FMV games do have lovely textures.

Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker was a goddamn bounty of a game. My first playthrough ran in excess of ten hours of quality FMV. The unique text entry (whilst finicky) combined with the patient substories you could steer the outcome of - let you truly roleplay the power position of a psychiatrist. Finding your predecessor's randomly selected killer was simply another consideration rumbling below the surface of every interaction. A Lovecraftian madness system was itself affirmed by a fever dream atmosphere (formed by ethereal visuals and a droning soundtrack) that genuinely unsettled over long play sessions. Perhaps it's only because their previous offering was so good that Shapeshifting Detective pales somewhat in comparison.

Shapeshifting Detective is in most respects an expertly executed FMV game with great performances all-round. Everyone lends just the right amount of overacting to keep you entertained in the face of endless faces and above all else, the premise they settled on out of the thousand other brainstormed ideas they revealed on Twitter is a definite winner. You're a shapeshifting entity with a shadowy background (with a supposed handler) taking the form of 'Sam,' who's tasked with investigating a murder the night prior. Once again, the perpetrator is randomly selected so as to give replayability to proceedings. Upon meeting someone new you can retire to your guest house room to take their form. This allows you to generate new dialogue choices with the rest of the cast in pursuit of the truth. Can there be a more seductive power than weaponising your own appearance?

Practicing the voice of the character you've shifted into is a nice creepy detail - until you've heard it the hundredth time.

Shapeshifting Detective is shorter than Dekker (2-3 hours) but with apparently as many FMV responses (1600) - which doesn't ring true at all, but might be accounted for in having dialogue options throughout for nearly every response and secret scenes for character combinations. Dekker had the advantage of exposing you to a dozen unique supernatural stories by introducing new patients, whilst here it all feels more one-note. It ditches text input for the option selection of Dekker's console versions. Selection is impressively fully voice-acted, but seems much too prescriptive for a detective game. It's understandable given that the shapeshifting mechanic is the primary focus and feedback they likely received from Dekker. The ability to be silent adds complexity to proceedings, however. Whilst there are a few occasions it doesn't offer any practical change, knowing when to be silent about things you shouldn't know/not know so as not to shut down conversations adds some much needed tension and weight to dialogue where it might otherwise have felt somewhat stripped.

The biggest issue of all is that this plain doesn't work as an investigation game... at all. As with Dekker, randomising a killer sounds great in concept, but only ends up cheapening the storytelling to accommodate the novelty. It doesn't even work in principle to add replayability because it just ends up exposing the working gears - interpolating clues that very obviously steer you to one over the others. Of course, if you've already played the game through, the differences are going to stand out like anything - completely invalidating it. It was the weakest part of Dekker and it's the same here. Unfortunately, the psychiatry element isn't here to act as the foundation! It's all about the killer.

For two out of three of the killers, at the very least, you're straight up told in almost no uncertain terms who the killer is. If too, the intention of multiple killers was to remove an easy look-up of a solution, they've inadvertently made the guide the game itself! The motives are obviously a constant for all three of the killers, so weirdly they can't be factored in. The evidence you're given, therefore, rather than weighing up likelihoods, doesn't leave any room for ambivalence to a laugh out loud degree. You could easily call it a commentary on how little investigation a shapeshifter would need to do to eke out the solution, but I don't think that's what they were going for. Interestingly, the reason I'm not certain as to whether there's a heavy clue for the third is because I chose not to systematically work through conversations as I had with the other two. You see, the easiest way to be comprehensive in acquiring scenes and information is to robotically work through every character as Sam, every other available character and then Sam again to hoover up exposed details. You really can't go wrong. It's a shame because one solution to this mechanically is tantalisingly hinted at in dialogue. Your 'handler' as a disembodied voice says 'you can't use your power forever' or something to that effect. What a masterstroke it could have been to make you pick and choose your transformations based on what's most likely to turn up information! Missing hints might then have been more possible outside of the player simply skipping content in missing transformations (and some occasions in the silence mechanic, admittedly).

'But what if Dekker was better?'

A few other little niggles. Another issue inherited from Dekker - you know when the game's about to end because they suddenly press fast forward and make a break for the finish line. A moderated pace towards the end would probably go a long way. Without spoiling anything, also, all the characters seem much too fond of 'Sam' considering you only spend a very short time in his skin around the characters. Some feedback on how you've treated the characters throughout is always good, but it just doesn't ring true.

The real fun of the game comes from a child-like pushing of the limits of the game logic in what combinations of characters at the right time can lead to unique scenes and outcomes. Marriage proposals and freak outs abound! I just wish there was more of it! It scratches that same explorative, plaything itch that typing questions and responses in Dekker did. It lets you embody the potential of this power and feels genuinely player-led and creative. It's also the real impetus to replay the game. Luckily a skip feature has now been introduced, since there's a lot of retreading ground in replaying.

Seeking out all the permutations of the scenes is the real joy of the experience - mostly because the performances are just so unendingly entertaining that you want to see it all. Whilst it only covers a couple of supernatural premises this time, it's exquisitely and creatively written. Like Dekker, it would perfectly skate the line between being supernatural or not if your shifting presence didn't swing the needle wildly in one direction.

No complaints about it technically apart from a slightly rocky scene at the start. It's great to be liberated from what was often just the sofa in Dekker for some well-shot, varied locations. My absolute favourite element is the Poe and Munro radio broadcast reading dark fiction in the background whenever you're not in a scene. It adds to the atmosphere beyond belief. Even the loading screens prove mesmerising with what I can only work out as being some combination of paint, oil and soap forming gorgeous moving images. They nicely evoke with their morphing shapes the shifting of the entity.

A Sunday afternoon's work in my future.

For keeping the unique FMV genre alive in such a creative and entertaining fashion, whatever my expectation-induced qualms, this was always likely to be a recommendation. What concerns me most is the continuation of some issues that plagued Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker - moreso than the elements wherein it couldn't recreate the magic. A good detective game this ain't, but it's otherwise an engrossing evening with the best FMV in the business. I hope the team here makes great strides in their next production and continue to lead the genre. They only have 999 ideas left!