Screenshots & trailers
Review sentiment over time
Weekly positive-review rate (green) and review volume (bars). Dashed lines mark significant patches; the amber line is the start of the current scoring window. Hover the dots to see what drove a dip or a jump.
How this score was computed
The VGC Score is a weighted blend on a press-comparable 0-100 quality scale. Steam approval rates are first calibrated (95% positive on Steam ≈ 89.5 quality, since Steam approval skews high). Press and tracked creator reviews each count ~2x a player review and share one cap against player evidence (creator buy/skip calls pool into an approval rate, calibrated like Steam approval); all-time sentiment is capped and halved (it's context, not verdict); reviews of the current build carry the most weight when a fresh patch anchors the window; and a 'typical game' prior keeps small samples from pegging the scale. Because press reviews and Metacritic user aggregates describe the launch build, their weight decays as the game ages (3-year half-life after a 1-year grace). That's how a game that launched rough can outgrow its old reception once updates win players over. Reviews under 2h playtime (the refund window), non-Steam activations, and free copies are downweighted.
| Component | Positive | Quality (0-100) | Weight (pseudo-reviews) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Press reviews (OpenCritic) | – | 73 | 8 |
| All-time Steam reviews | 82% | 76 | 308 |
| Metacritic user ratings | – | – | 0 |
| Post-patch Steam reviews (trust-weighted) | 65% | 63 | 1 |
| Calibration prior (typical game) | – | 72 | 50 |
Scoring window: last 30 days (no significant patch detected) · 3 reviews sampled · 3 total reviews in window · weighted 1.8 up / 1 down · computed 3h ago · full methodology →
Press & Creators reviews (23)
Individual verdicts from outlets we track: scored reviews first, most trusted outlets first among them. The small badge is each outlet's trust score: how well its scoring history aligns with players.
- 65
“Doctor Dekker offers a lot of content, built in a way that allows you to piece an intense mystery together on your own, but with some clunky bits that let the whole game down.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“While the central conceit sounds promising as an FMV experience, The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker fails to find a consistent tone or fully engage the player in its story. It offers a couple of nice ideas and the odd smile, but if you don't care about the central mystery, you're left with madness, and the disparate threads never weave together in a satisfying way. The two ominous notes of the soundtrack (only a mild exaggeration) are left to supply tension, and with The Bunker and Late Shift showing how the genre can be relevant and entertaining in 2018, it's hard to recommend this over the alternatives.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“A solid game that is let down in it's final minutes as it can't find the right way to conclude it's story. However the experience and is excellent and worth playing through to see.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker takes a great stab at presenting a modern FMV murder mystery game.”
read full review ↗ - 70
“It’s actually been a struggle to figure out how to score this game because in general it has left me conflicted. On the one hand the acting is very good, the individual patients have some fascinating elements to their stories, and it turns out there’s even some solid motivation to play through more than once. One the other your main purpose, finding the murderer, may be one of the least interesting things to the experience and you can find yourself in a weird place where the prompts can almost make you feel like you’re on rails but at the same time trying to pose your own questions is often aggravating. If you’re down for a weird experience with some strange people, opportunities to explore some possibilities, and quite a bit of the unexpected it may be worth a shot. If not, I’d say the likes of The Bunker and Late Shift are better at being more traditional experiences.”
read full review ↗ - 50
“Although The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker does a decent enough job at building intrigue from act to act, its repetitive nature and random approach to the murder mystery format ultimately serve to diminish what could have been a highly enjoyable detective simulator. Not only do interrogations begin to lose their lustre rather quickly, with only a few standout patients maintaining their quality until the end, the killer being chosen at random at the start of each playthrough makes for an incohesive narrative that relies more on its gimmick than a genuine attention to the nuances of the mystery genre to pull off its story. 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.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“Listing actor names in a game review may seem odd, but The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is more performance than gameplay. Of course, anyone looking for a fast-paced shmup should pass, but fans of narrative-driven interactives should schedule a session with Dekker. Just remember to bring a USB keyboard or you might go a bit mad yourself.”
read full review ↗ - 100
“The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is an immersive masterpiece with a stellar cast and a brilliant script which deserves to be lauded for all the right reasons. With the replay value and the ridiculous cheap price for how great the game is you would need a good reason to not buy this game. And when you do you will sit back in awe of how good games can be.”
read full review ↗ - 90
“The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is an extremely polished text adventure that you absolutely must experience. Its characters can invoke a deep curiosity that only tunnelling down that rabbit hole will ever satisfy, and the multiple endings and randomly selected elements help flesh a game in a genre that's usually a "one and done" affair. At only £6.99 or your regional equivalent and having very low hardware requirements, there is little excuse not to dive into the madness.”
read full review ↗ - 80
“The Infectious Madness of Dr. Dekker is an immersive role-playing experience that manages to overcome its frustrating language limitations with excellent atmosphere, acting, and interactive storytelling.”
read full review ↗ - 85
“The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is an interesting full motion video release on Nintendo Switch with a ton of content to experience. All the actors who portray Doctor Dekker's patients do a fantastic job and help to elevate the game's narrative and the mystery at hand. If you're a fan of the full motion video revival, then you should check out The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker today!”
read full review ↗ - 80
“The Infectious Madness of Doctor Dekker is a fantastically compelling, suspenseful slow burn that shows just what can be done with a medium that, for years, has been misused and misunderstood. Look past its clunky parser and you'll be in for one hell of a head trip.”
read full review ↗
Pure Nintendo
Nintendo Life
Kinglink Reviews
VGChartz
Nindie Spotlight
Cubed3
NintendoWorldReport
FingerGuns
TheSixthAxis
TechRaptor
PS3Blog.net
GameSpew…and 11 more tracked reviews.
Patch history
- 1.07 patch - Jaya, Jaya, Jaya...Nov 22, 2017
- 1.07 patch - Jaya, Jaya, Jaya...Nov 22, 2017
- 1.06 patch - The "brkn kyb8rd" update!Oct 18, 2017
- 1.06 patch - The "brkn kyb8rd" update!Oct 18, 2017
- 1.05 PatchSep 13, 2017
- 1.05 PatchSep 13, 2017
- 1.04 PatchJun 27, 2017
- 1.04 PatchJun 27, 2017
- 1.03 updateJun 20, 2017significant · resets scoring window
- 1.03 updateJun 20, 2017
- 1.02 updateJun 6, 2017
- 1.02 updateJun 6, 2017
- 1.01 updateMay 26, 2017significant · resets scoring window
- 1.01 updateMay 26, 2017