Dark Nights with Poe and Munro
Dark Nights with Poe and Munro
Game
Game2017
The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker
Developer D'Avekki Studios Ltd
The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is an FMV murder mystery adventure video game developed by D'avekki Studios, written by Tim Cowles and Lynda Cowles, and released in 2017. Players play as a psychiatrist, trying to solve a murder whilst treating the patients of the recently deceased Doctor Dekker. The game was initially released for Microsoft Windows and macOS via Steam before being published on consoles by… From Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0)
267 reactions from 3 sources (Steam reviews, Bluesky, Lemmy) · newest Oct 28, 2026 · last updated Nov 5, 2026 · How this works
Audience score
77
LovedLoved
141 positive · 42 negative
95% range 70–83%
| Source | + | − | = |
|---|---|---|---|
| Steam reviews | 141 | 42 | 0 |
| Bluesky * | 16 | 0 | 64 |
| Lemmy * | 3 | 0 | 1 |
* shown, not counted in the score (label accuracy below our 85% bar or not yet audited).
Steam's own rating
Very Positive
444 of 540 reviews positive (all languages, per Valve)
What players are saying
76% recommend · 142 yes, 45 no
Counted from the reviewers’ own thumbs up/down on the 187 English Steam reviews we collected, not by the AI. Valve’s all-language rating: Very Positive (510 of 620 positive).
Players praise the Lovecraftian FMV mystery as ambitious and compelling, with strong acting and story. [1][2][3] Many find the text-input questioning system frustrating, requiring exact keywords to progress. [4][5][6]
Liked
Representative posts
- [6]
This may not be a popular review given the positive reviews....however I feel the points I make are justified. IMODD is a very ambitious game, an FMV where you actually type in the questions. The problem here is you have to type them in the right way, and another thing is it says youve asked a question already, even though the one youre asking is completely different to the one you asked before. Example "do you like …
- [1]
Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 212: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (8/10) If Her Story and Lovecraft had a weird little FMV baby, it’d probably look a lot like The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker. You’re a psychiatrist trying to unravel the mysterious death of your predecessor—and in doing so, you meet a parade of extremely unwell patients who might be victims, suspects… or something much …
- [19]
I am posting this as a positive review, but I am going to focus on vital aspects that can make you hate the game. Then you can decide if you should buy it or not. 1) Mechanic This is a very interesting game with a mechanic that allows you to concentrate on the story. I did not find it difficult and strongly disagree with most of the negative reviews. Most of them were written out of lack of patience and inability to …
- [5]
Very cool concept, but I agree with the negative reviews. The game really wants you to ask very specific questions and is not intuitive at all. You can know that you caught a character in a contradiction, but you can never express it as the game wants you to.
- [2]
Prologue: "The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker". Pretty solid FMV game with great acting and story. About 15 - 25 hours of gameplay. Recommended at full price and definitely on sale. Pros: 1.) Amazing acting (mostly) 2.) Interesting story with Lovecraftian influences 3.) Great gameplay and idea of a game 4.) Simple to handle and easy to comeback mid-game 5.) Pretty long for your typical FMV-Game Neutral: 1.) …
Summarised from 34 of the 262 public posts collected about this game; every point cites the posts behind it ([n] opens the post) and the split is counted from the posts’ own ratings. Updated Oct 13, 2026. How summaries are made
RottenBot@rottenbot · automated account
76% of the 187 Steam reviewers we collected recommend The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker. The complaint that keeps coming up: parser requires very specific wording. Deal-breaker or nitpick?
Critics, per Wikipedia
On Metacritic, the PC and Nintendo Switch versions received positive reviews, and the PS4 version received mixed reviews. Adventure Gamers and Rock Paper Shotgun both compared the game to Her Story. Adventure Gamers said it adds a few new twists and includes more dialogue, and Rock Paper Shotgun wrote that it does not always elegantly succeed at meeting its goals. For example, reviewer John Walker said that the game's parser misunderstands some obvious questions, though he felt that game remains "often very interesting" despite its limitations. Adventure Gamers concluded, "The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is engrossing, disturbing and erudite, and though it's a little lacking in plot…
From the “Reception” section of Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Critic context only — not part of the audience score.
Reactions
60 of 267 · most liked firstThis may not be a popular review given the positive reviews....however I feel the points I make are justified. IMODD is a very ambitious game, an FMV where you actually type in the questions. The problem here is you have to type them in the right way, and another thing is it says youve asked a question already, even though the one youre asking is completely different to the one you asked before. Example "do you like the beach?" , was a question I asked, then I asked "do you live near the…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 demo is out now! Play through an entire session with Ophelia and take the new office out for a spin! 🧜♀️🐙🛋️ #steamnextfest #steamnextfest2026 #fmv #indiegame #horror store.steampowered.com/app/2939680/...
neutral · AI labelView post →Delighted to announce the return of Klemens Koehring as Doctor Franz, the therapist’s therapist, in The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2! ❤️🛋️ Klemens is also the first person to play the Dekker 2 demo outside of us D’Avekkians and it was lovely to watch him enjoying it :)
neutral · AI labelView post →Despite the majority of players enjoying this game (with 83% of reviews being positive by the time I am writing this), I couldn’t bring myself to like it, let alone enjoy it. The slow progression was a major turn-off for me. Don’t get me wrong, it’s not a horrible game, there’s definitely a great concept here. I appreciate the idea of free text input, but unfortunately, it just doesn’t work as well as I’d hoped. Only very specific words seem to trigger responses, and the conversations end up…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've previewed the demo of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 ahead of its launch on Thursday. It's got great characters and stories, and a new gameplay system — and it's a good one! 🎮 #DDNet #News #VideoGames #Gaming #FMV @davekki.bsky.social
positive · AI labelView post →While the game is an interesting concept and an interesting story it lacked on the programming. Inputting questions was very clunky and difficult. It does not allow for any variance in questions. In fact, a lack of a comma when forming a question tripped it up at one point. There was a lack of flow with the story and questions. Some of the questions towards the patients are a tedious, and I was not quite sure what to ask them.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 9 years, my favorite Lovecraftian FMV detective game, [Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker] is getting a sequel and a free Steam demo. Hands-on | The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 puts me back on the familiar couch in its Steam Next Fest demo
positive · AI labelView post →It's #WishlistWednesday! Who's hyped for more @aislinnde-ath.bsky.social? Wishlist The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 here 👀⤵️ store.steampowered.com/app/2939680/... Marianna in Doctor Dekker (2017) ❤️ youtu.be/WwOBKU2Vncw?...
neutral · AI labelView post →It's #FlashbackFriday so here's Claire from The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker reminiscing about that time she killed her husband.
neutral · AI labelView post →After 9 years, my favorite Lovecraftian FMV detective game, [Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker] is getting a sequel and a free Steam demo. Hands-on | The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 puts me back on the familiar couch in its Steam Next Fest demo
positive · AI labelView post →I've always had a soft spot for The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, so I'm looking forward to this sequel!
positive · AI labelView post →It’s also 8 years to the day since the release of The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker and our debut on the FMV scene!
neutral · AI labelView post →The idea is great, nothing new, really...FMV games were popular even through the 90s. What I don't like about this game is that sometimes you ask something that supposed to be logical (clues btw are barely noticeable in the conversations), but they all lead to 'I don't know...have no idea', etc...I literally ask almost the same thing that the hint questions say, slightly different wording and I get into a wall....at least 90s quests were more logical about that, here you have to hit exact words…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Great idea, especially allowing the free text input, but unfortunately just doesnt work very well, only very specific words work and the conversation ends up feeling like talking to cleverbot at best.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Reviewing (mostly) every game (or DLC) in my library, part 212: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️☆☆ (8/10) If Her Story and Lovecraft had a weird little FMV baby, it’d probably look a lot like The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker. You’re a psychiatrist trying to unravel the mysterious death of your predecessor—and in doing so, you meet a parade of extremely unwell patients who might be victims, suspects… or something much stranger. This is an ambitious, experimental FMV murder mystery that embraces the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →1: The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker by D'Avekki Studios Ltd @davekki.bsky.social In this FMV Lovecraftian mystery, interview the unusual patients of murdered psychologist Doctor Dekker and find the culprit. The murderer can be any of the suspects as it is random for each play-through.
neutral · AI labelView post →There's a reason you get an achievement for asking for hints 100 times. This game passes beyond Guess the Verb and into Guess the Noun.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →First of all, the thing that makes this game unacceptably bad and tedious that I cannot even bring myself to finish is the UI. The UI is dreadful, to say that the UI is bad is an understatement. Unreadable texts, unseeable mouse cursor, and generally unintuitive UI. If you really like the game and its concept, you can get through that horrendous UI. The story is bloated with useless questions, they are optional but I couldn't feel interested enough to even try and finish it. I expect more…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Some of you may remember an episode of Seinfeld where Kramer starts his own movie showtimes service where he pretends to be a prerecorded voice asking people to press a number based on what movie they want to see. Then someone actually calls him and presses a button and he realizes he can't tell what number they pressed because the tones are all the same. So finally he just says, "why don't you teeelllll me what movie you want to see?" Well that's this "game" except somehow, you're both…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The Indie Premier Game Showcase 2026 is live on Steam now! Check out 50 boundary-breaking games including The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 ☺️ store.steampowered.com/curator/4612... #indiegames @theindiepremier.bsky.social
neutral · AI labelView post →It's #SteamNextFest #NextFest and the demo you don't want to miss is The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker by @davekki.bsky.social! Read my preview here:
positive · AI labelView post →The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 by @davekki.bsky.social unveiled, featuring actors from Not For Broadcast and the West End. Article with game trailer: tinyurl.com/5yh823k2 #GamingNews #GamingCommunity #EnebaIndependentGamingNews #videogames
neutral · AI labelView post →First of all, other reviewers have mentioned that the text parser is often non-intuitive and finicky, and I found this to be true. Overall though, I don’t think this detracted from the experience too much. I fell into a satisfactory pace of asking the questions that initially struck me, then using the hint system to guide me through the remainder. The suggestions felt more like having a helpful assistant rather than cheating. I do enjoy how the game wasn’t too prudish and rewarded some offbeat…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm doing a #giveaway 🥳 with a Steam key for 'The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker'. To participate: 👇 1) Play the demo of the upcoming 'The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2' and post your end-demo stats in the comments. 2) That's it! 😉 You can thank the devs! 👇 bsky.app/profile/dave...
neutral · AI labelView post →necromancer is not a class in WoW
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →After 9 years, my favorite Lovecraftian FMV detective game, [Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker] is getting a sequel and a free Steam demo. Hands-on | The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 puts me back on the familiar couch in its Steam Next Fest demo
positive · AI labelView post →OTD in 2019 we broadcast The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker LIVE! - an experimental, unscripted FMV game where patient Eve was treated by Dr Dekker's expert colleagues (viewers posting questions in chat). But did they manage to cure her? Watch the full stream here! youtu.be/Du-3wx1NtO4?...
neutral · AI labelView post →At first I was put off by the lousy 'parser' system, where there was no real freedom of questioning. The game wanted us to ask 'exact' questions according to what was programmed. For example, instead of responding to the question "why did I come to your house?" the game would only respond to "why was I there at your house last night?" Since the questioning system is not AI based, its understandable its like this. Ultimately, you will learn that the easiest way to move forward is only by using…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm sure there's a cool story in here. Unfortunately the game's free text input mechanic is unbearably boring and clunky. The characters seem to respond to keywords, ignoring any context in your input. Their answers are usually nonsensical with respect to what you've actually asked and constantly reveal that there's nothing more going on under the hood than a look-up in some sort of internal database based on one word in the sentence you've typed. It makes it really hard to feel any immersion.…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →"we're going to let the user ask open-ended questions but they have to be precise open-ended questions or else we say nothing." Seriously, I cannot, I cannot emphasize how much I think this game is a waste of everyone's time. 85%? BULL. Absolutely every review in the positive gives a pass to the text interpretation having 'some issues.' Some issues? This is gross. This is an affront to human intelligence. This is GPT-0.0003 . Seriously, ugh.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The acting is great and entertaining to watch. The story is disjointed but passable. As a game, it is disappointing. You're supposed to type in questions Zork-style, but that quickly becomes tedious as hell because the parser is so bad. "Do you believe in spontaneous combustion?" elicits a no response, but "Is spontaneous combustion real?" gives you a answer. That happened enough times that I started just using the pull-down menu of questions which then makes the game just a movie. For a…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Tomorrow's games couldn't be more different but equally puzzling: 💠 Pight (by @mindlabor.bsky.social) 🛋️ The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker (by @davekki.bsky.social) See you LIVE on YouTube❤️+💜Twitch #puzzlegame #indiegame #pight #doctordekker #logic #fmv
neutral · AI labelView post →Revisiting @atdeadofnight.bsky.social and The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker today while I get ready to play @davekki.bsky.social's TIMoDD 2. Are there any other standout FMV games you've come across? #HorrorSky #IndieHorror
positive · AI labelView post →its also worth mentioning that if youre a fan of Lovecraftian horror, i dont think any other game ive played nails it like The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker i absolutely recommend checking it out and the demo for the upcoming sequel 👀
positive · AI labelView post →Already updated with 2 other games that will be in Next Fest! The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 from @davekki.bsky.social Helix: Descent N Ascent from Badass Mongoose Make sure to keep coming back for what will be waiting for you during Steam Next Fest!
neutral · AI labelView post →I really wanted to like this and it's clear a lot of love and hard work went into this, but there certain things that made this really unenjoyable for me to play. Firstly, the UI is pretty terrible. It can be difficult to see which of the questions are marked with green asterisks and the cursor is tiny with a color that's really difficult to see. Secondly, while I don't mind the gameplay format of asking questions, there aren't enough logic trees on what responses you can trigger. Huge…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →The infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is a fun mystery game/movie experience. I played through very thoroughly my first time through, typing all kinds of questions, finally having to use a guide due to some wording differences. I was able to ask most of my questions without help, but there were times that certain words were needed to trigger the response. I then discovered the hint bar in my second play through, and raced through and gained many of the other achievements. For some reason,…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →It's the most wonderful time of the year! #SteamNextFest Today, we'll be checking out: DIVE or DIE - Children of Rain Don't Lose Aggro The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 WILD Tactics ZERO PARADES - For Dead Spies 🔗 in bio ⟢ #vsky #vtuber #envtuber #live ⟣
neutral · AI labelView post →www.gamestic.nl/2026/02/23/t... The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 demo is now available on Steam. This 30-minute preview offers a first look at the FMV sequel’s interrogation mechanics and branching mystery ahead of its 2026 launch. #doctordekker #davekki #SteamNextFest #gamestic
neutral · AI labelView post →The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2 demo just dropped and there is literally no other choice but to play this game immediately. Diving right back into FMV shenanigans that I've so missed! Has @davekki.bsky.social struck gold again?! www.twitch.tv/invert180
positive · AI labelView post →The Tedious Gameplay of Doctor Dekker This was a hard one for me to decide on recommend/not recommend, and I think it falls just below that middle line. In The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, you play as a new psychiatrist who is replacing Dr. Dekker following his mysterious murder. You have to treat his patients and try to find the killer by asking questions in sessions with each patient--but be careful, because madness may just creep up on you as well. The Good The Story The…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Prologue: "The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker". Pretty solid FMV game with great acting and story. About 15 - 25 hours of gameplay. Recommended at full price and definitely on sale. Pros: 1.) Amazing acting (mostly) 2.) Interesting story with Lovecraftian influences 3.) Great gameplay and idea of a game 4.) Simple to handle and easy to comeback mid-game 5.) Pretty long for your typical FMV-Game Neutral: 1.) Definitely harder if you are not a native speaker Cons: 1.) Some connections and…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm a big fan of the FMV games like Contradiction (which I'm 95% sure you've played), The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker, the Shapeshifting Detective and it's spin-off Dark Nights with Poe and Munro. Sorry if you've played them all already!
positive · AI labelView post →I am posting this as a positive review, but I am going to focus on vital aspects that can make you hate the game. Then you can decide if you should buy it or not. 1) Mechanic This is a very interesting game with a mechanic that allows you to concentrate on the story. I did not find it difficult and strongly disagree with most of the negative reviews. Most of them were written out of lack of patience and inability to read game description and tips in the game itself: write THE SAME words…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I'm going to give it a positive review, even though I quickly abandoned the game input method you're supposed to use. That's because the story is great, and I love the acting too. What you're supposed to do is type questions you think should be answered, based on what the patients say. I found it very hit and miss, frequently being told that I've already asked a question when I hadn't, or just that the patient had nothing to say. The system seems to pick up key words (or just a word) in the…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ New schedule! ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙ 🎈It's mah birfday week!🎉 TUE- The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker THU- Until Then SUN- Miside #Vsky | #Vtuber | #ENVtuber | #StreamSchedule
neutral · AI labelView post →The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is a solid detective game with many possible outcomes. I primarily bought this game because I am a therapist and I love detective games so I felt that it was a nice blend of my career and my interests. I'm always leery of FMV games, but this is very well done. Dr. Dekker doesn't struggle with phrasing and will give the player a lot of leeway with how you ask questions. You can even be playful with it. At one point I decided to quote a scene from the Big…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I had so much fun with this game! It did take me a little bit to kinda get my bearings and figure out how to get the conversation flowing naturally, but once I did that I was all in, and found it pretty immersive and engrossing. Loved the characters, the acting, and the stories, and my god were some moments unsettling! Totally reccommend it if this seems like your thing!
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I've been stuck in Leisure Suit Larry for quite a few years before the internet came around and "walkthroughed" me to Larrys inevitable STD. 30yrs later text parsers are still as finicky which is a shame because the acting is good and so is the mystery. Unfortunately this game is unplayable without a walkthrough or the patience of a Dalaia Lama. This wouldve been so much better with multiple choice! Anyhow, this isnt a hard thumbs down. Production value is good and if you should happen to be…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Realised this morning I've kind of started a playthrough on #twitch of the @davekki.bsky.social Studios game universe Atm we're making our way through The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker
neutral · AI labelView post →The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker was one of my favorite games of that year and if you know me you know how rare it is for me to be hype for something with a number on the end.
positive · AI labelView post →Great acting with an interesting and compelling story, but the game is just frustrating for me. English is not my first language, so if I misspell a word, I'm stuck; if I ask a question without proper grammar, I'm stuck. In the end, I just turn down the hint timer and spam hints, just to find out I ask that question but in a slightly different way. It just killed the immersion for me.
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →I was so excited for The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2, I played the demo BEFORE Next Fest :D This is an FMV mystery game where you figure out what to ask patients to solve a murder, and maybe? help them? Or maybe, get caught in the madness yourself. store.steampowered.com/app/2939680/...
positive · AI labelView post →Very cool concept, but I agree with the negative reviews. The game really wants you to ask very specific questions and is not intuitive at all. You can know that you caught a character in a contradiction, but you can never express it as the game wants you to.
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →‧͙⁺˚･༓☾ New schedule! ☽༓･˚⁺‧͙ TUE- The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker THU- Tangle Tower finale & Until Then SUN- Cold Fear #Vsky #Vtuber #ENVtuber #StreamSchedule
neutral · AI labelView post →A really fun FMV game. It's kind of like SIMULACRA or Her Story, but the questioning mechanic is quite unique. It's fun finding enough information, but keep in mind that, as the game warns you, trying to 100% the characters is very difficult and could "drive you mad". If you want to do that, just use a guide. When playing, I would first do as much question as could on my own to get enough information to advance and then, once my ideas dried up, I would use a guide to get all the remaining…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →D'Avekki Studios returns to its original FMV trilogy with murder mystery game The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker 2! (I try to keep news factual but my fangirl always comes out when it comes to @davekki.bsky.social.)
neutral · AI labelView post →It is a very unique type of game, but I like the uniqueness. To my knowledge it has many endings and also play through it again with even more different endings. Obviously it is limited in what you can do, but having the real life style is enjoyable. This game has 5 parts, and take about 7-8 hours to complete if you don't sit AFK and eat like me. >:)
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →Really good talking game. Being a psychiatrist seems to be really hard job. And you should solve a murder of the previous doctor? That is quite a challenge. The persons are easy to believe and they seems to be real. The mechanic of the game is original and a little different. Really to ask questions, to type them. It is a little hard for me because english is not my native language and I am not used to it so much. But usually it is enough to type the important noun or verb to get new responses.…
positive · reviewer's own thumbsView post →As far as I can tell, there are multiple endings for this game. Meaning, this murder mystery has a different murderer depending on how you interact with the characters. This makes no sense to me. What makes a mystery satisfying is its solution. I don't know why other people like mystery stories, but I like mystery stories because it's fun to follow clues, reason, and see if I can coordinate the content the author has given me. If there are multiple right answers, none of that works. Maybe I'm…
negative · reviewer's own thumbsView post →
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