Supermassive Games has been bringing horror to the mainstream with their Dark Pictures Anthology that reportedly will offer a full eight titles before the series is completed.
What began on the PlayStation with Until Dawn that had players making complex and difficult decisions through a twisted reality to ensure that eight people can survive, and here’s a spoiler, until dawn as they bizarrely meet in a mountain-side cabin a year after two friends disappear.
Nobody has a fully-functioning brain in horror, this is well known.
On the back of the successful debut of Until Dawn in 2015, Supermassive decided to bring horror a bit further with the Dark Pictures anthology, thus far including Man of Medan and the newest release (which came on October 29) Little Hope.
Yet these titles aren’t your standard iteration and romps through horror.
The largest separation is that The Dark Pictures Anthology is built to be played with a friend in a cooperative bout; players are consistently separated and they play off of each other’s actions without sending information about what is occurring to their companion.
This results in fantastic moments of players unknowingly playing against each other in desperate white-knuckle moments filled with QTEs.
This being said, there are absolutely moments in the series that frankly pales in comparison to Until Dawn.
Happy #Halloween everyone! 🎃 pic.twitter.com/X0ZiFYCcSl
— Supermassive Games (@SuperMGames) October 31, 2020
Man of Medan offered a brilliant environment that shows its hand far too early to players, with help from the Curator (even when you ask for no hints) that actually spoils a large portion of tension before it has a moment to reach the zenith on its own.
There are still brilliant points within the horror series, but it cripples itself before it can reach full steam.
Little Hope has less in terms of spoiling itself early, but the scares arguably come few and far between outside of the standard jump-scares, finding itself a bit more comfortable with an unsettling atmosphere that dabbles into the supernatural.
We told you something wicked was coming… This #Halloween, join Mary for some treats and a lot of tricks in #LittleHope 🎃 pic.twitter.com/B12J8p833T
— The Dark Pictures (@TheDarkPictures) October 30, 2020
Neither is necessarily a poor experience; the gameplay is very clear and allows for even those a bit more inexperienced with gaming to get their hands dirty, offers a cohesive plot and the character animations are second only to legendarily animated titles such as Final Fantasy XV.
That being said, and there are still a rumored six more titles to be making their way into the Anthology; more than enough time for Supermassive to hone their technique that readily brings some bonafide horror while offering the most unique cooperative experience that has been seen in quite some time.
If you’re a fan of horror, you owe it to yourself to take a peek at what Supermassive Games has been working on.