Noctropolis is primarily a point-and-click adventure game, but I’m including it in this series due to its reliance on FMV inserts for character dialogue and cutscenes. The game leans heavily into its comic-book influences, so dialogue and action often play out in separate, smaller frames within the main screen. It’s essentially Batman, but with some irritating edgelord sex and gore that I suppose made it stand out at the time of release, but feels dated and immature now.

The developers incorporated FMV by filming the actors against a green screen and then compositing them onto the pre-rendered backgrounds. When you initiate a conversation, a window opens and a head-and-shoulders close-up of the actor addresses the player. It’s an effective way to incorporate FMV on a small scale, as the illusion of talking to the actor works without the developers having to film a whole scene between multiple performers. The costume design works well here too and does a good job of making the human performers feel like part of the pixelated world their characters inhabit.

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Noctropolis was developed in 1994 by Utah-based Flashpoint Productions and designed by Brent Erickson and Shaun Mitchell. I remember playing it at the time, although I’m not sure I ever completed it. The game has since been polished and reissued by Night Dive Studios, and it plays well, but the puzzles remain as frustrating as I remember them.

I did complete it on this playthrough, although with heavy reliance on a walkthrough. Often the puzzles rely on being able to spot a small useful item hidden amongst the beautiful but busy hand-drawn backgrounds. In many cases, the item you need is in the same room as the puzzle itself; the problem is simply spotting it. This turns parts of the game into more of a hidden-object hunt than an adventure.

The wider issue is that, for a game about a superhero, most obstacles are solved by surprisingly conventional means: a screwdriver, a piece of rope, and so on. Solutions are also repeated. A number of doors are opened by using parts of the scenery to brute-force them, and at least two puzzles require you to “use” your sidekick, Stiletto, to seduce a security guard or maintenance man. Neither variation makes Darksheer feel like a convincing hero. The superpower you’re required to use most frequently is Darksheer’s ability to heal in the Liquidark pool in his Shadowlair. This leads to several timed sequences where you have to escape a predicament and make it back to the Shadowlair before you succumb to your wounds.

What makes the game work, and the reason it’s still worth experiencing more than 30 years later, is the world created by the designers and the story they tell within it. While the premise may be based around a fictional comic, the game actually feels more like a fictional TV show. It has the tone of ’90s attempts to tell superhero stories on the small screen, such as the 1990 adaptation of The Flash or the 1994 series M.A.N.T.I.S.

The story follows bookstore owner Peter Grey, who is transported into the world of his favourite comic-book hero, Darksheer. When he arrives, he discovers that Darksheer has retired and it’s up to Peter to put on the cape and take over. He happens to arrive at just the right time, because a mysterious new villain called Flux has broken five of the city’s most dangerous villains out of prison to cause havoc.

The heroes and villains all feel like amalgamations of various Marvel and DC characters. Darksheer is part Batman, part Spawn, although his partnership with Stiletto calls to mind Marvel’s Cloak and Dagger. On the villain side, there’s a kind of evil Zatanna, a plant monster, a mad scientist, an actual succubus and a creature who can manipulate dreams.

While derivative, all of these characters are well designed and performed. What’s impressive is how easy it is to imagine a few decades of comic-book history predating the characters and story of the game. The whole thing is so well realised that I had to check a couple of times that it wasn’t actually based on an existing property.

The other reason to play is the world of Noctropolis itself. Again, it’s very Gotham-inspired, but the modernist skyscrapers and gothic cyber-noir locations come together to create an atmosphere that perfectly fits the game’s premise. A particular highlight is the circus-themed realm of the Drealmer, which includes a section that takes place inside the mouth of a gigantic clown head.

Finally, the performances in the video sections are pretty good. FMV games from this era were often notable for featuring non-actors or performers with limited experience, but the cast here seem comfortable in their roles. Combined with the world-building, costumes and comic-book presentation, the FMV helps sell that illusion of Noctropolis as some forgotten ’90s superhero show that never actually existed.

Noctropolis exemplifies why FMV games, and early multimedia game development in general, are so fascinating to revisit. Here is an entire world, populated by a large cast of heroes and villains, with its own distinctive look and atmosphere, produced for a fraction of what it would have cost to realise the same thing as a movie or television series.

That’s also where I find Noctropolis more interesting than it is necessarily enjoyable. The puzzles can be frustrating, the sexual content has aged badly, and despite playing a superhero you spend an awful lot of time looking for screwdrivers. I’m not sure I’d recommend it purely as a game in 2026. As an experience, though, and as an example of the strange creative possibilities opened up by the FMV era, I think it still has real value.