Video Game Review: Dark Nights With Poe and Munro

Developer: D’Avekki Studios Limited

Publisher: D’Avekki Studios Limited

Genre: Adventure, Full Motion Video

Nintendo Switch

There aren’t a lot of Full motion video games out there and most of them vary significantly in quality. There are cultish classics like Night Trap and Double Switch. There are some modern hits like Her Story. Then there are the forgettable ones like The Bunker. It’s a niche genre that plays more like an interactive movie on Netflix than an actual video game. D’Avekki Studios is making a name for itself as a studio that specializes in the genre, and their latest game is the quite bizarre Dark Nights With Poe and Munro.

As the studio’s third significant FMV title, Dark Nights With Poe and Munro handles its mechanics and script well. It is connected to The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and The Shapeshifting Detective, but a player doesn’t need to experience the other two games to enjoy this one. Whether or not the player enjoys Dark Nights With Poe and Munro is dependent on how much cheesy dialogue and absurd scripts appeal to them.

Within the first five minutes, players will instantly understand what they are getting into. Dark Nights With Poe and Munro focuses on the two titular protagonists as they investigate a death threat sent to them. The player will make decisions throughout the game that will influence the characters’ conclusions as they try to solve the bizarre mystery. Along the way, players will encounter other eccentric characters and supernatural phenomena. It is divided into multiple episodes, each with its own creative atmosphere.

The decisions will steer the story, but a few can be a tad frustrating. Rather than getting a clear idea of what the decision actually is, the camera will split into a few objects for the player to click. For example, in one scenario I chose a purse, which I thought would result in the character picking it up and leaving. Instead, the character reached into the purse for their phone to call the police. It makes sense after the decision was made, but I probably would have approached the situation differently if I had known what I was doing. The players will stumble through these kinds of choices throughout the 2-3 hour game. It’s not at all unenjoyable, but it doesn’t feel too intuitive either.

The acting is hit or miss, but honestly, it doesn’t negatively impact the experience. Dark Nights With Poe and Munro is a campy noir story with a bunch of silly elements. Some of the acting is intentionally bad, so fans of that style of storytelling will likely get a kick out of this game. It feels rocky in the beginning, but there is a great amount of chemistry between Klemens Koehring and Leah Cunard as Poe and Munro respectively. The two characters are endearing, and I found myself caring for them quite a bit by the end of the game.

With six interactive stories that hold over five hours of video and multiple endings, there is a decent amount of replayability. Players might not want to dive back in immediately, but Dark Nights With Poe and Munro has the appeal of a movie you watch multiple times in an effort to catch new details. It’s not for everyone, but Dark Nights With Poe and Munro is charming and deserves to be explored by those who are fascinated with captivating oddities like this.