The most ambitious projects from Supermassive Games

The Dark Pictures Anthology: An interactive movie where you are the director

The Dark Pictures Anthology is an anthology that combines several games with different characters, places and times of action, and themes. However, they also have a lot in common: a non-linear story, the possibility to kill all the characters by their actions, and a cinematic presentation, due to which the titles are great for a single passage and “viewing” in a large company. 

We will tell you about this line of horror games in detail. If you are more interested in gambling, like Teen Patti, you will be interested in the information on the link.

Supermassive Games

British studio Supermassive Games has been working on games since 2009. At first, the team was engaged in developing and supporting fun for children, and its first relatively “big” title was Doctor Who: The Eternity Clock in the Doctor Who franchise.

It continued until 2015 when the studio released the PlayStation 4-exclusive interactive horror Until Dawn, which laid the groundwork for The Anthology. Here the developers implemented the ideas that began to pass from one horror game to another: the branched narrative, the influence of player decisions on events (and many choices had an effect not immediately, but much later), and the lack of characters with “story armor”: in the course of the story you could lose all the characters, as well as you could bring everyone to the finale.

Man of Medan

Platforms: 

  • Windows; 
  • PlayStation 4; 
  • Xbox One. 

The game makers thought about creating the series after the success of Until Dawn. The urban legend of the ghost ship Ourang Medan, which was allegedly found with a dead crew on board, was taken as a source of inspiration, and according to eyewitness accounts, the faces of the dead caught the grimace of horror.

Man of Medan sends players and the main characters, represented by five divers captured by pirates, to this ship. As the story progresses, the characters must confront the bandits and deal with the “ghosts” that inhabit the ship.

The project’s gameplay is an interactive movie with a choice of lines in the dialogues, QTE, and simple puzzles. Depending on what the player says or does, whether he completes the QTE or fails, and what relationships he builds between the characters, the scenario moves in one direction or another. Notably, silence or inaction in the game sometimes leads to a better result than a misplaced phrase or impulsive action.

It considers the high probability of losing all the heroes the developers left in the game hints – “dark pictures” that an attentive player can discover. It is a short clip warning of the possible fate that awaits the character; owning the information can avoid tragedy. Other clues are given by a mysterious Guardian, a feeling that moves from one game to another and comments on the player’s actions.

Another feature of the game, which influenced its popularity, was the possibility of cooperative play, both in the network mode, where players followed in parallel, controlling different characters and in the local way “Movie Party,” in which gamers chose characters in advance and passed “their” episodes, passing the controller to each other. It made Man of Medan a great co-op option.

After the release, the game sold well (although it was inferior to Until Dawn), and critics modestly praised it, noting the excellent acting and the non-linear story but also scolding the slowness of the characters and the torn presentation of the story. Meanwhile, a sequel has already been announced.

Little Hope 

Platforms: 

  • Windows; 
  • PlayStation 4; 
  • Xbox One. 

In the sequel, the writers focused on the stories of witch hunts in the United States in the seventeenth century. The setting is the ghost town of Little Hope, where the five characters find themselves after a car accident. Moving between the present and the past, the heroes need to solve the town’s mystery and not get into the clutches of creepy demons that meet on their way.

The gameplay of Little Hope doesn’t differ from that of Man of Medan, but for a couple of new mechanics and some improvements that were made due to the criticism of the last part. Thus, the speed of the movement was increased, QTEs were simplified, and the camera became more accessible.

The story, inspired by the Silent Hill series, the Witcher and the Omen movies, and the gameplay, more player-friendly and forgiving of mistakes, was liked by critics. However, some were dissatisfied with the plot decisions and the finale. Nevertheless, little Hope received higher scores than the first edition of the anthology.

House of Ashes

Platforms:

  • Windows;
  • PlayStation 4;
  • PlayStation 5;
  • Xbox one;
  • Xbox Series X/S.

The third part of the series follows the legend of the Mesopotamian king Naram-Suen, cursed by the gods, and films such as Alien, Predator, and The Descent. The game takes place in Iraq, where American Marines are forced to team up with an Iraqi soldier after they fall into an underground cave inhabited by bloodthirsty monsters.

In addition to the new story and characters, House of Ashes has received some gameplay changes. The camera was untied from the heroes, allowing the player to twirl it as they please. QTE difficulty settings have appeared, and the gameplay has added dynamics, making the game more intense than in previous parts. In addition, the plot has become less linear, and gamers have the opportunity, traditional for the franchise, to ruin all the characters with their actions.

House of Ashes was praised in the same way as Little Hope: reviewers welcomed the innovations in the gameplay, although they were criticized for the shift in emphasis from horror to action, weak facial animation, and uninteresting characters.

The Devil in Me

Platforms: 

  • Windows;
  • PlayStation 4;
  • PlayStation 5;
  • Xbox one;
  • Xbox Series X/S.

The Devil in Me closed the first season of the anthology. This time, the focus is on the story of the first US serial killer, G.G. Holmes, who operated at the end of the 19th century. The documentary crew receives an invitation to a mansion replicating the maniac’s “Murder Castle.” Still, it does not even assume that the work on the show will turn into a game of survival.

With the release of the new part, The Dark Pictures Anthology series makes a slight nod to adventure games: now it is not only a walking simulator, where only dialogues and QTEs are interactive, but also a kind of adventure game with inventory, items that can be used, and simple puzzles.

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