The truth is out there. It’s also on four separate discs.
If you grew up in the late nineties, you remember the peak of X-Files mania. It wasn't just a TV show; it was a cultural blackout. Everyone was looking at the sky, everyone was suspicious of the government, and everyone—absolutely everyone—wanted to be Fox Mulder or Dana Scully. So, when HyperBole Studios dropped The X-Files Game in 1998, it wasn't just another licensed cash-in. It was a massive, ambitious, and slightly clunky FMV (Full Motion Video) experiment that tried to put you inside a lost episode of the series.
Honestly, it worked better than it had any right to.
Most "interactive movies" from that era were total garbage. They were shallow, poorly acted, and felt like playing a DVD menu. But this one? It felt different. It was filmed on 35mm film, just like the show. It had the same lighting, the same moody Vancouver atmosphere, and most of the original cast. Yet, weirdly enough, you don't actually play as Mulder or Scully for the bulk of the runtime. You play as Craig Willmore. He's a field agent out of the Seattle office, and he’s basically been handed the worst assignment of his career: find the missing dynamic duo.
The X-Files Game was the peak of 90s FMV ambition
PC gaming in the mid-90s was obsessed with video. Developers thought that if they could just get enough footage onto a CD-ROM, they could bridge the gap between Hollywood and Silicon Valley. The X-Files Game took this to the absolute limit. We’re talking about a game that required four CDs on the PlayStation 1 and seven CDs on the PC. Seven! You spent half your time playing and the other half swapping plastic discs like some kind of DJ for the paranormal.
The sheer scale of the production was staggering for 1998. It used a proprietary engine called VirtualCinema, which allowed for seamless transitions between video clips. Unlike other games where the screen would go black for three seconds every time you moved, this felt fluid. You could look around environments in a panoramic view, clicking on objects to investigate them. It captured that slow, methodical pace of an FBI investigation perfectly.
You’ve got your kit. You’ve got your badge. You’ve got your PDA (which was high-tech back then, I swear).
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One of the coolest features—and something modern games still struggle to get right—was the "emotional" response system. When talking to NPCs, you didn't just pick dialogue lines. You picked an attitude. You could be professional, aggressive, or kind of a jerk. This actually changed how people reacted to you. If you were too much of an idiot to your boss, Assistant Director Skinner, he’d rip you a new one. It added a layer of roleplay that made you feel like a real agent, not just a cursor clicking on hot spots.
Why people still obsess over the "Lost Episode" feel
The story is canon. Or, at least, it was intended to be at the time. Set during the third season, the plot involves a mysterious boat, some very dead sailors, and the eventual discovery that Mulder and Scully have gone off the grid. Chris Carter, the creator of the show, was involved in the writing process. This shows. The dialogue is snappy, the conspiracy is dense, and the "black oil" makes an appearance.
It’s dark.
I mean that literally. The game is so dark you often have to use your flashlight just to find a door handle. But that was the X-Files aesthetic. It was all about shadows and what might be hiding in them. The game captured the loneliness of the series. Most of the time, you’re exploring empty warehouses, desolate docks, or quiet offices. There’s no constant combat. There are no power-ups. It’s just you, your notes, and the creeping feeling that a guy in a suit is watching you from a black sedan.
However, it wasn't perfect. The "combat," if you can call it that, was notoriously frustrating. You’d pull out your service weapon, the cursor would turn into a crosshair, and you’d have about half a second to click on a bad guy before getting a "Game Over" screen. Because it was all pre-recorded video, the deaths were always the same. It could feel a bit stiff by today’s standards. But in 1998? Seeing a high-quality video of your character getting shot because you fumbled the mouse was genuinely shocking.
The technical hurdles of a four-disc epic
Let's talk about the PlayStation port for a second. Translating a game built for high-end PCs to the PS1 was a nightmare. The compression was heavy. The graininess of the video on a CRT television actually added to the "found footage" vibe, but it made finding small clues on the ground a total pain. You’d be squinting at a pile of pixels trying to figure out if it was a cigarette butt or just a smudge on the lens.
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- PC Version: 7 Discs, higher resolution, better mouse control.
- PlayStation Version: 4 Discs, lower resolution, used the controller's D-pad for a virtual cursor.
- The Cast: David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson appear, but their roles are surprisingly brief compared to the newcomer, Jordan Lee-Williams (who played Agent Willmore).
The biggest hurdle for players wasn't the puzzles, though. It was the "Artificial Intelligence" of the investigation. The game didn't hold your hand. If you missed a tiny piece of evidence in the first act, you might find yourself stuck three hours later with no idea how to progress. It required a level of patience that modern "detective" games like L.A. Noire or Sherlock Holmes usually bypass with hint systems. In The X-Files Game, you were either a good investigator or you were stuck in Seattle forever.
Realism vs. Playability: The eternal struggle
There is a specific scene in the game involving an autopsy. It’s classic X-Files. It’s gross, clinical, and fascinating. This is where the FMV format really shines. Instead of a 3D model that looks like a collection of polygons, you’re looking at actual footage of special effects makeup. It feels grounded. It feels "real" in a way that even modern 4K graphics sometimes miss.
But that realism came at a price. The game is slow.
If you want fast-paced action, this isn't it. This is a game about reading faxes. It’s a game about clicking on a computer screen to read emails. It’s a game about driving to a location just to realize you forgot to talk to the coroner. To some, that sounds like a chore. To fans of the show, it was the ultimate simulation. You weren't just watching the bureau; you were in it.
The acting by the lead, Jordan Lee-Williams, is actually pretty solid. He plays Willmore as a guy who is clearly out of his depth but trying to keep it together. When he finally meets Mulder and Scully, the chemistry is... okay. It’s clear the big stars filmed their parts in a day or two, likely on a tight schedule between filming the actual show. Duchovny, in particular, looks like he’d rather be anywhere else, which, honestly, fits the character of Mulder perfectly.
Is it still playable today?
This is where things get tricky. Running the original PC version on Windows 11 is a lesson in frustration. You’ll need patches, emulators, or a very old laptop tucked away in your closet. The PlayStation version is easier to run via emulation, but you still have to deal with the disc-swapping prompts.
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There was a follow-up game later on, The X-Files: Resist or Serve for the PlayStation 2. That one was a more traditional survival horror game, like Resident Evil. It was fine, but it lost the "you are there" feeling of the 1998 original. The 1998 game is a time capsule. It represents a moment in history when we thought video games were going to become movies, and movies were going to become games.
It didn't happen quite like that, but The X-Files Game remains a fascinatng relic of that ambition.
How to experience it now
If you’re looking to dive back into the conspiracy, don't just go in blind. The logic of 90s adventure games is "moon logic." Sometimes you have to do things that make no sense to trigger the next flag in the code.
- Use a guide for the Seattle office: You can spend hours just clicking on filing cabinets. Save yourself the headache and look up which drawers actually matter.
- Check your email constantly: The game uses the in-game computer to move the plot forward. If you feel stuck, go back to your desk.
- Watch the mood meter: If you’re too aggressive with Skinner, you will get a "Game Over." The man has no patience for your attitude.
- Emulate the PS1 version: It’s the most stable way to play if you don't have a vintage PC rig.
The game eventually ends with multiple endings, depending on your performance and the choices you made regarding the conspiracy. It doesn't rewrite the history of the show, but it fills in a very specific gap in the timeline. It’s a piece of media that demands you sit down, turn off the lights, and accept that you’re not going to be told exactly what to do.
In a world of map markers and glowing objective paths, there is something deeply refreshing about a game that just drops you in a dark hallway and tells you to find the truth. Even if that truth is buried under seven discs of compressed 90s video footage.
To get the most out of your replay, focus on the "B-plot" characters. The game shines when it’s exploring the life of an average FBI agent who accidentally stumbles into the world of the paranormal. The interactions with the local police and the crime scene investigators feel authentic to the procedural roots of the show. It reminds us that before the show became about alien hybrids and clones, it was a show about two people looking for answers in the dark.
If you want to play it, look for the "Restoration Project" fan patches online. They fix the video scaling issues and make the game run on modern hardware without crashing every time you try to use your PDA. It's the only way to see the grain of the film without the headache of 1998 software bugs. Go find those patches, grab a digital manual, and prepare to lose a weekend to the cigarette-smoking man's machinations. The truth is still out there, but you’re going to have to click on a lot of things to find it.