The X-Files Game

The X-Files Game is an interactive movie point-and-click adventure video game based on the TV series The X-Files, developed by HyperBole Studios and published by Fox Interactive in 1998. It is notable because it doesn’t feature Agent Mulder and Agent Scully as the protagonists. (They were working on The Movie at the time.) Instead it features a Deadpan Snarker Seattle FBI agent named Craig Wilmore.

Our story starts up with said agent arriving late to work and bumping into his Best Friend and partner, Mark Cook, who explains that a “Big Gun from DC is [there].” Following this, you are given a choice of what to say before you are called into your boss, Shanks, calls you into his study to meet this “Big Gun.” His name is Skinner, and he gives you the task of finding his two missing agents, Mulder and Scully...

The game has a Visual Novel-like format, giving you three choices at certain occasions that affect the game play and how people react to you. (A notable example being when you can chose what to say to X, and how he reacts.) These three choices are best described as “The X track” (Answers involving rage and careless responses), “Paranoid” (Answers that are worried or serious), and “Indifferent” (Answers that are apathetic). Depending on which you choose, the game can quickly devolve into a Conga of Nightmare Fuel and Paranoia Fuel.

Tropes used in The X-Files Game include:

Agent Mulder: Take another look at the trope name.
Agent Scully: Not as straight-forward as you might think; Scully is (Quite obviously) this, but so is Wilmore, judging by his reaction to the whole aliens thing...
Aw, Look -- They Really Do Love Each Other: Many scenes with Wilmore and Astadorian end in this. Especially after the explosion where they share their First Kiss.
Bad End: If you do the wrong thing at stake outs or don't react quickly enough, but also if you shoot people or act irresponsibly. (Ahem, Astadorian...)
Bittersweet Ending: Why else would Wilmore need the Stilleto again "soon?"
Bring My Brown Pants: A good idea. The Soundtrack alone is terrifying to some.
Brown Eyes: Wilmore has them. No cool powers, though.
The Charmer: Wilmore tries to be this. It's more funny than anything, though.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: This is one way to describe Cook, since he apparently went rogue for "Money!"
Crowning Moment of Funny: When Wilmore puts tape on his nose. Seriously, why?!
- Not to mention the fact that you can take pictures of and shoot people... the random Bad Endings are sometimes funny, but... not always.
  - “Yeah... it’s him.” “...Thank you.”
- Ever tried dinging the bell in the motel? Done it twice?
  - If you do it too much you'll actually get the "fired" bad end.
- Six Words: "He and Shanks... Should Have Babies."
- "That color looks lovely on you."
- If you choose to have the fight with Astadorian about who does what and storm off, you get fired.
- And the show in Mulder's room, even if it does make you jump.
Determinator: A normal agent would've point blank refused to continue when the aliens got involved, but Wilmore...
Dogged Nice Guy: Wilmore's best buddy Cook isn't the nicest guy on Earth.
Failure Is the Only Option: If you shoot Cook then the alien becomes you.. no exceptions... so you lose.
Five-Man Band: A strange one using the two FBI partners and Astadorian:
- The Hero: Craig Wilmore
- The Lancer: Mark Cook
- The Chick: Mary Astadorian
- The Big Guy: Fox Mulder
- The Smart Guy: Diane Scully
For the Evulz: And the money. But Cook's so jaded that he seems to enjoy giving his old best friend a completely undeserved beatdown.
Foreshadowing: Plenty, We first see Rouch quite early on, Cook's dialogue is full of it and X gives us a little too. Not to mention the book on aliens in Mulder's room.
Four-Philosophy Ensemble: Wilmore's the realist, Scully's the Cynisist, Mulder's the Idealist and Cook's Apathetic.
Heroic BSOD: The reason given if you shoot Wilmore is that he's got problems.
Idiot Hero: You can turn Wilmore into this.
Large Ham: Cook is this when he's not busy being one big foreshadowing.

Wilmore: Cover me!
Cook: (Enthusiastically) You Got it!

My God, What Have I Done?: Wilmore’s reaction when he learns that he indirectly caused his friend Jon Amis (the bloke from the crime lab) to get radiation poisoning.
Nightmare Fuel: straddles the line between this and Paranoia Fuel.
Paranoia Fuel: If you’re squeamish, don’t choose the “paranoid” or “serious” options too much.
Visual Novel: Imitates this.
Who Shot JFK??: The onsite doctor examining Wong thinks that aliens did.
Will They or Won't They?: A lot of tension between Astadorian and Wilmore is this.
The Woobie: Between all of the messages from his Ex-Wife (nice or not) the suicide notes you can read if you shoot Wilmore in a cutscene and the guy's partner kicking the poor bloke's stomach in you have to at least feel a little bad for Wilmore.
- Coupled with a bit of a Tear Jerker, if you've read his diary and know how it ends.
Wrong Genre Savvy: Astadorian, as it turns out, was way off. So was Cook, but he was lying anyway.