 It seems fitting that
I review the precursor to Mode, having played and reviewed it only
a couple of months ago. Very kindly, Jeff Green,
the creator and wunderkind responsible for this game, sent me a copy
through the questionable international post, not once but twice,
owing to an error in the copying process. This is not a commercially
available game so Jeff’s kindness was not for financial gain
and I thank him. Find out more about Jeff’s amazing career
in the Canadian media world from television to radio to multimedia
here: http://home.achilles.net/~jgreen/author.html.
 It is obvious that Midnight
Stranger is the stomping ground for Mode. Every feature in Mode is the child of a learning process begun
in Midnight Stranger. The game is structured the same way, with a
limited story involving exploration through conversation. The game
utilizes the mood bar, resulting in a complex “choose your
own adventure” style where your interactions decide how your
conversational partner responds to you. If you are uncertain about
how this can work, there is a “mockup for an experimental online
interactive dialog generator” on the bottom of the author page
above: http://home.achilles.net/~jgreen/author.html.
 I recommend that any player
interested in this game play it prior to Mode because it is inferior
in every way. Remember that this game
was created and released in 1994 compared with Mode’s 1996
and larger production values. Everything is murky in Midnight
Stranger.
The sound is variable in its loudness and quality. Graphical quality
especially pales next to its successor. Even acting is far more uneven,
understandable given the actors were all friends of the creators.
What story existed in Mode is but a wisp in this game. What made
the 1996 release more interesting was an underlying mystery in the
party. This town, Ottawa, seems to be boring. There are characters
that are unusual but they fail to be interesting.
Some degree of superficiality
pervades this title. In every instance, I found that just responding
positively resulted in a good result
in interaction. While this makes sense in the real world (i.e. most
people respond to positive interaction positively and conversely),
it limits the gameplay depth. I am sure that there is some variability
in the game but I didn’t experience it myself. In Mode, differences
in interaction were very obvious and effects of differing interactional
styles were far reaching.
 I was surprised to find
a disclaimer at the beginning of the game warning of adult themes.
Certainly, those who go weak at the knees
in the presence of strong language or alternative sexual orientations
will find much to complain about. The language didn’t really
add an element of reality to the game at all-I found the characters
in Mode far more believable.
My conclusion about the
gameplay was that each of the characters you meet has a story to
tell. Only one story can be told each time
you play the game. When a successful conversation tree is reached,
the game concludes suggesting that you have met your “midnight
stranger”. According to Jeff’s website, there are alternative
endings which can be downloaded here: http://home.achilles.net/~jgreen/midnightsave.html.
For some reason, some dialogs never seem to end, resulting in loops
that play repeatedly where characters interact as though they’ve
never met you before. This was confusing and frustrating. In an interview
with Gloria Stern (on the website), Jeff says himself that “I
ended up getting much more drawn to the reality simulation aspects
of the production, and downplayed the story elements dramatically”.
 Though I didn’t discover these storylines, J. Yellowlees Douglas,
in her review (also on the website) cites that stories to be discovered
include “a mysterious, possibly extra-terrestrial object, a
dynamite-packing ex-con with revenge on his mind, and a string of
people who appear to have lost and found the object”. Maybe
I’ll have to explore this again because this certainly does hold intrigue for me.
 On the technical side,
I had a few gripes that many may consider minor quibbles. Similar
to other areas, these were fixed for the
follow up. Strangely, but characteristic of early Macromedia Director
programs, the game defaults to the CD-ROM drive when loading. Obviously,
it is impossible to save on the CD-ROM drive, so why make it default
to that drive for loading? More irritating still, saved games are
not shown when saving making it a guessing game as to whether you’ve
already used any particular name for your current game. Thankfully,
the names are visible when loading.
Interestingly, this game
was developed into an online game, Online Stranger, which was certainly
one of the first attempts at online
play, especially within the adventure plus area. The site is no longer
around but the blurb on Jeff’s page stated that it targeted
the “slowest of modems” (being 1993) and “consisted
of small still frames and text with which you could interact using
the Mood Bar”. In 1996, Club Mode was created in follow up
to Mode, which featured five three-episode chapters with more than
a dozen characters!
 There was to be a third in the series, Human
Agency, but this did
not see the light of day.
Midnight Stranger was a great disappointment for me. I give it a
D+.
Any inquiries about Mode or Midnight
Stranger are best directed
to Jeff Green who is affable and a treat to
correspond with.
Final Grade: D+
System Requirements:
Macintosh
- 68030 Color Macintosh
- 25 MHz processor
- 8 MB RAM
- 8-bit 13" monitor
Windows
- Windows 3.1
- 386 SX processor
- 8 MB RAM
- 30 MB hard disk space
- SVGA display
- SoundBlaster or 100%
compatible sound card
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