Best Of
10 Best FMV Games of All Time
FMV, or full-motion video, games have, over the years, faded into obscurity. However, there was a time during the arcade era when they were all the rage. Nothing could beat playing through the events acted out by actual people in often real environments. That sense of realism will forever be impossible to replicate with computer-generated images, sprites, animation, or even AI.
FMV may be outdated now. But it remains one of the best ways gamers have been able to tap into character emotions through live-action footage of real people. It’s worth noting that a few indie titles and established developers continue to experiment with FMV, some of which are pretty stellar, matching Hollywood production values. Let’s take a look at some of the best FMV games of all time.
10. Late Shift
More recently, 2017’s Late Shift delivered a high-stakes FMV crime thriller to the gaming industry. You’re thrust in the middle of a London heist, where your choices have dire consequences. Based on your decisions, you’ll steer the protagonist toward seven different endings.
According to the game’s blurb, the game has over 180 decision points. This can truly make you feel like you’re at the wheel of the narrative, with even the smallest decisions taking a minute, but in actuality, mere seconds, to make.
9. Ground Zero: Texas – Nuclear Edition
2021’s Ground Zero: Texas – Nuclear Edition remasters the 1993 FMV release. It’s a sci-fi western shooter game, following a tactical weapons expert at war with aliens disguised as humans. You go around investigating multiple places in a fictional town in Texas, where people have been disappearing due to suspected alien activity.
8. The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker
Alternatively, check out 2017’s The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker. You play the role of a psychiatrist investigating Doctor Dekker’s death. You have to “interrogate” his unusual patients, typing the questions you want to ask them, and assessing their replies relayed in FMV.
It’s quite a unique take on gameplay, where you have to carefully observe facial expressions and take note of curious clue points. But also, Doctor Dekker’s patients could ask you questions. And your responses have to be carefully curated as they affect both your fate and those of the patients.
7. Night Trap
Night Trap is a 1992 FMV game, featuring five teenage girls who spend a weekend at the Martin home. You’re responsible for monitoring the home and protecting the girls, a job that gets all the more tricky when vampires invade the home. Fortunately, you have cameras and traps you can use.
You can now play the game’s 2017 updated version. It features better video quality, along with an online mode for trapping vampires.
6. Erica
2021’s Erica will immerse you in deep suspense, as you follow the story of a young lady traumatized by nightmares of her father’s death. Your childhood returns to haunt you, pushing you to explore a bone-chilling Delphi House in Hollywood production quality, choose your relationship with other NPCs through conversations, and search for new clues, all leading to unraveling a shocking truth.
5. Black Dahlia
Black Dahlia is loosely based on the true story of the Cleveland Torso Murderer and the murder of Elizabeth Short in the mid-1940s in Los Angeles. You investigate the murder, and the connection to the Nazis and occult rituals. Still, some events are fictional, culminating in an overall thrilling adventure and dark mystery-solving romp.
4. Immortality
From the creators of Her Story comes Immortality. It features three films of Marissa Marcel, thought to be lost. Now, you explore newly unearthed footage, spanning decades of movie history. Somewhere within the movies lies the answer to the mysterious disappearance of Marissa Marcel.
And “somewhere within the movies” means literally in the minute details you might otherwise miss. You’ll be scouring the video footage for clues, clicking and zooming in the nooks and crannies, and slowly putting together the narrative puzzle pieces of the story of Marissa Marcel.
3. 428: Shibuya Scramble
Downtown Tokyo has something hot cooking for the best FMV games of all time. Featuring an unexpected cast of a former gang leader, a journalist, a detective, a head researcher in big pharma, and a part-timer in a cat costume, you’ll embark on a wild adventure, building in intensity with each scene.
428: Shibuya Scramble features real actors in real locations, each experiencing a whirlwind of emotions and events. Although each character’s story is unique, they are all interconnected, with the player discovering intertwining narrative threads across over 50 endings.
2. Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within
A series of brutal murders emerges in Munich, thought to be the result of werewolf attacks. It sends Gabriel and Grace to investigate, each with unique backstories. Gabriel fights his own demons while Grace works toward unraveling a historical mystery involving the strange death of Mad King Ludwig II.
Although Gabriel and Grace go to Munich to investigate murders, they end up being the hunted. You never know what’s coming next in Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within, keeping you on the edge of your seat throughout its mystery-evolving adventure. Above all, it’s an intriguing take on contemporary drama while integrating European history and lore.
1. Her Story
And finally, Her Story, without a doubt, the best FMV game of all time. It features seven police interviews of a woman about her missing husband. And your job is to assess the FMV tapes, hundreds of actual live-action footage, investigating the truth behind the woman’s story.
It’s like putting the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle together, gradually making sense of the story as you progress. And it’s never smooth sailing, often having to search through the database, typing search terms, and watching all the clips where she mentions those words.
Onward into the game, your own perspective begins to affect the outcome of the story. Overall, Her Story is a game that’s as much about figuring out who your protagonist is as it is about your influence on their ending.
