When full-motion video meets deep-sea nightmares.
When you hear the name Wales Interactive, one thing comes to mind immediately: FMV games. These folks have become one of the most recognizable names in the genre, with a library that deserves recognition. They’ve carved out their own little niche by reviving FMV storytelling in an era where most studios left it behind in the ’90s.
Their projects may not be blockbuster AAA productions, but they’ve built a reputation for trying different tones and settings while making FMV interactive in unique ways. Dead Reset is their latest dive, and it takes the studio underwater (literally) into the world of sci-fi horror.
Dead Reset feels like an homage to the Alien franchise, with inspiration drawn from Ridley Scott’s films. But instead of outer space, this game pulls you into the depths of the ocean, where an alien-like parasite is on the hunt for your small crew.
It’s not subtle about its influences, but it does carry enough tension to stand its own ground. Like most FMV projects, this is more of an interactive film than a traditional game. They maintain that balance between taking inspiration and outright being a copycat.
The story is straightforward but engaging: you’re stuck in a research facility beneath the sea, and something parasitic has made its way into the crew. Dead Reset puts you in the shoes of Cole Mason, a former surgeon who wakes up in a strange underground facility with no memory of how he got there.
Within minutes, he’s forced at gunpoint to perform emergency surgery on a woman. But something is terribly wrong. A parasite is inside the patient’s abdomen. And before Cole can do much, the creature bursts out and massacres everyone in the room, including Cole himself.
That doesn’t mean it’s over for the story; it’s just the beginning. At the beginning, Cole is still very much alive when he suddenly regains consciousness. He’s stuck in a time loop, doomed to relive the horrific scenario over and over.
This premise will immediately grab you by the collar and make you live through the horrors you see on screen. It’s an excellent setup for interactive horror. As you go forward, the game skillfully employs plot tricks to change the beginning point of each loop, so you’re not really recreating the same events every time.
Instead, you go ahead slowly, learning from each death and affecting how other characters see you. Imagine Alien, but with steel hallways and water pressure instead of aliens. In fact, there are scenes so on the nose that you’ll feel déjà vu if you’ve ever seen the original Alien.
That being said, the familiarity isn’t entirely a bad thing. Sometimes, leaning into a well-worn trope can make things instantly relatable. You already know the rules and the stakes. Where Dead Reset succeeds is in its atmosphere. The idea of isolation deep under the ocean carries its own sense of doom. There’s no sunlight, no escape, and only a handful of people you can trust… or can you?
It’s not Shakespearean drama, but it does enough to keep you curious about who will survive and how. And because this is an FMV game, your choices shape which of those characters make it through alive, at least to a certain extent.
Dead Reset tries to make you feel like you have control. As with most FMV titles, you’re basically watching a movie more than playing a game, at least in the traditional sense. The game gives you moments where you decide who to side with, which path to take, or whether to dig deeper into lore through environmental objectives.
However, while it looks like you have dozens of decisions, the reality is that only two real choices affect the endings. One comes about halfway through the vents sequence, where you decide which character you’ll follow. The other lands at the climax, with a final decision that splits the story into one of four possible outcomes.
Everything else is essentially flavor text. You might see different scenes or uncover a line or two of backstory, but the overarching plot remains unchanged. The game tracks your decisions and even has a relationship meter for how each of the five other characters feels about you.
There’s also a menu showing tasks or objectives based on paths you’ve discovered and a counter of how many of the 300+ scenes you’ve watched. After finishing once, you’ll realize how many scenes and alternate outcomes you didn’t see yet.
The game does make multiple runs more manageable with a smart skip feature. You don’t need to sit through every cutscene again if you’ve already seen it, which saves a lot of frustration. Replayability is baked into the design, since achievements and endings encourage you to revisit different routes. Still, once you realize how few choices actually matter, replaying starts to feel sluggish.
This isn’t a puzzle or combat-heavy game at all. Don’t expect to be solving logic riddles or pulling off quick-time events. If you know the FMV genre, you know what you are in it for. You’d more likely enjoy the game, grabbing a bowl of popcorn than an actual controller.
The closest the game gets is in the vents sequence, where a character must evade the creature, flashlight in hand. It’s suspenseful, but not as engaging; then again, it’s an FMV game. But you’re mostly just watching it play out.
The “puzzle” parts are really more about putting together tale information from optional activities, such as using retinal scanners or looking into Buddy’s computer. Those times seem more like filler than real gaming. They contribute to the story, but they don’t change the conclusion or open a hidden route. Dead Reset is about creating the illusion of interactivity rather than delivering depth.
The downside is that when the actors lean into high-drama sequences, it can border on overacting. Fear is hard to sell in FMV because it lives or dies on how convincing the performances are, and not all cast members pull it off. Some moments had me invested; others had me rolling my eyes in cringe.
Dead Reset doesn’t have “graphics” in the traditional sense, since you’re watching filmed actors in real sets. But production value matters, and here it’s a mixed bag. The setting actually looks great. Dim corridors, blinking monitors, and industrial steel doors all sell the idea that you’re underwater. It feels like the kind of game where paranoia has a place to shine.
The creature design, however, is where things stumble. Instead of terrifying, the parasite and its victims look like something pulled from an ’80s B-movie. It’s cheesy and a little cheap. These little DIY set pieces added to the charm at times.
However, this clashes with the otherwise serious tone. The game wants you to feel dread, but when the monster looks like a Discord mod, it takes away from the tension. If there’s one area where Dead Reset really nails the atmosphere, it’s the sound design. The soundtrack leans into horror with uneasy synths and tense BGM.
Voice delivery is uneven, as mentioned earlier, but the audio mix itself is clean. Dialogue is easy to follow, background effects aren’t overpowering, and music swells at just the right moments to raise your pulse. It’s not award-winning audio, but it does its job.
Dead Reset is a strange game to pin down. On the one hand, it’s fun for brief periods of time and was obviously produced by a group of people who adore sci-fi horror. It works as a setting, there is suspense, and for $10–15, it gives you a few hours of pleasure. It’s also extremely generic, however, since it borrows a lot from Alien without contributing anything new.
The acting swings between decent and laughably over-the-top, and the creature design borders on parody when it’s supposed to be scary. Worst of all, the “choices” that FMV games live or die by are mostly smoke and mirrors.
If you’re already a fan of FMV titles, you’ll probably find Dead Reset worth checking out. It’s short and scratches that interactive-movie itch. If you’re new to the genre, though, this might not be the best place to start—it doesn’t showcase FMV at its strongest. Still, I can’t say I regret playing it. It made me laugh, and it kept me entertained for a handful of hours. Sometimes that’s enough.
