I loved it! This FMV turned out to be better than I thought. The story is about Poe and Munro, August local radio hosts who made their first appearance in D'Avekki other game The Shapeshifting Detective In this game, they took the lead of six different episodes. You'll learn about some mysteries in August town and you'll have the choice of either calling the police or investigate the case yourself. Both Poe and Munro have different opinions, it's up to you who's side you are going to take. The game is really good and each story is not connected to the other except for the first two episodes. I liked the references to their other games, very smart.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2124429730

Choices really do matter in this game, I played the first episode twice and one choice changed the whole story. The good thing that you can choose to reply to the episode once you've finished it to experience the other endings. Now what I didn't like about the game that once you get to choose something, you need to use logic, there is no written choices, only an indicator that you can choose this thing (if you dislike timers, you can freeze the choices from the main menu)
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2121954349

There are some funny moments in the game, as well as suspense, depends on your choices of course. Most of the episodes based on supernatural activities. You can take those strange phone calls or just hung up on them and play some music. I enjoyed every episode thoroughly, the cast did an amazing job, it felt like watching a movie, this also could be something some people will dislike as the interaction and involvement in the game is quite minimum.
https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=2124430452

Pros:
+Good cast and very-well acting.
+invistigation detective style.
+Episodic game with multiple outcomes.
+Good soundtracks.
+Previously seen cutscene can be skipped in the second playthrough.
+Steam achievements.

Cons:
-Choices are vague at the beginning since there are no written choices.


If you enjoy FMV games you'll love this one, and if you've played The shapeshifting detective, you'll definitely enjoy this one. I'm going to give a big thumb up for Munro's outfit choices!

Other reviews:
The Bunker Review
The Complex Review
Late Shift Review
The Shapeshifting Detective
I Saw Black Clouds Review

𝐹𝑜𝑟 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑟𝑒𝑣𝑖𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑐𝘩𝑒𝑐𝑘 𝑚𝑦 𝑐𝑢𝑟𝑎𝑡𝑜𝑟 𝑝𝑎𝑔𝑒 𝐹𝑒𝑒𝑛𝑎'𝑠 𝐶𝘩𝑜𝑖𝑐𝑒

Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is a story focused game about the hosts of a late night radio show in a small English town, where you’ll watch live action video clips and occasionally make choices which can influence how the story plays out.

I usually enjoy games like this (for example Life is Strange or the various Telltale games), but unfortunately I can’t recommend Poe and Munro. The acting is fine, not great, but I’ve seen worse on some of SyFy’s TV shows. I liked the interactions between the main characters. Sadly its not enough to overcome the game’s other flaws.

The game contains six short stories which aren’t connected to each other in any meaningful way. As each episode only lasts around 20-30 minutes (combined total of all 6 episodes is around 2.5 hours), they all feel incomplete, ending with unresolved plot threads. Supporting characters appear for a couple of scenes and then are never seen again.

And the impact of making choices is undermined by the fact that most of the time I didn’t know what effect my choices were going to have. You just have to click on a picture of an item or a person without having any extra information. For example you’ll often have to choose between Poe or Munro, but you don’t know what each character is going to do or say after you select them.

A brisk and mysterious supernatural romp that echoes the likes of X-Files with its 6 standalone episodes. Dark Nights with Poe and Munro is a very entertaining paranormal(?) adventure that plays similarly to the likes of Until Dawn, Telltale Games or other recent FMV efforts.

The production is of high quality, the acting & chemistry are superb, and the drama/comedy is very compelling. Any fans of the games that I've previously mentioned are sure to enjoy it.

For me the game was quite boring.
have played few other FMVs and create your own adventures, but something was missing in this one and it failed to keep me interested. Storytelling and chemistry was a miss as well.

For people who love FMV games and other games from this studio should give it a try.

Six stories about two radio hosts - Poe and Munro, who can find adventure on their own heads in any situation. We could already meet them in the game “Shapeshifting Detective” from the same creators, and now it's time for them to finally come to the forefront of the story. As a result, we can say for sure that they really deserved their own game. There is an incredible chemistry between Klemens Koehring and Leah Cunard, each of their dialogue, even the shortest, always carries some kind of light inside. Sharp hairpins of jokes are adjacent to incredibly warm care for each other, their very complex relationships are closely intertwined with the strange events taking place around, and all this allows each story to get its own face, which will distinguish it from others. Each episode here deserves separate words of admiration, even if everything starts at a very leisurely pace, but by the second episode, it accelerates so quickly that it is impossible to stop.

Describe in detail the surprises that the creators have prepared in each episode, this spoils half the fun. This is some kind of crazy mixture of the B-movie style, supernatural, absolutely charming and appropriate wackiness in some moments, a touching love story and Edgar Allan Poe. Intersections with past games do not look far-fetched, but look just perfect, then I realized once again how much I want to return to Dr. Dekker's green sofa. Do not forget about episodic actors who, with their excellent acting, made these dark nights even more sinister. And as far as I'm always glad to see Aislinn De'Ath (and her scene with Munro made my heart beat so often that I forgot how to breathe), but from the character played by Vincent Gould, I screamed so loudly that because of this I almost fell off the ceiling. Here, literally every minor character is a little (or very much) crazy, I will remember scenes with almost all of them for a very long time.

If we talk about things that not everyone may like, then this is perhaps the overall integrity of the story. Nevertheless, we have six separate stories, the decisions in each of which do not affect the subsequent ones, they are all complete and help to reveal the characters fully. The total duration of the game is 7-8 very saturated hours, the replay value of the episodes is extremely high, in each of them many interesting surprises are hidden that radically change the course of events. It is fresh, it is delicious, it is unbelievable. I want more. I WANT MORE!

I really wish there was a "mixed" recommendation on Steam.

Although the stories aren't that great or novel, they're still pretty fun and interesting. Poe and Munro's interactions with each other pretty much carried this game. Acting and production quality are superb, just like in previous D'Avekki games.

However, if you're looking for a fun game here, then you're bound to be disappointed. 3 chapters into the game, I was completely annoyed at the decision-making mechanics in the game. After I finished the 6th and last chapter, I would've never bothered with it again if it wasn't because they introduced a way to skip scenes from chapters you've already completed. I can't understand why they'd make decisions as circles on front of things that you click on a timer instead of just putting an explanation like almost every other FMV and decision-driven game out there. 2-3 sentences to choose from is far more sensible than trying to figure out in 3 seconds what happens if I click on this purse, on this door and on these digital scissors, then finding out that I was wrong about what I thought 2 of them meant.

The game strongly relies on you knowing the main characters with no background given other than "Poe is eccentric and Munro is a tease and they both love each other" in the first 3 minutes. Even after having played The Shapeshifting Detective, I couldn't figure out their thought process at all so when the game tells you to choose between one or the other - meaning choosing to lean over one character's decision-making to influence what they'll do in the end - your choice is just a guess half of the time. You don't truly know them at all until you play this game, yet it still expects you to know them.

Funnily enough, the best part of the game is finding and watching all the different scenes, while it's worst part is trying to find meaning in your personal choices. Do have this in mind if you're looking to get this game.

I'd strongly recommend that you play The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and The Shapeshifting Detective, specially the latter if you wish to have some background on Dark Nights' main characters and the town of August.

It took me a while to get interested in this game(by the third episode I was engrossed) but now I am playing it through for a second time and enjoying it even more. I do recommend that you play The Shapeshifter Detective before this if you haven't already , as otherwise you could be very lost and confused. I really hope there will be more from this very talented team. (I will post a more complete review once I have completed this second playthrough. )

Hello August, we have six short stories for you to enjoy during this fine evening featuring your two favorite radio hosts Poe and Munro. Enjoy.

My game genre guilty pleasure has to be FMV games. Sure, there’s a high chance that it ends up being really cheesy, but that’s the charm. And when a really good FMV game releases, you just crave more. This is very true for me as my first dive into FMV games was MISSING: An Interactive Thriller. The studio has since closed, and you can’t buy the game anymore, but it was really promising and it’s a shame that only one episode was released. Since then, I have played a handful of other FMVs and I have to say FMV games coming from D’Avekki Studios are definitely at the top of my favorites list. If you have been following D’Avekki Studios, the one thing you can tell is that they’re passionate about what they do and strive to improve however they can. Their two previous games, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and The Shapeshifting Detective, was structured to their advantage. While other FMVs focus on action, these were more like interviews and focused more on having the characters drive the story. Even then, you can tell the improvements made between games. Their newest game has made the biggest leap yet by moving past that interview-like style.

In Dark Nights with Poe and Munro we return at a familiar setting with some familiar characters. Taking place before the events of The Shapeshifting Detective, we return to the small town of August. This time around, instead of investigating a murder you follow August’s very own favorite radio co-hosts, Poe and Munro in six of their adventures. These six adventures are self contained and don’t link together other than a few references that can be spotted as well as containing supernatural elements. Without spoiling anything, Poe and Munro’s adventures will take you to dealing with a stalker in the first episode; doing a special 24 hour show to raise money for their radio broadcast in the next; investigating why children are going missing in episode three; episode four brings in a hypnotist to put Munro in a trance to relive a past life, as well as giving us a huge The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker reference; episode five starts with a call hinting about a werewolf sighting which Poe and Munro of course have to see if it’s true; and lastly a wish gone wrong. Each episode is short, as they all are short stories, which is great if you’re aiming to see all the possible routes you can take or if an episode isn’t just hitting it for you. Although, I recommend playing through all six episodes first so you can unlock the skip function.

There is also another major difference. Considering that you’re making choices for what’s going to happen, rather than what you’ll say, you make choices by clicking a circle hotspot that’s hovering over the video. Each choice gives you time to decide what you want to do before it’ll just pick the default choice. For the most part, this does work well and it’s easy to get used to it in terms of knowing what it’s most likely expecting, but there are situations where it’s vague. Like when you go back to The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker where you’re choosing what you’re saying by clicking symbols rather than worded choices. There are also choices that act like QTEs that pop up, which isn’t that often. They certainly will take you by surprise though. However, these QTEs can be hard to actually click considering how small the circle is and that it follows along with whatever it’s attached to.

If you’re someone that has difficulties with games that require you to pick a choice in a short timeframe, rest assured that there is an option to give you unlimited time to decide. It may seem like it didn’t do anything, but it lets the original timer go out before freezing the screen. This also applies to the QTE scenes and will give you the option to purposefully fail or succeed at it.

After you finish a chapter, there is also a nice touch of being able to see the stats of how many people picked which choice. You will also get a sneak peek into what the next episode will be, which I didn’t really find necessary. After all, this game isn’t being released episodically, just using its format to tell short stories, and I’m sure most players won’t be able to stop themselves from playing most of the game in one sitting.

For the acting and general camera work, I think both were pretty good. The dynamic and chemistry between Klemens Koehring and Leah Cunard (who plays Poe and Munro respectively) was the standout. It’s really believable that these two characters decided to work together, why they’re radio show is popular in August, and why they eventually start falling in love. Though, that doesn’t mean the other actors weren’t just as good. The only scenes that were laughable were most of the action scenes where Poe or Munro was supposed to hurt someone (though they did nail at least one of them where Munro kicks Poe).

Despite feeling that I would have preferred if this focused on telling one story or an overarching story, Dark Nights with Poe and Munro was really enjoyable. The scenes are shot well, the dynamic between Poe and Munro is great, and most of the stories told here are interesting. This title was certainly used so the team can be more experimental compared to their previous games and it works. While there are downsides, like some choices being vague, it’s worth picking this one up. Although, I don’t recommend Dark Nights with Poe and Munro being your fist D’Avekki Studios game. While this game is technically a prequel, I recommend at least playing The Shapeshifting Detective first as it introduces you to the town and the dynamic between Poe and Munro. Also, it’s pretty obvious but if you didn’t like Poe and Munro in The Shapeshifting Detective don’t pick this one up.

With that said, I can’t wait to see the future projects D’Avekki Studios has in store for us.

I enjoyed The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker so when Dark Nights: Poe and Munro was released onto Linux I snatched it up right away. It didn’t disappoint. To my surprise it wasn’t one story but each episode is it’s own self contained story. They do reference each other a bit but could be viewed on their own. The FMV quality was great and had no issues. The stories were engaging and overall good. The acting was above average overall save a couple people. The humour was top notch and my favourite part. One of my only gripes was that the choices you are presented with are often not obvious. Sometimes I had no idea what each of the choices meant or what decision they would render. It took an episode or more to get any kind of handle on things. For instance sometimes when you can pick Poe or Monroe it is because that’s whose perspective you will be following for the next few scenes but I only know that by experience not because the game explained it well. I think adding text to the choices would have made things clearer. I also found the ending to the final episode to be a bit rushed but maybe that was due to my choices.

I played Dark Nights on Linux. It never crashed on me and I didn’t encounter any bugs. There were options for vsync; triple buffering; and a 25 FPS lock. There was only one save slot. There was no save option present but the game may have saved on exit. I played an episode through before exiting just to be safe. Alt-Tab didn’t work. You can pause the game at any time.

Game Engine: Unity
Graphics API: OpenGL
Disk Space Used: 6.17 GB

GPU Usage: 2-19 %
VRAM Usage: 482-565 MB
CPU Usage: 3-12 %
RAM Usage: 3.2-4.1 GB
Frame Rate: 86-144 FPS

Overall I enjoyed my time with the game. Each episode felt a little quick but was able to tell an interesting story anyway. If you enjoy FMV games or the developer’s previous work you should find some fun here. I finished all six episodes in two hours and thirty minutes. It felt a bit quick but nothing too bad. I paid $13.04 CAD for the game and felt that was fair. I could certainly enjoy these characters more if they appear in future games.

My Score: 8/10

My System:

AMD Ryzen 5 2600X | 16GB DDR4-3000 CL15 | MSI RX 580 8GB Gaming X | Mesa 20.3.4 | Samsung 970 Evo Plus 500GB | Manjaro 21.0 | Mate 1.24.1 | Kernel 5.11.6-1-MANJARO

This game was gifted to me by a friend & does not affect my view of the game in any way
Note: Some Spoilers

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3123718926

Though I wasn't sure what I was choosing by clicking on one of the offered options, it was a fun little gem with the convenience of visiting each chapter to finish your achievements more easily. Once you can skip dialogue, it's a good time to re-visit and try alternate choices, or work on achievements.

The acting is not perfect, not even close sometimes. I think they put lip stick on everyone. lol
I was a bit creep(ed) out on seeing a child as a demon. The stories didn't relate very well, yet there were some interceptions.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3123718453

I found myself wanting more. It was a unique and interesting experience. I got into the stories, which isn't usually easy for me. It's a bit dark. It was a lot like being in an interactive movie. I did not turn on timed, not a fan, but the convenience was nice.

I hope they add some chapters to this. I tried another of theirs, the detective one, but I still keep thinking of this one. This one was a bit captivating and left an impression on me, perhaps due to my taste in story/movie types? Whatever led me to really appreciate this one, I hope that I feel it again with the next one. It was an interesting journey :)

Not many men were in the game. Mostly women. Video quality was really good. I could see the characters quite well. It was well edited, imho.

https://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=3123718516

I think and view things differently than some/many(?), & I always recommend viewing other reviews, checking discussions for complaints (if you don't mind a few possible spoilers).

Thanks for reading and happy gaming fellow steamers.