I have to admit, I never watched The X-Files when it aired in the 90s. Those were my prime clubbing years, I was going to college, and I was working two jobs, so I was out all the time. Therefore, the ways in which the game makes reference to episodes of the show were irrelevant to me, but it’s still a fun Resident Evil style survival horror game.
You get to play as either Scully or Mulder, and each character’s game is a bit different. With each character, you actually get to play a series of “episodes”, which is cool.
The game is loaded with zombies, and they are actually much creepier than RE zombies. They make noises, they move fast, they jump out of shadows, and they are quite aggressive. The fact that the game is very dark adds to the tense atmosphere. I cranked my television brightness up all the way and that shit was still dark.
As with RE games, you explore locations, find ammo, health, and new weapons, and locate notes and key items to help you open doors to new areas, all while a paranormal mystery unfolds.
The game has a self-contained inventory (you’ll never run out of space) and a save system—look for an X on a wall or computer to save—that can be used infinitely. Awesome.
The controls are mapped a bit oddly considering most survival horror games of the era tended to stick to a fairly universal schematic, so that takes some getting used to. You have a run button, and you can actually use a flashlight while shooting…with the pistol. Bigger, two-handed guns don’t offer that option, which sucks due to how ridiculously dark the game is. You also can’t run while using the flashlight, which makes no sense.
The graphics are typical of the PS2, and the main character models are excellent. As is common with games of the era, it’s very easy to get stuck on background objects (argh!), and while the game is more fluid because it doesn’t use tank controls, that is not advantageous considering it uses fixed camera angles like RE. Therefore, you can be running in one direction, and when the camera angle changes, your controller doesn’t accommodate the change and you’re suddenly running in the wrong direction unless you quickly adjust your push on the thumbstick. As a result, you will find yourself running in circles at times. Not to mention, this is one of those games that has scene change loads even when you’re running down the same street, so you can easily run into a load screen only to find when you are in the new location, you are now running right back in the direction from which you just came, kicking off another load screen to take you back where you just were.
As for the episodes, you actually play the same ones with both characters, but like Resident Evil 2, you experience the situation from two different perspectives and have some similar and some different experiences.
MULDER
Episode 1
Act 1
In the first episode, you start off exploring alone, but eventually Scully joins you and she does help shoot enemies, which is good since it takes loads of bullets to kill these fuckers. And it’s important to create space before shooting them, because the auto aim will fail to hit them when they’re too close.
The worst part of this episode is a protect sequence. Argh! You have to shoot loads of zombies coming into a fricking dark room so they don’t attack and kill Scully while she’s doing an autopsy. This part really sucked. If she dies, you die.
You get a map, but you are presented as a red dot instead of as an arrow on it, so you don’t know which direction you’re facing. Absurd! Also, locations aren’t written on the map until you visit them. What the hell? This is especially infuriating because of the horrible load screens. You’ll find yourself running in circles around streets and constantly being bombarded by load screens as a result of making wrong turns, which just manages to throw you off even more. It’s a vicious cycle.
There’s one major boss in this episode, and you fight him in tight quarters in a grocery store. The idea is to shoot him while avoiding his laser attacks until a knife symbol appears in the corner. You then have to equip the knife in your inventory, find a way to get behind the boss, and stab him in the back of the neck with it. Fun.
Soon after, you get to mines where you have to put on night vision goggles and quickly lead Scully safely through crumbling caves as zombies attack. It’s pretty straightforward, but you can’t let her get killed by zombies or falling rocks, and you can’t let her fall behind. You also have to make your way to two different ladders to climb. The second one leads you out, and there’s a save in the first building you enter right after.
After that you near the end of the episode. Now you have to get the power to a cable car while Scully protects you from an onslaught of zombies. You need to do this fast so she doesn’t die before they can even get to you, and you’ll have no idea what to do, so I’d highly suggest using a walkthrough. Once you’re on the cable car, you have to diffuse a bomb really fast. Again…walkthrough for the code.
The chapter ends, you save, and then…
Episode 1
Act 2
…you are thrust right outside with a demon dog attacking you…and your gun suddenly unequipped. WTF?
You soon explore a building where you encounter lots of zombies, including one that unleashes a black oil you have to run away from or it’s instant death!
A floating woman boss with laser fire is pretty easy the first time you fight her, but on the second encounter you have to fight three of her at the same time!
Right after that you fight another boss who has the three women with him, but you get a new weapon right before the battle, and you can take him down in seconds before he even conjures the women.
Episode 2
Act 1
This is simply exposition. You walk around FBI headquarters and talk to several people.
Episode 2
Act 2
What the hell? You’re in your apartment and Scully visits…but it’s not her! Shoot her and she turns into a baddie you just have to run away from for a cutscene…something you wouldn’t know without a walkthrough.
You end up in a trippy hallway maze with aliens attacking you. There’s a certain path you need to take to escape this section, and if you don’t use a walkthrough you’re an idiot, because a mere five-door path could take you forever if you keep choosing the wrong doors.
Next you fight a boss…and his secretary! WTF? The idea is to kill her first because she has a kick ass gun she drops that you can then use on him.
After a cutscene you have to immediately run away from Scully in cramped quarters with other people standing around to get to an elevator. She catches you, she kills you! Sigh.
You end up in a stunning cathedral, but sadly the darkness of this game makes it hard to see. The idea is to actually let the baddies you encounter kill you! How would you know this without a walkthrough???
Episode 3
Act 1
What the hell? It starts with a cut scene, then as soon as the credits end you are surrounded by bad guys. You have to get around them and run towards the screen to escape…and you have absolutely nothing in your inventory, so you can’t fight them.
Seconds later you enter a section where you are chased by wolves and have to find the right doors to enter to get away! You have to avoid them a few times, but eventually you have your gun to kill them, which is kind of sad because they yelp like dogs. You also need to conserve ammo, because this is a tough episode with bosses galore. And don’t feel too guilty about killing the wolves, because the first damn boss keeps resurrecting them while you fight him. Argh!
This episode ends with a few scenes in which you have to run to stay alive…just as it began.
Episode 3
Act 2
There’s a fishing expedition here to move forward with Scully, but once you get separated from her things get challenging.
You first have to chase a guy who is shooting at you. The goal is to stay far enough away to hit him every time he stops so he’ll continue running up a tower. If you get too close, he will riddle you with bullets and you will die.
Once you come back down from the tower, it’s a boss! He’s a tall scary guy in a robe who spits at you in a limited space…right near a save that you can’t use until he’s dead. Bastards.
Next you have to use night goggles again to get through winding tunnels filled with zombies. You also have to be really carefully here not to meet up with Scully until you’ve found the flamethrower and some other items, which is really tricky. Scully is in a corner room and looks like she’s waiting to be the next Blair Witch victim, so just avoid approaching her until you’ve gotten lost trying to find the flamethrower and gotten just as lost finding your way back to her.
Holy crap. The final Mulder boss comes in five forms with a spaceship as the hub in between forms. Each time you defeat one you are put back on the spaceship to gather some goodies and some breath…and to fight an alien or two. WTF? I simply don’t see completing this episode without the infinite health and ammo codes punched in. Oh. Did I mention this game has punch-in codes?
The first time the boss is just a man with some powers and is pretty easy.
The second time he has a zombie that he keeps resurrecting.
Third time he has two zombies he keeps resurrecting.
Fourth time is a bitch. Three zombie and the boss in the tight grocery store, and you wouldn’t know it if you didn’t read a walkthrough, but you also must retrieve the knife you stuck in the dead boss earlier while getting your ass beaten by the enemies.
The fifth and final time the boss is a big alien in the spaceship…with little aliens swarming you as well. The catch is you have to stay close to him and keep shooting him, otherwise he has the ability to fricking heal himself. Which means you need to stick to killing him and get your ass kicked by the other aliens while you do it. Which also means…use them fricking cheat codes. Once he falls to his knees you have to get behind him and stab him mercilessly with the knife until he dies. Now what would happen if you’d missed picking up that knife in the grocery store?
SCULLY
Episode 1
Act 1
Basically, Scully’s game covers a lot of the same ground as Mulder’s game, just showing you what she’s doing around town when she wasn’t with him. While you had a section in which you killed wolves in his game, you actually have to kill dogs in this one! I’m not even sure if they’re normal dogs or zombie dogs as in Resident Evil (it matters, because the rules are it’s okay to kill zombie dogs).
The first big challenge is the autopsy scene, in which you now have to quickly perform the autopsy while Mulder covers you. If you don’t do it fast enough, he dies and it’s game over. This section will drive you crazy, because you will have no idea what to do without a walkthrough, and even with a walkthrough, you can’t hesitate at all. Plus, in between trying to do the autopsy and give an antidote to Mulder, both of you will be getting attacked by zombies.
At the gas station there’s a fun zombie boss. The object is to raise a car on a lift, get him to crawl under it, then drop the car on him. You have to do this three times, but seriously, I just stood at the panel and simply kept pressing the button to raise it and then drop it again, and he never got a chance to get out from under it before I did it three times.
You eventually have another run-in with instant death oil chasing you, but you barely even notice it because it’s after a cutscene and shrouded by the dark. You’re in a little alcove, and if you instinctively run out of it, you run right into the approaching oil slick! The idea is to run to the back of the alcove and press x to climb and then x again to jump back down from a back exit. But you’re not done yet! You then have to run to a grate and use bolt cutters on it while the oil is still right behind you! Eek!
You have to repeat the annoying mineshaft night goggles sequence again, but Mulder seems to keep up with you better than you did with him in his game. However, the zombies seem more aggressive this time and really slow you down.
This act ends with a repeat of having to get a cable car up and running, with Mulder guarding you from zombies this time.
Episode 1
Act 2
The highlights of this part include fighting mental patient zombies and doing another autopsy and complicated chemical mixing. Eek! You make toxic bullets to kill a horde of zombies with, but there are only enough to use one bullet on each zombie. Eek! Of course the infinite ammo code can fix that fear fast.
You also get trapped in a radiation chamber in which you quickly have to use night vision goggles to find the code to a panel nearby…which you first have to open with a screwdriver. Yikes!
You end up having to fight the boss with the three women again, and this time you have to make sure Mulder doesn’t die while he’s helping you fight.
Episode 2
Act 1
I wish this was just as short and all exposition at FBI headquarters, but this time there’s one catch—you have to perform an autopsy, you end up poisoning yourself while doing so, and then you have to create an antidote quickly! Also known as…walkthrough.
Episode 2
Act 2
The majority of this act requires walking around a facility without a weapon. Pulling out your weapon equals instant death because the guards all over will know you’re not really on their team.
You have a guy accompanying you, and it’s mostly search and find missions. You do one autopsy, and at one point you have two guys with you and have to quickly help them run away from a couple of zombies and a burning monster…which you eventually have to fight. You get a shotgun right before this battle, but it’s in a tight space, and you first have to turn on sprinklers in the area to put out his fire before he’s vulnerable to your gun shots. He also breathes fire at you. Sigh.
Episode 3
Act 1
This is a simple search and fetch mission in an area you already explored with Mulder, and he’s with you part of the time.
Episode 3
Act 2
You’re in other areas you were already in with Mulder for the final part of the game, and there’s absolutely no new game play aspects here, right down to the bosses.
I don’t know why I played Mulder first, because his is the harder game, so I would suggest playing with Scully first. This allows you to familiarize yourself with the game more so you can take on the more difficult challenge of his game.
What I love about these intertwining stories is that there’s no clear-cut killer. This is an apartment building of horrors in which all kinds of murderous hijinks are taking place, and not all of them at the hands of humans.
There’s shapeshifting, possession, occultism, a Cthulhu looking fucker, the undead…but is there really a Brooklyn Butcher? Hell, yeah!
On top of all the horror vignettes, there are sexy scenes, plenty of cute bears, twists and turns, and even the use of Bright Light Bright Light’s song “You Want My…” from his latest album. Awesome.
The horrors he envisions in his sleep begin to spill into the real world as the story progresses, a mystery starts to unfold, and there’s even a bit of witchery involved. Awesome.
