The Gallery – A New FMV Game Releasing On Consoles, PC & In Cinemas In April
Full Motion Videos, or FMVs were penned as the future of video games back in the late 80s. By the late 90s, they’d have all but died out but with the advent of high-def gaming and a reduction in costs to make films, FMVs are coming back in a big way. Enter, The Gallery, an interactive game from Aviary Studios that is not only seeing a release across all consoles, PC and mobile devices, but is also heading to the Silver Screen. Let’s have a look and see what it’s all about.
Starring George Blagden (Versailles and Vikings) & Anna Popplewell (The Chronicles of Narnia), The Gallery is a thrilling combination of hostage thriller and social drama set in two time periods – 1981 & 2021. Filmed last February and March over a 6 week period, the game aims to immerse players in two time periods of political, social and cultural significance in UK history.
The Gallery is written and directed by Paul Raschid, a prolific filmmaker that has previously developed interactive movies The Complex & Five Dates in collaboration with Wales Interactive. The supporting cast have also been confirmed as Kara Tointon (Mr. Selfridge and Eastenders); Rebecca Root (The Queen’s Gambit); Richard Fleeshman (The Sandman and Coronation Street), Shannon Tarbet (Killing Eve and Love Sarah) and Fehinti Balogun (I May Destroy You). The trailer for the game can be found below:
Along with the game’s release, the UK will see The Gallery release across cinemas up and down the country. As you can see from the trailer above, the decisions will be taken by the crowd waving their hands on what they want to see in what should be a fun couple of hours. With 150 options to explore it means that each screening could provide a different outcome.
FMVs are on the rise and have certainly come a long way from games like Night Trap & Corpse Killer, and with bigger budgets and known actors heading into this genre, it’s about time this niche genre became more well known and it’s exciting to see The Gallery releasing in cinemas.
The Gallery will launch in April across PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC, iOS & Android devices. The UK cinema release times/dates will be announced closer to release.