Hi, if you mean the cigarette smoking man with "recognizable character", he only appears in a small optional scene (if you die in that warehouse explosion). There are 3 different scenes (afair) that can trigger if you die there and i heard it depends on which "mood path" you have chosen the most but it could also be just random. 1 is just the explosion, 2 is the explosion plus the alien-possessed Rauch guy watching it, 3 is the CSM lighting a cigarette in front of the burning warehouse.
I agree with your review, i love this game because it captures the 90s X Files atmosphere perfectly (i'm a huge fan of the series), it's very creepy at times thanks to the dark locations, moody light, sound design and ambient soundtrack straight out of the TV show. The unexpected deaths/ game over screens can even add to the omnipresent tension in some of the locations.
But from a sheer gameplay perspective, there is just too much trial and error with all the unpreventable and unforeseen game over and death events, navigation is very hard, lots of pixel hunting, the mood and dialogue options have barely any real consequences besides small details and there are some bad plot decisions and dead ends (e.g. you can't properly finish the game if you use common sense and kill Cook at your encounter in the secret base laboratory). Those can only be corrected by having multiple save games. Still, i come back to this every 5 years or so, great childhood memories.
Hi, if you mean the cigarette smoking man with "recognizable character", he only appears in a small optional scene (if you die in that warehouse explosion). There are 3 different scenes (afair) that can trigger if you die there and i heard it depends on which "mood path" you have chosen the most but it could also be just random. 1 is just the explosion, 2 is the explosion plus the alien-possessed Rauch guy watching it, 3 is the CSM lighting a cigarette in front of the burning warehouse.
I agree with your review, i love this game because it captures the 90s X Files atmosphere perfectly (i'm a huge fan of the series), it's very creepy at times thanks to the dark locations, moody light, sound design and ambient soundtrack straight out of the TV show. The unexpected deaths/ game over screens can even add to the omnipresent tension in some of the locations.
But from a sheer gameplay perspective, there is just too much trial and error with all the unpreventable and unforeseen game over and death events, navigation is very hard, lots of pixel hunting, the mood and dialogue options have barely any real consequences besides small details and there are some bad plot decisions and dead ends (e.g. you can't properly finish the game if you use common sense and kill Cook at your encounter in the secret base laboratory). Those can only be corrected by having multiple save games. Still, i come back to this every 5 years or so, great childhood memories.
Hi, I definitely did mean the CSM! Thank you so much for clarifying this. Huge agree on all of your points, and I'm glad you enjoyed the piece! :)