The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker Critic Reviews

The characters are interesting, and the psychological threads draw out the plot leaving you just as vulnerable as the patients your interviewing.

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker’s hook, for me, remains the need to take over as a psychiatrist. It’s not as easy as sitting comfortably and saying things like, “and how does that make you feel?” As Doctor Dekker’s replacement you are toeing the line between your patients’ sanity and insanity, having to decipher clues in their personality or stories to gain insight into what to ask. The supernatural, Cthulhu-centric story behind the game is also a shining point that has led me to finally break my hesitancy to read Lovecraft. Your own sanity comes into question.

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is a title for those who look for a new experience, enjoy mystery/horror stories and have a strong command of English. Obviously, complains about the way to ask questions are normal, but we aren´t dealing with an AI like Siri, and, despite the 1.600 dialogues, we need to follow some keywords to elaborate the questions. 5 Acts later, we are not sure if we have played the game or the game has played with us.

The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker puts a ton of work into the acting and presentation of the characters but lacks in the actual gameplay to make it stand out as a video game.

In conclusion, The Infectiousness Madness of Doctor Dekker is an admirable attempt at a niche horror title, marred only by the U.I. of the particular version I played. I’m already invested in their next game, I’ll just make sure I pick that up on the Switch.

While action is thin on the ground and the performances gave me flashback to my Drama GCSE, I enjoyed my time on the OPM sofa staring at Doctor Dekker's couch, refreshed by its willingness to lean in so intently to its own silliness and B-movie aesthetic.

To its credit, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker does work far better than it should given how much the randomness holds it back, but it could have been significantly better with a more focused storyline.

There is certainly an audience this game will appeal to, but for me personally, I was left tired and listless after each of my half hour sessions (I’d probably make a terrible psychiatrist). Also, 95% of the game takes place in the same room with the same backing ambient track that slowly worms its way into your brain after hours on repeat.