I try the X-Files DVD games so you don't have to


This is it, the last game in this series. It is titled Faith because, I think, that is a recurring theme in season 8 of the show. The title screen advises of the PC specifications. The virtual machine I created unintentionally meets all these.

Splash screen

This is almost the exact same intro email as the previous installment.

Intro email

The season 5-7 games focused on one episode. The season 8 game returns to the original format where it covers several episodes. The first is The Gift.

Second email

The first puzzle is a game where you have to match patterns.

Description of first mini-game

It's pretty easy. You just slide the listening thing around until you match the expected pattern. Compared to all the previous games, this is super simple.

The first mini-game

After that it's on to another episode - Deadalive.

On to the next episode

This is the same chat interface as last time. I was expecting a trivia game after this.

Chat dialog

Instead there's more dialog that leads to another mini-game.

More dialog

This description sounds very complicated. It's deceiving though. The actual game coming up is also simple.

This description sounds very complicated

Once you get past the eye pain, you'll realize this is a short maze. I mean, really short. There are like 3 turns in it. The difficulty comes from the time limit and chonky controls. I failed the first time but there are endless retries.

Maze game

Now there is an email with a decision. I'll try both paths, once again selecting the first option first.

Email with a decision

That was a mistake. It's an instant game over.

Game over

The other "correct" option leads to something very confusing, to me at least. There's a map with many points on it. These all correspond to major show episodes.

Map

Clicking on any point opens a recap of the episode.

Clicking on any point opens a recap of the episode

You then have to choose whether that episode deals with the alien/hybrid events or not. It's hard to tell with The X-Files though. There are episodes in the main story arc that turn out to be red herrings. I made the best selections I could.

Choose whether that episode deals with the alien/hybrid events or not

I guess I didn't pick right. There are too many options to figure this out via trial and error. I give up.

Wrong choices apparently

So it's game over. That's fine.

Game over again

The credits are about the same. There's a second book ad. I have something like 400 books like this accumulated over almost 30 years. Yet, I don't own either of these.

Credits

OK, that's it. It's the last X-Files DVD game. It's the shortest in terms of content but maybe the longest in terms of figuring out how to "win" it. If you bounce back to the index for this article you can see my concluding thoughts on this series if that's a thing you want to do.


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