The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope trailer shows new improvements since Man of Medan

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope has nearly reached its just-in-time-for-Halloween release date, and a new trailer shows what the developers have been up to since the last game.

Little Hope is a direct followup to Man of Medan, and in the grand tradition of horror anthologies it tells its own story set within a constant framing device (in this case, conversations with the enigmatic Curator). Most horror anthologies don't keep you waiting a year between each chapter of the story, but Supermassive - which also made Until Dawn - used that time to make some improvements to the fundamentals.

For instance, character's fates won't come down to surprise button-mashing quite so often. As the trailer teases, you may have to make a grisly choice between who to save and then live (or die) with the consequences. Hopefully this makes for more emotional gut punches and fewer "oh I guess I was supposed to press Square repeatedly but she's dead now so whatever" moments. There's more camera control in wide-open exploration scenes as well. You can read more about these lessons in episodic horror game design in our Little Hope preview from earlier this year.

The trailer also teases some of the secrets you'll be able to find as you play Little Hope, along with the special features they unlock. If you want to see Will Poulter from Midsommar and Bandersnatch running around with a camera attached to his face, you'll need to keep an eye out for creepy artifacts. In the game, I mean. But real life ones might help too?

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is set to arrive on PC, PS4, and Xbox One on October 30.

Until Dawn earned a spot on our list of the best horror games, but we'll have to wait and see if Little Hope can do the same.