For some reason, I have a fascination, nay obsession with FMV games, games that utilize live actors, drawn cartoons, or usually very crappy rendered cg in place of hand-made sprites or models. I collect them, play them, sometimes even record the playthroughs for the Something Awful forum. Here is a small list of the FMV games I've enjoyed over the years. I'm sure there are more that I just can't remember right now, so consider this list a living document.
The first FMV game I ever played. It was at an arcade in either Disneyworld or Knotts Berry Farm, but I put in about $2.00 worth of quarters and never got past the second level. Still, it left an impression in me.
The first FMV game that I beat. Did it on the PC version over at a friends house. The fact that I now have this game on my phone is just amazing.
My first FMV game that I owned, for the 3do. Blew me away at the time, with its branching storyline and ability to do good or evil with your psychic powers. Also luckily enough, the 3do version is the best version. The PC version is a pain to get working and the Playstation version is censored.
An OK Myst knockoff, but I enjoyed it at the time...mainly because I was crushing on Tia Carrere. Still, not a terrible game for the era.
I love this game in so many ways it boggles the mind (except for the shitty fighting scenes). Hilarious acting, ridiculous gore, amusing premise, the fact that it is a decent adventure game, terrible cg, just everything. Did a playthough of it for Something Awful if you'd like to know more.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2159500
or
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Harvester/
This game has to be seen to be believed
Another memorable FMV game that I did a playthrough of for Something Awful. I recognize that it is a crappy game, but I still enjoy the bad cg, bad acting, bad porn scenes, hilariously inept gore (most of it is poorly drawn over the actors).
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=2651947
I wish this game was better, but it just falls into too many of the same traps that old adventure games did, which was that you really needed to be able to see into the future to properly solve puzzles. Add that to the fact that time progresses when you go to a different area and I fail to see how this game could be beaten without the aid of a walktrhough.
I remember our local theater having this game in the arcade for awhile. I also have it on DVD, but it's not the same without the holographic action. However, I do love the scene where your cowboy teleports into the middle of a baseball game, ducks a pitch thrown in his general direction (he appears in front of the plate), then shoots both the pitcher and batter for no good reason.
Another game that I did a playthrough for Something Awful, and it's an entirely average adventure game with some silly FMV elements. Nothing too special.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3024058
Memorable for all the wrong reasons, but other than that, OK. The puzzles are average, the acting is par for these kinds of games, and the death scenes are creative enough to stand out.
For some reason, I actually really enjoy this game. I don't know why, since nothing in it really stands out, but I do still enjoy it. Maybe cause of all the well done yet bizarre gore
How little I remember about this game says volumes about it's quality. I have played it and beaten it...and I remember virtually nothing about it.
A silly game...a very silly game. I didn't do a playthough of it, but there is one on Something Awful if you are interested in seeing just how silly this game is.
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=2170951
or
http://lparchive.org/LetsPlay/Darkseed 2/
I don't know if this should be called an FMV game per se, but I'm including it since it's an awesome game and more people need to be made aware of its existence. Made by two of the people who created Earthworm Jim, Doug TenNapel and Mark Lorenzen).
This is fondly remembered as one of the best FMV games ever made and with good reason. It's an excellent game in every aspect of its execution. Clever puzzles, nice graphics, good acting. An all around great game.
This is one of those crappy FMV games that is associated with the...I hesitate to call FMV a genre, but when you think poorly of FMV games, this is the kind of game you might think of. Click on a part of the screen to move around a poorly rendered city, sometimes find a bad actor just waiting to be interacted it. Minimal gameplay and forgettable acting.
I almost don't want to call this a game, since it has even less gameplay than Dragon's Lair. You just click around the house, watching a family fall apart, then you make psychological decisions between acts. Still, an interesting product.
This game is such a damn pain to get working that I wasn't able to play it for years after I acquired it. Then, when I finally get it working, the utterly terrible interface does everything it can drive me away. I could not finish this game, simply due to the fact that after awhile, I realized that I could be doing other things than playing this pile of crap.
Not much to say about this game that hasn't already been said. It's Night Trap, everybody knows about it by now. The only interesting thing is that I owned the game seven years before I owned a Sega CD to play it on. I also think that Double Switch is a better game in this genre of trap-based FMV games.
I kind of enjoy this game for some odd reason. Maybe it's nostalgia, but I remember this game fondly. Beat it on the Sega Saturn.
This game might as well be called "Trial and Error: The Game". Crappy cg, bad acting, poor game design...why do I keep doing this to myself?
Another Dragon's Lair style game, but this one was straight up designed for consoles from the start. This means it has a little more gameplay, with some branching paths, but it's still push button at right time to not die. Fairly gory for an Kids to Adults rated game, with somewhat gruesome scenes of you being melted and a couple of scenes where you can get ripped in half and you can see your hip bones hanging out of your pants. Played the 3do version, which has a glitch which makes one of the levels freeze up. Luckily, it was an optional level
Another awesome push-button-to-not-die game. A little more gameplay than Dragon's Lair, but not much. Still, the videos were pretty cool. Again, amazed that I have this game on my phone.
Another Dragon's Lair style game, but done with anime. Irritating voice acting.
This game is a pain to play, but an interesting idea nonetheless
How many ways can a game unfairly kill you? Play Return to Zork and find out.
An OK game I suppose. I can't have comments for all of them.
Do you know why people don't make games like the Police Quest series anymore? It's because having to remember to fill out forms and follow proper procedures isn't fun. I still remember that every time you go back to the police station, to request the proper forms, use them (the game filled them out for you thankfully), then return them to the proper desk. That may be realistic, but it's also quite repetitive.
The only thing I remember about this game, aside from the wildly out of place future gadget your character uses, was that the final puzzle is almost impossible to beat without exploiting a bug in the AI.
The only reason I was able to like this game was that I payed $5 for it. Any more than that and I would've been pissed. Still, a decent little story that has no real gameplay if I recall.
I'm not a big fan of light gun games, especially when I don't have a light gun to play them with. Moving a cursor around the screen and pushing a button isn't the most fun type of game. Nothing too special about the FMV either...just too well produced to be silly but not good enough to be motion picture quality.
Silly Dragon's Lair style game with OK acting and funny videos. A decent game for its genre
Oh
American
Laser
Games. You made such fun little shooters. Still don't like light gun games, but I do enjoy bad acting and cheap sets enough to suffer through them.
Aside from the awesome cast, which includes Christoper Lloyd as your playable character, this game is only memorable due to the fact that it was split in half and designed to be released as two separate games, with part two never being released.
Nothing like a game that has no problem killing you within twenty seconds of the first scene.
Couldn't really get into this game, due to a crappy interface and obtuse objectives.
I have this game...I just have not played it. Got it from Amazon a few months back while trying to fill out my FMV game collection.
Despite the fact that this game was obviously targeted at children, some of the puzzles are fairly tough. Either that, or I'm an idiot.
Not only do I have this game, but I even have the strategy guide for it. Still haven't beaten it, but I also have no desire to.
View random crappy scenes in an unspecified order to solve crappy story. Some of the scenes have "shocking content" I have it on PC, which is a pain in the ass to get working, even through dosbox with D-Fend
See Voyeur I.
I've played and enjoyed all of them, so I'm just posting the franchise here. Good puzzles, clever writing, decent acting, an excellent series.
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