My adventures in the D'avekkiverse continue. The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is the studio's first game, but also sadly their weakest so far. It's notable for earning (and I think still holding) the Guinness World Record for the most amount of FMV footage in a game at just over 7 hours, so it's clear and commendable the amount of ambition D'avekki shows from the outset. It's just a shame it all falls a bit flat.
The premise of the game is that you are a therapist, a replacement for the titular Doctor Dekker. Dekker has been murdered, and one of his patients did it. It's your job to, over a number of sessions, question them all, get into their heads and see which one did it and why. You'll be questioning the patients, your assistant, and potentially... yourself. There are six possible killers, and one is chosen randomly at the beginning of the game for you to sniff out.
To talk to the patients, you have to type out your questions, and the game will pick up on any keywords or phrases you type and respond accordingly. You listen to their responses and use them to ask your next question. It's similar to Her Story's keyword system, but you can tell D'avekki was overly ambitious and wanted to take it to the next level. A lot of the information you can just gain from repeating certain words and phrases in the clips back to the characters - it eventually got to the point where I could hear Solid Snake's voice in my head whenever I quizzically repeated something the character had said. Some of the phrasing the game wants you to use can be frustratingly specific - there were more than a couple of moments where I couldn't understand why the character wasn't understanding a simple question, but I ended up changing the wording slightly and then they got it.
The overall premise of the story is pretty okay, but as it goes along things start to get a bit muddled and overly ambiguous. The patients you see claim to have certain... "powers", but it's never really clear whether any of them actually do have these powers, or if it's just a delusion brought about by their mental illnesses. There's also some neat Lovecraftian elements that begin to emerge as the story goes along, but I won't go into that too much. Doctor Dekker also claims to have horror themes, but it's not particularly scary save a couple of lame jumpscares - thanks, Jaya.
The acting is pretty strong from the entire cast. Aislinn De'ath puts in another fantastic performance as flower child Marianna - she's eccentric and charming, but also utterly chilling when she wants to be. It's clear to see why D'avekki keeps working with De'ath, and their projects are all the better for having her in them. The cast all sell their various levels of mania very well, and this is definitely one of the best-acted FMV games overall. Side note - it was nice to see John Guilor again in a small role after enjoying his performance in Contradiction. It's fun seeing the same actors pop up in different British FMV games.
I'll put my ending gripes in Rot13 since I think they're specific to the killer I got - TW: sexual violence (go to rot13.com to translate) Gurer'f n irel hapbzsbegnoyr cneg va Npg 5 jurer Znevnaan, bhg bs abjurer, npphfrf gur cynlre punenpgre bs encvat ure. Vs lbh qral vg, fur'yy tb vagb ntbavfvat qrgnvy nobhg gur CP "oraqvat bire ure" naq "ivbyngvat ure". Nyy lbh pna qb vf qral vg bapr zber naq gura lbh obgu frrzvatyl zbir ba yvxr abguvat unccrarq. Znlor V whfg trg jnl gbb vagb zl tnzrf ohg V ernyyl qba'g srry pbzsbegnoyr jvgu gur vqrn gung gur punenpgre V'z vaunovgvat jbhyq qb fbzrguvat yvxr gung, naq vg srryf ernyyl jebat gung guvf frrzf gb or gur pnfr urer.
Va zl raqvat, V pbeerpgyl thrffrq gung Znevnaan jnf gur xvyyre, naq va gur fprar nsgre fur fnlf gung fur vagraqf gb oynpxznvy zr nf jryy nf vzcylvat gung V tbg ure gb frqhpr Qrxxre fb V pbhyq zheqre uvz naq gnxr uvf wbo? Vg'f ernyyl abg pyrne jung'f gehr naq jung vfa'g va gur raq, naq vg ernyyl srryf yvxr gur tnzr yrnirf jnl gbb znal ybbfr raqf sbe vg gb or fngvfslvat. V ernyyl qvfyvxr tnzrf jurer lbh unir gb ercynl gurz zhygvcyr gvzrf gb trg gur "gehr" raqvat fb znlor gung'f jung'f unccravat jvgu guvf. Rvgure jnl, gur jubyr encr guvat ernyyl fbherq zr ba gur svany npg, naq V jbaqre vs gubfr fprarf unccra rira vs fur'f abg gur xvyyre.
Nyfb, vg'f abg irel jryy rkcynvarq va gur tnzr'f vageb ohg gelvat gb haybpx rirel fvatyr erfcbafr sbe rirel fvatyr punenpgre va gur tnzr vf npghnyyl abg nqivfrq, fvapr guvf vf n fher-sver jnl gb znk bhg lbhe vafnavgl cbvagf (juvpu nyfb nera'g rkcynvarq) naq trg gur jbefg raqvatf sbe gur cngvragf naq lbhefrys. Fbzrubj, V tbg gur "tbbq" raqvat sbe Oelpr naq gur "onq" raqvatf sbe rirelbar ryfr.
It's strange... I caught the killer, but I don't feel like I did...
In terms of non-spoilery issues, I feel the game is way too long. My first (and currently only) playthrough clocked in at 12 hours, and I really don't think the game's concept is designed to be that long. This is especially true when you consider that you're clearly intended to play this several times to experience all the different endings, but the game really drags towards the end. It definitely looks like D'avekki took this into consideration, when you see how much shorter their other games are, while keeping the replayability factor.
Doctor Dekker isn't really a bad game, I think it just falls under the weight of it's own ambition. There are problems here that I definitely think D'avekki fixed with The Shapeshifting Detective, but this is still worthy of a play or two if you're hankering for a spooky murder mystery.
The premise of the game is that you are a therapist, a replacement for the titular Doctor Dekker. Dekker has been murdered, and one of his patients did it. It's your job to, over a number of sessions, question them all, get into their heads and see which one did it and why. You'll be questioning the patients, your assistant, and potentially... yourself. There are six possible killers, and one is chosen randomly at the beginning of the game for you to sniff out.
To talk to the patients, you have to type out your questions, and the game will pick up on any keywords or phrases you type and respond accordingly. You listen to their responses and use them to ask your next question. It's similar to Her Story's keyword system, but you can tell D'avekki was overly ambitious and wanted to take it to the next level. A lot of the information you can just gain from repeating certain words and phrases in the clips back to the characters - it eventually got to the point where I could hear Solid Snake's voice in my head whenever I quizzically repeated something the character had said. Some of the phrasing the game wants you to use can be frustratingly specific - there were more than a couple of moments where I couldn't understand why the character wasn't understanding a simple question, but I ended up changing the wording slightly and then they got it.
The overall premise of the story is pretty okay, but as it goes along things start to get a bit muddled and overly ambiguous. The patients you see claim to have certain... "powers", but it's never really clear whether any of them actually do have these powers, or if it's just a delusion brought about by their mental illnesses. There's also some neat Lovecraftian elements that begin to emerge as the story goes along, but I won't go into that too much. Doctor Dekker also claims to have horror themes, but it's not particularly scary save a couple of lame jumpscares - thanks, Jaya.
The acting is pretty strong from the entire cast. Aislinn De'ath puts in another fantastic performance as flower child Marianna - she's eccentric and charming, but also utterly chilling when she wants to be. It's clear to see why D'avekki keeps working with De'ath, and their projects are all the better for having her in them. The cast all sell their various levels of mania very well, and this is definitely one of the best-acted FMV games overall. Side note - it was nice to see John Guilor again in a small role after enjoying his performance in Contradiction. It's fun seeing the same actors pop up in different British FMV games.
I'll put my ending gripes in Rot13 since I think they're specific to the killer I got - TW: sexual violence (go to rot13.com to translate) Gurer'f n irel hapbzsbegnoyr cneg va Npg 5 jurer Znevnaan, bhg bs abjurer, npphfrf gur cynlre punenpgre bs encvat ure. Vs lbh qral vg, fur'yy tb vagb ntbavfvat qrgnvy nobhg gur CP "oraqvat bire ure" naq "ivbyngvat ure". Nyy lbh pna qb vf qral vg bapr zber naq gura lbh obgu frrzvatyl zbir ba yvxr abguvat unccrarq. Znlor V whfg trg jnl gbb vagb zl tnzrf ohg V ernyyl qba'g srry pbzsbegnoyr jvgu gur vqrn gung gur punenpgre V'z vaunovgvat jbhyq qb fbzrguvat yvxr gung, naq vg srryf ernyyl jebat gung guvf frrzf gb or gur pnfr urer.
Va zl raqvat, V pbeerpgyl thrffrq gung Znevnaan jnf gur xvyyre, naq va gur fprar nsgre fur fnlf gung fur vagraqf gb oynpxznvy zr nf jryy nf vzcylvat gung V tbg ure gb frqhpr Qrxxre fb V pbhyq zheqre uvz naq gnxr uvf wbo? Vg'f ernyyl abg pyrne jung'f gehr naq jung vfa'g va gur raq, naq vg ernyyl srryf yvxr gur tnzr yrnirf jnl gbb znal ybbfr raqf sbe vg gb or fngvfslvat. V ernyyl qvfyvxr tnzrf jurer lbh unir gb ercynl gurz zhygvcyr gvzrf gb trg gur "gehr" raqvat fb znlor gung'f jung'f unccravat jvgu guvf. Rvgure jnl, gur jubyr encr guvat ernyyl fbherq zr ba gur svany npg, naq V jbaqre vs gubfr fprarf unccra rira vs fur'f abg gur xvyyre.
Nyfb, vg'f abg irel jryy rkcynvarq va gur tnzr'f vageb ohg gelvat gb haybpx rirel fvatyr erfcbafr sbe rirel fvatyr punenpgre va gur tnzr vf npghnyyl abg nqivfrq, fvapr guvf vf n fher-sver jnl gb znk bhg lbhe vafnavgl cbvagf (juvpu nyfb nera'g rkcynvarq) naq trg gur jbefg raqvatf sbe gur cngvragf naq lbhefrys. Fbzrubj, V tbg gur "tbbq" raqvat sbe Oelpr naq gur "onq" raqvatf sbe rirelbar ryfr.
It's strange... I caught the killer, but I don't feel like I did...
In terms of non-spoilery issues, I feel the game is way too long. My first (and currently only) playthrough clocked in at 12 hours, and I really don't think the game's concept is designed to be that long. This is especially true when you consider that you're clearly intended to play this several times to experience all the different endings, but the game really drags towards the end. It definitely looks like D'avekki took this into consideration, when you see how much shorter their other games are, while keeping the replayability factor.
Doctor Dekker isn't really a bad game, I think it just falls under the weight of it's own ambition. There are problems here that I definitely think D'avekki fixed with The Shapeshifting Detective, but this is still worthy of a play or two if you're hankering for a spooky murder mystery.