows them to get into a bunch of episodic adventures that are vaguely related to horror and science fiction, and then talk about them to their captivated audience. It's sort of like if Mulder and Scully decided to quit being FBI agents and instead devoted all of their time to podcasting.

Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is split up into six different episodes, each running around a half hour. They may be sitcom-length, but each one sets up a unique conundrum that involves everything from solving kidnappings to channeling past lives to dealing with the very real possibility of time travel. There are also far simpler scenarios, such as a thriller of a pilot episode that sees our two attractive hosts scared into isolation because a caller wants to kill them. There's a nice mix of big and small episodes, each with a light-hearted sensibility that never feels like mockery.

If it sounds like I'm talking about a new television show, then you're not far off. This is the kind of full-motion video game where the most you do is make choices. Each episode will force the player into making between six and eight quick decisions that could potentially change the way the story plays out. It's usually simple things, like deciding who has the better plan or what you should pick up in one of those tense moments. There's even a high-stakes game of rock-paper-scissors that I'm pretty sure is rigged against our heroes.

And that's part of the problem with this game. Yes, the choices you make will affect aspects of the story, but it's never to the point where you feel compelled to rush back and see how it could have played out. It also doesn't help that it's not especially clear what you're choosing between. You'll often see two or three different objects without any text and be expected to know what they mean in a matter of seconds. I was constantly surprised by the path I chose, to the point where I rarely felt like I was in any kind of control.

One thing I like about the episodes is that they never felt repetitive. The developers have found a number of unique ways to add new and different mechanics that are specific to certain episodes. For example, when Poe and Munro go on the hunt for a missing kid, they are given a map of August and able to jump between people and locations. There's also an episode where we meet a woman who can read other people's minds, forcing the player to choose images of things to think about. I wish we saw more of this kind of thing in the other episodes, because too many of them are painfully straight-forward.

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From a storytelling perspective, there's no question that there's a lot of variety here. I like that we can go from an episode with only two people in a single room to a massive city-wide manhunt. What I had a hard time getting over was the harsh tonal shifts. It's not just episode to episode, but also from one minute to the next. The game will go from light-hearted banter to deadly serious in a blink of an eye, and there are times when that just doesn't work. I also kind of hate the cliffhanger ending. In fact, I found a lot of the episodes undercut their endings in unsatisfying ways. It's really annoying.

I would also like to point out that Poe and Munro are terrible radio hosts. I know that's not the point and I'm probably overthinking things, but it can't be ignored. Based on what we see of their show, they are either barely saying anything or bickering like an old married couple. That's not a joke, these two argue on-air in most of the episodes, to the point where it has to be uncomfortable for the listener. One comes across as passive aggressive and the other is condescending, with neither of them having anything interesting to say to each caller. The most baffling part of this game isn't the time travel or the bit where Munro is trapped in a library, but rather the fact that this show has any listeners at all.

I have a hunch that a lot of your opinion of the game will come down to what you think of Poe and Munro. These two characters feel like they were plucked out of a sitcom, which is sometimes at odds with the world around them. I think it's safe to say that both actors are going large with their portrayals. I would even use the word hammy. Leah Cunard, the actress who plays Munro, gives a slightly more nuanced performance than Klemens Koehring, but both annoyed me in different ways. And it certainly doesn't help that these are paper-thin characters. The reason they have nothing interesting to say on-air is because they aren't interesting people. The only thing compelling about them is the affair they keep hinting at, which would probably come as quite a surprise to Poe's wife. But do they do anything with that? Not really. Perhaps they'll drag that out some more if the game gets a second season.

Acting aside, I like the look and style of this series. These are well-directed episodes that know how to shoot and edit compelling TV, and this game is all the better for it. This is clearly a low-budget production that pinched every penny, but it never shows in the final product. In fact, with snappier dialog and more established comedy actors, I could see this being one of those genre sitcoms that lasts a bunch of seasons. TV execs should take notice, but gamers may want to think twice about tuning into Dark Nights with Poe and Munro.