The Devil in Me is brilliant. It's frustrating. Slightly irritating. Grating. Shocking. Boring. Exciting. Amazing. And terrifying. It has more ups and downs than the 1893 Chicago World's Fair ferris wheel, and packs more jump scares than a mid-2000s horror flick. It is the fourth and final installment of Supermassive Games' The Dark Pictures Anthology season one, and, for my money, it's the best and most accomplished of the lot so far. It's far from perfect, but The Devil in Me achieves what it sets out to do – tell a story-driven, non-linear interactive drama, where no one's life is guaranteed, and players are burdened with the illusion of choice at every turn. 

Story and visuals and pacing and character dynamics are all things reviewers have rightly scrutinized while offering their thoughts on The Devil in Me. But one thing it cannot be marked down on is creative risk-taking – and this, especially in today's fiercely competitive climate, is something that should be cherished and protected at all costs.

True horror

This might sound like I'm being overly romantic about a game that's seemingly divided opinion across the board, but I think it's valid. Against the runaway success of games like Elden Ring, the stature of God of War Ragnarok, the rolling achievements of Fortnite and PUBG Battlegrounds, and the pretty much guaranteed playerbases of everything from Modern Warfare 2, to Warzone 2, and Pokemon Scarlet and Violet, I think it's safe to say standing out from the crowd these days can't be easy. 

The Devil in Me introduces a handful of new movement mechanics that are missing from its forerunners (playable characters can now run, jump, squeeze through tight spaces, and vault over obstacles for example), but for the most part it sticks to its guns. This is a narrative game in the mold of the developers' previous outings – the likes of Until Dawn, The Quarry, and, of course, the previous Dark Pictures entries – that marks an evolution of the themes and core concepts of its lineage. In doing so, The Devil in Me feels suitably uncompromising, never trying to be something it's not, while simultaneously striving to improve and evolve on the style Supermassive is now so renowned for.  

All of which takes guts, especially in a genre so well-served at the moment. In this year alone, the survival horror space has been blessed with Ghostwire Tokyo, Martha is Dead, Dying Light 2, and the reworked The Last of Us Part 1 among many others; with The Callisto Protocol set for release in early December. In structure and execution terms, something as niche as The Devil in Me could have pivoted to suit a wider, more action game-inclined, or more classic horror-leaning audience, but it didn't. And I think it deserves credit for that.

Stand alone

When I previewed the climax of the series' first chapter earlier this year, I said The Devil in Me could be the best of The Dark Pictures Anthology yet. Having now played the game in its entirety, I stand by that claim, and reckon Supermassive is improving its storytelling prowess with each passing entry. The characters here are more credible, and thus more endearing, likable and unlikable, annoying and everything else real human beings can be in films and books and video games, and your decisions here appear to carry more weight than ever before. They probably don't – the story will ultimately unfold in similar ways, despite who lives or dies – but that's again credit to the game for making it seem so. 

I've said this before, but when The Dark Pictures Anthology gets it right, its ability to make the mundane seem interesting is unmatched. Being able to stir intrigue in narrative lulls is infinitely more difficult than doing so in climax, and Supermassive's ability to do just that is something that often flies under the radar. Regardless of how The Devil in Me might rank in the pantheon of modern horror games, its unbridled desire to play with creative conventions is its biggest quality – much similar to Pentiment, Immortality and Scorn this year; and the likes of Return of the Obra Dinn, What Remains of Edith Finch, and Kentucky Route Zero in years gone by. There's a place for video games of all shapes and sizes whatever your taste, but as the biggest series appear to get bigger, and as live-service games continue to grow and dominate, risk-taking nowadays seems more precarious, yet equally more important now than ever before.  

To this end, staying true to itself is not only a massive achievement for The Devil in Me and Supermassive itself, but it bodes well for whatever the future holds for The Dark Pictures Anthology moving forward.

Boooo! Check out the best horror games scaring us in 2022

Supermassive Games' The Dark Pictures Anthology will continue with a second season which kicks off with a new title called Directive 8020. 

As reported by Gematsu, developer Supermassive Games is continuing its horror anthology series The Dark Pictures with a second season. At the end of the latest installment, The Devil in Me, players are apparently shown a teaser for the next game in the series called Directive 8020, which will officially mark the start of season 2. 

The Dark Pictures Anthology series started back in 2019 with Man of Medan. Just like in Supermassive's previous games, Until Dawn and The Quarry, players take control of a group of characters who are in the middle of various spooky scenarios and whose decisions affect how the game plays out. Since then, we've had a number of other installments including Little Hope and House of Ashes - all of which have featured a star-studded cast including Jessie Buckley, Ashley Tisdale, Will Poulter, and more. 

We've known that a second season of The Dark Pictures was "definitely" on the way since earlier this year. In an interview with GamesRadar+, Tom Heaton (director of The Devil in Me) said that "Season 2 is coming for definite" and that some elements of the first season will "carry forth" into the next. There hasn't been anything else revealed about season 2 just yet but what we do know is that "Season 2 will be recognizably Dark Pictures games," meaning we shouldn't worry about the future of the series feeling too different. 

If you just can't wait to explore more of Supermassive's horror catalogue, the good news is that The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me is literally out tomorrow, November 18. We got the chance to preview the game earlier this year which is when features writer Joe Donnelly called it: "The best of The Dark Pictures Anthology yet."

Looking for other spooky recommendations? Take a look at our best horror games list for inspiration. 

When The Dark Pictures Anthology gets it right, its ability to make the mundane seem interesting is unmatched. In The Devil in Me, the season finale to Supermassive Games' anthology series that's due next month, that's never been truer. Because more so than in any other genre, horror games that deal in tension and suspense need low points to accentuate their highs – but only by making those less thrilling moments intriguing can they hope to hold the attention of their players. 

In The Quarry, Supermassive's last standalone release, a spiritual successor to 2015's Until Dawn, GamesRadar+ Senior Guides Coordinator Leon Hurley reckoned that its pacing was off, despite the game being fun overall. Having gone hands-on with The Devil in Me for just over an hour, though, pacing here feels like one of the game's strongest points. 

Heating up

My time with The Devil in Me starts a little into proceedings. I'm caught up with a brief recap of events to this point – a crew of young, ambitious filmmakers working under a middle-aged boss who's determined (but is yet) to find commercial acclaim have received a mysterious phone call inviting them to a replica of 'Murder Castle', the hotel once owned by American serial killer H.H. Holmes. Spending the night in a building with a well-documented criminal past, and shooting a documentary about the experience is a pretty firm basis for horror, but, like previous Dark Pictures Anthology entries, much of the game's tension builds through dialogue that uncovers the differences and sticking points among its playable protagonists. 

Mark and Katie, for example, appear to have a romantic past that has implications for their working relationship. Erin is an overworked sound engineer intern who's frustrated by the fact she's treated as her boss Charlie's personal assistant. And, early on, we learn that Charlie himself has hidden the fact that his company, Lonnit Entertainment, is in serious financial trouble from the rest of the group. As we've come to expect from these 'interactive dramas', how these relationships unfold is often steered by the player – we're regularly allowed to choose how one character replies to another, the tone of said replies, and, as things eventually start to heat up, who one character might choose to let live or die in particularly gruesome situations. 

Even during my short time spent with The Devil in Me, one of those situations popped up in typically ghastly fashion – but I was just as taken by first discovering the hotel's creepy animatronic bar man; by watching Charlie fret when his cigarette packet got jammed in the machine; when Charlie caught Mark and Katie bitching about him, as they thought he was out of earshot; and when Mark evoked his inner parkour athlete to retrieve a balcony key in order to get some decent establishing shots for their film.  These small insights into each character's persona help grow tension, but the latter set-piece also served to show off some of The Devil in Me's new mechanics. 

Playable characters can now run, jump, squeeze through tight spaces, and vault over obstacles, which in this instance saw Mark moving shelves in a library to create a makeshift bridge between crumbling catwalks, in a physical puzzle that was way more Resident Evil than The Dark Pictures Anthology. Other similar conundrums I came across during my playthrough included hacking a keypad to access a locked room, and rewiring a fuse box to restore power after a black out.  

Tooled up

An inventory system also means players can carry and use items to help them overcome certain quandaries, giving The Devil in Me more of an adventure game feel over its forerunners. I had Charlie cracking a locked antique cash register with a business card at one point, for example, while later on I got to help Erin track down the source of creepy noises down one The Shining-esque hotel corridor using her directional microphone.  

By the time that first inevitable murder occurred, I was ready for it, but, more importantly, I was fully-invested in this gang's tale. Don't get me wrong, one of the main reasons the horror genre is so appealing to so many people is the fact death is ever-present. This couldn't be truer of Supermassive's games, but my lasting impression of a short time spent with The Devil in Me isn't pondering how I'll save these characters from a roving serial killer, it's how I'll eventually work the story in certain characters' favors, because I just can't imagine willingly leading them to their deaths. To me, that's credit to the choice-heavy rules Supermassive has established in its games, and the real-world performances of the actors as they appear in-game. 

Given the sheer volume of narrative options, and the degree of choice these games offer, spending just over an hour with one isn't nearly enough time to form concrete opinions. That said, this is the most I've been taken by any of The Dark Pictures Anthology installments so far, and I've clearly barely scratched the surface of The Devil in Me. With the full anthology set to cover eight games, The Devil in Me marks its halfway point and the so-called finale of its first season. And if I can be so taken with its low-key minutiae, then I'm certain I'll enjoy its full descent into splatter film horror when it lands in full.

The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me is due on November 18, 2022 for PS5, Xbox Series X and S, PC, PS4, and Xbox One.  

Scare yourself silly with the best horror games right now. 

The Dark Pictures season finale, The Devil in Me, looks set to bring one of the most ambitious setups yet across all four games. The broad pitch is 19th century serial killer H.H. Holmes meets Saw, whereas the previous games have always been based on something 'real' - first came the legend of the SS Ourang Medan ghost ship, followed by the Andover Witch Trials and then the ancient Mesopotamian Akkadian Empire. Both Holmes and Saw, however, feel closer to home, with countless books and records covering Holmes' murder spree and eventual execution in 1896. While Saw's traps permeate popular culture whether you've seen a movie or not. Combining the two is obviously going to get interesting fast. 

Only murders in the building

The Devil in Me sees a struggling documentary company offered a mysterious opportunity to visit a reproduction of Holmes' so-called Murder Castle - a hotel where most of his murders took place and which 'accidently' burned down during his trial. Legend has it, the building was full of traps, secret rooms and more, used by Holmes to kill and dispose of anywhere between 20 to 200 victims, depending on who you ask. 

Now, no documentary crew is turning down the chance to visit an allegedly accurate reproduction of the most famous house in true crime, but it's obviously not going to end well, and the team soon realise they're trapped in a hotel filled with devious traps and death rooms while someone unseen manipulates them. As for the Saw connection, as director Tom Heaton points out, if you set a Dark Pictures game in a place like that "you end up with Saw fairly quickly".

"There's things we definitely know about Homes," Heaton explains, "and there's also a lot of mythology around him". During his trial the press went crazy for the 'Murder Castle', with all sorts of a rumours catching the public eye: "The blackout rooms that have no light, the gas pipes [used to flood rooms and kill poeple] and the acid [to dispose of bodies]," he highlights. "Those things may or may not be true, but they definitely exist in the collective imagination so this is good material. There's a fine line between the facts and what we think might be the case, and things that probably aren't the case but are fun to think they might have been. So we had fun with that." 

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In the game that "fun" manifests  as Saw-like traps, like one where two people are chained either side of a pillar with a central spinning blade, playing a deadly tug of war to not get in ripped half. There's a room-sized incinerator you can get caught in. Noxious gas makes an appearance with a dual chamber where two  team members can get trapped, forcing you to choose who to kill so the other one can get out. I initially felt that seemed a little unfair for a game where you're usually trying to save the entire cast, but Heaton assures me that "one of our promises to the player is that you can save everyone." So, pro tip - avoid the gas chamber. Heaton also claims that the deaths here are "the most gruesome and extravagant and over the top we've ever done".

This is one of the longest Dark Pictures instalments yet, packing in a host of new features in its seven-hour run time.The new abilities and open exploration feel a lot more like a traditional third person game, and are mostly available thanks to the hotel providing the ability to move around between different areas. You can physically run and explore far more freely now compared to the previous games' more linear, walking-speed story progression. You can squeeze into gaps and hide or move objects around to uncover things or open up new routes. There's also a new inventory system that lets you pick up items to use or pass between characters. 

"Puzzles might involve moving to different locations to find bits of a code or assembling the things you need," says Heaton. "That requires a bit more moving around than earlier Dark Picture games, so the running really helps with that. So if you want to quickly walk around, maybe go and look for some item that you haven't picked up, it isn't too slow and you can go at your own pace." This won't be a passing need either as Heaton explains that "there's more puzzles than we've done in previous games", adding, "they're not really difficult puzzles, they're kind of like early Resident Evil or Silent Hill - something that will entertain you for a couple of minutes. They're not going to have someone stuck on them for an hour".

Tooled up

While some of these puzzles and other problems might require finding the right tools or gear, each of the five characters also start with a specific item, which is another new feature for the series. "We've got puzzles like the fuse box," Heaton highlights, "And Jamie has this multimeter which allows her to hack into the old hotel fuse boxes, override them and open up new areas". Other members of the team all start with a character-specific item, like a lock-forcing business card for Charlie Lonnit, owner of Lonnit Productions; Mark the cameraman can use his camera; Erin the intern has a directional mic that can locate sounds while, finally, presenter Kate (played by Academy Award nominee Jessie Buckley) has a pencil you can use to shade paper and reveal hidden messages like door codes. 

All of these items can be lost, broken and passed around, adding a whole new layer to the usual decision-making crapshoot of keeping people alive - getting someone killed because you kept or gave away a vital item is going to probably hurt more than yes or no-ing someone to an early grave.  

All of these new gameplay features feel like a major progression for a series, and proof that the devs seem to learn something new with each instalment. "Whenever we ship a game we look at review feedback, what the fans are saying and we develop solutions based on that, explains Heaton." Often, we can't get it into the next game, but we will get into the game afterwards. Or the game after that".

For the Devil in Me, that review feedback seems to have shaped one of the most interesting instalments yet, mixing more freedom and puzzles to give the player greater agency over the usually story-led gameplay. And, while this is the season 1 finale for The Dark Pictures, it's not ending there: "In terms of seasons really I can't elaborate," says Heaton, "Season two is coming for definite. Improvements we've made from game to game will continue into Season Two [but] we'll talk about it when we're ready to talk about it". From what I've seen of The Devil in Me, it looks like The Dark Pictures has grown considerably since its first ghost story outing, and I'm really intrigued to see where The Dark Pictures Season 2 eventually takes things.   

The first season of horror anthology The Dark Pictures is coming to an end later this year, but a second season is definitely on the way.

Speaking to GamesRadar+, Tom Heaton, director of the fourth and final instalment of The Dark Pictures Season One, The Devil in Me, said that "Season 2 is coming for definite." While Heaton couldn't offer too much extra information, he did say that the team is "very excited" and that some elements of the current season will "carry forth."

"Season 2 will be recognizably Dark Pictures games. We're not going to do a dramatic shift away to something completely different. I can say improvements that we've made from game to game will continue into Season Two."

For now, Heaton says that the team will "talk about [Season 2] when we're ready to talk about it," but the suggestion that a second season is "definite" is good news for horror fans, especially those who might have assumed that The Devil in Me might mark the final instalment of the anthology at large.

At the Future Games Show last night, Supermassive confirmed that the The Devil in Me release date is set for November 18 alongside a heart-stopping trailer for the new entry in the series. If you're only just jumping in, however, you're in for a pretty solid horror collection. Episode two, Little Hope, proved the most successful outing in our opinion - our four-star review described it as a "bewitching" sequel to the series' debut outing that set impressive groundwork for the two follow-ups.

Here are some more of the best horror games to enjoy while you wait for The Devil in Me.

A new story trailer has arrived for the next entry in Supermassive's anthology horror series The Dark Pictures Anthology, titled The Devil in Me, and it reveals a Fall 2022 release window.

The follow-up to The Quarry and, more specifically, The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, was revealed back in October 2021. At the time, we were hopeful it would launch right around the spooky season this year, and thankfully it sounds like that's the case. 

Narratively, The Devil in Me seems to be a departure from Man of Medan, Little Hope, and House of Ashes, as it focuses on a very real-world threat rather than something paranormal. With players trapped inside a madman's "Murder Castle" filled with traps and torture rooms, comparisons have been made to the Saw and Hostel movie series, but this new trailer adds some much-needed context about what's going on here.

In The Devil in Me, a group of documentary filmmakers are invited to a modern-day replica of HH Holmes' Murder Castle - HH Holmes being one of America's first serial killers and his Murder Castle being the real-life hotel he built and murdered several of his victims inside. 

Naturally, as this is a horror game and not Haunted Tour Simulator 2022, the "replica" of HH Holmes' Murder Castle turns out to be less of a tourist destination and more of an actual freakin' murder castle where people die horrible deaths. I suppose there's still room in there for some supernatural shenanigans in the story, but for now, no ghosts.

The Devil in Me will wrap up the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology when it launches this fall, after which we could see a big shift in the series' tone.

For now, here are the best horror games to scare yourself silly with.

Another trademark filing has been uncovered for Until Dawn and The Dark Pictures' developer Supermassive Games - only we don't think this one has anything to do with the horror anthology.  

While, admittedly, we don't learn much about the game itself beyond the fact it's categorized under the games software, entertainment services, and computer programming services categories - not really surprising for a video game, right? - we do get a logo and a name: The Quarry. 

The filing, spotted by @the_marmolade and reported by VGC, was made with the European Union's Intellectual Property Office on February 17, 2022, and according to inside sources, rumor has it this new game will be published by 2K, allegedly by the end of the year, too.

Perhaps most interestingly, though, there's no sign that - unlike the five new trademarks recently filed in relation to The Dark Pictures series - The Quarry is part of the horror franchise; when we've seen Supermassive filings in the past, "The Dark Pictures" has always been very clearly included in the official branding.  

As Hirun summarized for us at the time, The Dark Pictures saga began with The Man of Medan back in 2019, and its most recent release was The House of Ashes, which launched just a few months ago in October 2021 - the spookiest season, of course. 

Though we don't yet know very much about it beyond the gory Saw vibes, the next chapter will be called The Devil in Me and we can presumably look forward to it around Halloween this year. And that means that, theoretically, the five new game names trademarked by Supermassive - "The Craven Man", "O Death", "Directive 8020", "Intercession", and "Winterfold" - could not be released for up to another five years going on the studio's current release schedule.

Could The Quarry be Supermassive's new venture into multiplayer games, which the studio was last seen hiring for back in December 2021? Watch this space, eh?

Horror isn't just for Halloween, you know. Check out our best horror games guide.

The Dark Pictures developer Supermassive has seemingly registered five new trademarks related to the horror anthology series.

As first spotted earlier today via Twitter, Supermassive Games has registered five new trademarks with the European Union Intellectual Property Office. All five of these new trademarks are explicitly linked to the Dark Pictures saga, Supermassive's ongoing horror anthology series which pits unwitting characters against various terrors in narrative-driven games.

These five new trademarks are The Dark Pictures: Directive 8020, The Craven Man, Intercession, Winterfold, and O Death. Right now, these are unfortunately all the details we have to go on for the apparent new games in the Dark Pictures series, and it seems like we could be waiting a while yet for any further confirmation.

The Dark Pictures saga began with The Man of Medan back in 2019, and its most recent release was The House of Ashes, which launched just a few months ago in October 2021. Even before the House of Ashes, Supermassive revealed that the next chapter of the anthology series would be called The Devil in Me, and it'd round out the collection's first season.

We don't currently have a release date for The Devil in Me, but it looks set to arrive in late 2022 judging by Supermassive's past release schedule. This means that, theoretically, the five new game names trademarked by Supermassive recently could easily be as far away as late 2023, or even 2024. That's in addition to Supermassive's new venture into multiplayer games, which the studio was last seen hiring for back in December 2021. 

Check out our best horror games guide if you want to fill the time between now and The Devil in Me with some terrifying experiences. 

The Dark Pictures Anthology and Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games is hiring for an unannounced multiplayer project.

Over on the studio's careers page, there's a listing for multiplayer game designer calling for applicants with experience developing multiplayer rules, combat systems, progression, and tutorial systems. "You will collaborate with design, engineering, art and animation teams to create varied and compelling Multiplayer systems, from combat to progression systems," the job posting reads.

Supermassive says the unannounced game is just one of several projects in development. One of those is The Devil In Me, the next game in The Dark Pictures Anthology and the finale of the series' first season. This mystery unannounced project sounds like something different altogether, as there seems to be an emphasis on combat and progression systems that The Dark Pictures Anthology isn't known for.

While Supermassive is primarily known for its narrative-driven horror games, there's no telling exactly what type of game this unannounced title will be. The job description mentions the studio's passion for making "high-end cinematic games," so it sounds like it'll have a strong story element, but it also sounds like it'll have a more complex multiplayer component as well as some sort of progression system, which should be interesting to see from Supermassive.

The latest entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes, launched in October, taking players deep into an underground Mesopotamian temple during the 2003 Iraq War. Reviews are mixed, but GR managing editor Rachel Weber gave it 3/5 stars, praising its "FUBAR" final act, impressive mocap, and intuitive co-op systems.

For everything else to play right now, check out our list of the best horror games out there.

The final act of The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is what you want horror games to be, a mad casserole of monsters and weird science and tension. The problem is, your patience might not survive the long, often surprisingly dull trudge to get to it. 

House of Ashes is the latest in the patchy Dark Pictures series and sets its sights on the Middle East with a story of US Marines looking for WMDs, who ending up finding something much worse. Trapped underground, they need to face not only the beasts hunting them but somehow also their own personal issues. Because that's when you want to talk about your relationship with your ex, when you're drenched in blood, have seen your companions horribly murdered, and only really have moments to spare before winged demons find you again. You can be a terrifying horror or an agony aunt letters page, you can't be both. 

You swap between controlling five characters, four Americans and an Iraqi soldier called Salim - who is the only likable one in the whole crew - as they team up, get separated again, team up, fight monsters, and bicker with each other. Like the Supermassive games that have come before, any of them can die and the game will just adapt the story and continue - unless you're so bad at people management that you get them all killed. 

The game starts with a prologue setting up the historical events that lead to the shenanigans in the present day, and your input is so minimal you're basically free to make a sandwich. Then there are at least 30 minutes before you even get any horror, and instead have to trudge through a painful made-for-TV war movie that sets up the basic personality types - he's an arsehole, he's the smart mouth, she's the bitch etc - with soap opera style conversations as our gang of Marines raid a house, shoot some locals, and end up underground. Horror can make you feel a lot of things, dread, fear, discomfort, weird sexual stuff if you're a Clive Barker reader, but you should never feel bored. It seems to go on for so long that you're basically rooting for the monsters to start killing people horribly. The only thing that will make you uncomfortable during these opening hours is the way the game doesn't seem sure what comment it wants to make on the issue of American Marines in Iraq, fumbling story beats about heroin dealing, shooting unarmed civilians, and some pondering about "maybe war is bad?" like it's a high school essay. 

Quick march

The game mechanics stick to the usual formula of quick-time events, dialogue options, and light exploration, and each success, failure, and choice can have unforeseen consequences as the story progresses. If you take the time to explore your environment you can find 'premonitions' - here in the form of ancient tablets - that will give your character a glimpse of the future that may help you make a crucial decision late on. It's a simple system of controls to understand, making it an accessible game to whip out for a Halloween party with less game-obsessed friends, but it's also a blunt set of tools that reduces your agency in the game to pick between a few options, often all of which you hate. Action is spaced about between long cutscenes, and sections where you're just moving a character through a room or tunnels, waiting for the next prompt to hit a button. The underground temple that serves as the setting has some impressive architecture but makes it hard to feel like you're wandering off the beaten path at any point. None of this will be news, or a deterrent, to anyone who has played a Dark Pictures game before, but it's worth mentioning as it doesn't feel like a system that's aging well here. At times House of Ashes felt more like one of those special Netflix interactive movies than a more traditional game. 

One of the more interesting ways the game uses its QTEs is that you can decide to fail one for the right reasons. During one scene, for example, you have to cover a wounded soldier's mouth while you wait for his morphine to kick in, so he won't alert the monsters. Complete all the QTEs successfully though, and you actually smother him. It's a nice extra layer of decision-making if a little hard to remember for a generation of gamers that have trained their brains to follow QTE prompts instantly. 

The good news is that the further you go into the game, the more it is about the monsters and less about whether or not your character wants to admit they might be emotionally closed off. The bad news is that there's only a couple of times they feel even close to frightening. No one is saying creature design is easy, but it's also that they just don't feel smart or intimidating enough to be truly terrifying. When you are facing the monsters, or the other threat that lurks in the dark, the mechanics of a QTE or a timed chance to shoot in their general direction distances you from any fear even further. Although, I do respect the decision not to make a game about armed soldiers into a scary shooting gallery, because it must have been tempting. The action is a better experience when played in the co-op versions of the game, with your friends screaming instructions, but solo it's just another QTE. 

Semper fine

By the time you get to the third act, the bit where it all goes a bit mad and starts to actually feel fun, it's like you've been on a rollercoaster that spent 70% of the ride slowly chugging upwards, just to deliver the quick rush of that final drop. At this point, at least some of the characters (but not all) start to feel like at least good impressions of human beings, and you start to care about them making it beyond just wanting to beat the game with the best result. Salim the Iraqi soldier has a special place in my heart - mainly for the way he seems utterly baffled by his new American frenemies - and was the one I really wanted to save, while US Marine Jason Kolchek gets to give a speech showcasing motivations and nuance that made me wish there had been more of that to go around for the rest of the cast and story.

The game does deliver one last shiv to the kidneys though, with a final scene that is tougher and more unforgiving than anything else you faced in the game. It's classic horror movie stuff, but suddenly all the decisions you made to get the characters to that point feel totally immaterial, which seems like an injustice, rather than the big finale the developers might have been hoping for. Survive it and you will feel a diet version of triumph, fail and it will feel like a robbery. 

Horror fans are no stranger to weak sequels, and we tend to have a soft spot for ongoing series even when they have a bad day, and despite the issues, the truth is that even at its weakest, The Dark Pictures Anthology offers a unique "trapped in a horror movie" experience that nothing else does, and is accessible enough to make for intense couch co-op with some friends. It's not a great horror game, but it's a decent horror game, and sometimes that will do. 

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes was reviewed on PS5 with code provided by the publisher.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is the latest in the playable horror movie genre from Supermassive Games. So far we’ve had a haunted diving trip, witch-hunting in ye olde Salem, and now we’ve got military monster mayhem. 

The game is set in the dying embers of the Iraq War in 2003, and our heroes are a bunch of American Special Forces looking for weapons of mass destruction. They find them, sort of, when they’re trapped underground in a Sumerian temple full of monstrous creatures. The group is separated, and in our hands-on, the action swapped between the different collections of characters, like the couple with a history - Rachel and Eric - to Allied Forces soldier Salim. Horror fans will feel familiar with the territory, it feels very The Descent meets The Excorcist, you'll even find a statue of Pazuzu hidden as a little Easter Egg. 

Our hands-on with a chunk from early in the game - our crew is underground but doesn't really know what those weird sounds in the dark are all about - proved that The Dark Pictures is sticking with its usual gameplay formula. Lots of story delivered in cutscenes and chats while you walk slowly through ominous areas, near-death events marked with QTE button mashing, and awkward conversations about dating or the FUBAR situation where you choose between a couple of dialogue options.

Mess hall

You don't have to wait very long for the first real horror moment, as two of our soldiers, Nick and Jason, stumble upon their friend hanging from the roof of a cavern like a gory marionette, bleeding heavily. The woman with him is quickly yanked away into the darkness by an unseen force and you're left to deal with the injured soldier. As the creatures descend he dies, possibly thanks to the terrible medical treatment delivered by my QTE morphine ministrations. Either way, he only would have slowed us down. 

It was the standout moment in the small section we played, which otherwise focused on exploring the space and setting out the story and relationships House of Ashes had in store. Rachel - played by High School Musical's Ashely Tisdale no less - and Eric wandered around a huge room filled with the detritus of previous explorers and worryingly wired with dynamite. You can go straight for the set goals to move the story on - finding the fuel for a generator to power up the scattered equipment, and then check out an old recording - or you can wander around a little. This exploration usually pays off in The Dark Pictures episodes, you can find secrets like notes left behind that add to the story, artifacts that will trigger a "premonition" video clip that might guide you in a future choice, or just stumble across something that will save you some time later. I found some duct tape that saved me a second search when the generator sprung a leak and got some nice back story about the explorers that had preceded us. 

Although, it is impossible to not play a game about American soldiers on foreign soil right now and not wonder how it will feel by the time October rolls around. 

Head in the sand 

The setting is undeniably atmospheric, moving between claustrophobic corridors with the walls marked with deadly-looking scratches and vast halls filled with statues and ruined masonry. Whether or not the sand-colored will start to wear thin after a few hours, or the game has some surprises in store as your work your way deeper into the temple is something only the developers and the monsters know for now. This slice felt like only a taste of a bigger story, some characters like Salim and Nick were only roughly sketched out in this early chunk, while conversations hinted at bigger issues that would need to be addressed - who was at fault for the events that led to the need for a prosthetic leg, for instance - along with the monsters. 

House of Ashes also stands out for having a bunch of characters who are carrying serious weaponry and are trained for combat situations but managed to resist the temptation to make every situation a QTE shooting range. As a fan of the series I didn't expect to enjoy this as much as I did - the witches of Little Hope better reflected my horror leanings - but there's a tension to the story and a depth to the characters that definitely made me want to keep playing after my sneak peek drew to a close. 

The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes will be released on October 22 on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. 

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes release date has been revealed.

A new story trailer debuted during today's Summer Game Fest Kickoff Live event, and we've got our first glimpse at the vicious monster you'll be trying to survive as well as the October 22 release date.

Launching just in time for Halloween - just as its predecessor Little Hope did - The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is coming to PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X, and PC. There's a standard edition with just the base game as well as a boxed collector's edition with stickers, a poster, a pin, and, coolest of all, an impressively detailed creature figurine.

Speaking of creatures, we finally got to see the terrifying giant bat monster lurking within the depths of a deep, complex cave in House of Ashes. In previous trailers, we'd seen characters being snatched out of view or suffering from wounds presumably inflicted by the monster, but this is the first we've actually seen a good clear shot of the thing. 

And it is quite a thing, hulking and screeching with huge dragon-like wings and snaggled claws for teeth. Definitely not something you'd want to see when you're wandering around a dark, ancient, cursed, underground cavern, but that's the situation you're facing in the next entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology.

The new story trailer reveals just how the unfortunate army soldiers wind up underground fighting for their lives. They were sent there on a mission to expose an underground chemical weapons facility, but after exchanging gunfire with an unseen force and having their helicopter downed, they fall through the cracks in the floor and discover something I don't they were expecting.

Pre-orders for House of Ashes are live now, and if you do decide to buy either the standard or collector's edition, you'll get early access to the "Curator's Cut," whereas otherwise you'd have to wait until about 3 months post-launch.

Until you and a friend have the chance to play The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes this Halloween season, check out the best horror games to scare yourself silly with right now.

Supermassive Games has revealed the first gameplay trailer for The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes, and it's 8 minutes of tense exploration, tough decisions, and as is a series tradition by now, quick-time-events.

House of Ashes is the follow-up to Man of Medan and Little Hope, though each game tells its own story with different characters and unique settings. Man of Medan threw us into a seemingly haunted ship crawling with illusions, Little Hope shifted things to a tragic town haunted by ghosts of accused witches, and now House of Ashes is bringing us back to 2003 during the War in Iraq.

Today's gameplay trailer shows the perspectives of Nick and Jason, a marine and his commanding officer, as they explore the underground caverns of a buried Sumerian temple. Something is lurking in the shadows and soon enough, another soldier named Mervin gets dragged off and strung to the ceiling. As he's being cut down and tended to, another soldier gets ripped away by the unseen monster. The point being, these people have a lot on their plates, and you'll need a clear head and steady hand to get them all out alive.

Compared to the first two games in The Dark Pictures Anthology, House of Ashes looks a little more action-focused. Where Man of Medan and Little Hope relied a lot on spirits and hallucinations to create tension, House of Ashes pits players against what seems to be an actual, living, alien creature that's powerful enough to toss people around like they're ragdolls. Still very scary, just apparently a different type of horror.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is due out in 2021, but we don't have an exact release date for you just yet.

Can you guess which Supermassive game made it onto our list of the best horror games to play in 2021?

Supermassive Games' The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is out today, and at the end there's a teaser for the next entry in the series, titled House of Ashes. Similarly, Little Hope was first revealed as an after-credits scene in Man of Medan. And just like how Little Hope has its own distinct mood and setting, House of Ashes is another stark departure that looks nothing like its predecessors, at least not in the brief teaser just revealed.

We see here an army squad descend from a helicopter to wage war against a mysterious enemy. "Do you believe in god?" an unseen voice asks someone that looks a lot like Ashley Tisdale. "Well start believing. We are under attack by... I don't know what. You wouldn't believe me even if I tried."

This unknown force of evil lives deep underground, and thanks to the research of YouTube sleuths we can safely deduce we'll be facing off against Pazuzu, king of the southwest wind in ancient Mesopotamian religion, and the demons of the underworld. At least some of the game seems to take place in the Arabian desert and ancient underground caves.

The plot and setting aren't the only ways House of Ashes differs from Man of Medan and Little Hope; it also seems from the teaser that there's more action this time around, with soldiers firing off rounds from rifles at their foes. There's no proof we'll actually get to shoot at stuff in House of Ashes, but that would be a huge change from the QTE-heavy gameplay the series is known for. And given that the characters are soldiers, it wouldn't be unexpected for House of Ashes to include some shooting in the gameplay.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is due out sometime in 2021, so it'll probably launch on PS5 and Xbox Series X alongside current-gen consoles and PC.

For more ways to scare yourself silly, don't miss our round-up of the best horror games to play.

Supermassive has released the final trailer for The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope, the follow-up to Man of Medan launching October 30.

The launch trailer previews some of the choices you'll need to make playing through Little Hope and how those decisions affect the outcome of the story. In one scene, you see the player choose a direction to turn and then immediately regret that decision because whoops, there was a snarling monster in that direction. 

Another scene shows one player creepily refuse to rescue her co-op partner as he's being hunted by an unseen creature. That could be one of those situations from Man of Medan where one player is seeing some sort of apparition or hallucination, causing them to make erroneous decisions with dire consequences.

ICYMI, Little Hope is the next chapter in The Dark Pictures Anthology, from Until Dawn studio Supermassive. We've got a new self-contained story set in the witchy ghost town that gave the game its name. Our Little Hope preview mentions a number of improvements over its predecessor, including "the camera, the pacing, QTEs, as well as the sense of threat and overall danger."

I found a lot of fun in Man of Medan's unique approach to multiplayer, which lends itself to brilliant moments of second-guessing your own eyes as well as the judgment of the person you're playing with. It sounds like Supermassive is keeping a keen ear on community feedback, and I can't wait to see for myself how the studio learned from Man of Medan to make Little Hope an even more compelling horror experience.

For more spooky fun, check out all of the video game Halloween events going on right now.

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. 

Will Poulter may have played a game developer in Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, but The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope will be the first time he's donned one of those attractive motion capture suits and actually starred in one. His latest role is as three of the key characters in the latest Dark Pictures tale, with the latest instalment focused on witch trials, the occult, and college students who should have stayed in study hall. 

"It was quite an intense challenge," he says. "You know, the pace that you have to move out when you're recording a game is pretty intense and different from anything I've been used to even in TV – which is sort of a step up from film in terms of pace – but I loved it. And, you know, without certain props, there's a bit of a challenge there. But it engages the imagination and I had a lot of fun with it."

Where there's a Will

"I'm responsible for Andrew, Anthony, and Abraham, and they exist in three different time periods throughout this story. That was exciting to me," he explains. "They have different accents as well and characteristics, so that made for a kind of more sort of diversified challenge." 

Poulter recently starred as tree desecrator Mark in Midsommar, but his range extends far beyond horror. The actor has tried his hand at comedy with We're the Millers, science fiction in the Maze Runner series, and brutal, real-life drama in Detroit, which explored the 1967 riots. Poulter is eager to continue exploring new opportunities in his career, such as working with Supermassive Games, although there are certain criteria that must be met before he'll sign onto a project. "For me, the main thing I'm looking for – whether it's in science fiction or, you know, whatever genre – is do I believe the characters? Do I feel like they're being authentically represented in the script, at least, and can I contribute to that with my performance?"  

"I also think, more than ever, that I'm thinking about the kind of socio-political message of the film as well. And, you know, is there an adequate level of representation across the cast and the series – if it belongs to a series – or in the case of Little Hope, the anthology. A number of things have kind of developed over time in terms of what I'm looking at, and what I'm looking for, before I sign onto a project," he explains. 

Little Hope goes deep into the history of the witch trials, leaning heavily on real events and places and using multiple timelines to explore the horrors from different perspectives. This historical doppelganger idea was what drew Poulter to the project, but it's the studio's commitment to ground the anthology series in authenticity that ultimately convinced him to sign on. "Being part of a project – whether it's film, whether it's TV, whether it's a stage, whether it's a game – when there's an emphasis on authenticity, and creating something realistic that is trying to give the viewer or the participant the most authentic experience possible, I'm down. I couldn't care what genre it belongs to really, it's more about the material."

Season of the witch

Poulter learned a little about the infamous Salem witch trials at school, calling it unfair and "no better example of brutal misogyny," and through his work on Little Hope learned more about the neighboring town of Andover, where more people were charged as witches than in the famous Salem. Little Hope takes its title from Little Hope Meadow, which existed in Andover during the time of the trials. Developer Supermassive went to great lengths to ground the story in historical fact, even going as far as enlisting a costume designer to research fabrics and outfits from the time, which could then be recreated in the game. 

As part of Poulter's triple threat casting, he worked with dialect coach Julia Leonard to give his characters authentic voices, swapping from his native British to American, and even ye olde New Englander. 

"So one of the characters Anthony, he exists in 1972. The present-day character I'm responsible for is called Andrew. And the other character I'm responsible for is Abraham who existed in 1692," he says. 

"Abraham has an entirely different manner of speech and his accent resembles something closer to that kind of Northern English accent. But it was something that I got help with and our dialect coach  Julia Leonard, she coached us through all the accents and was onset helping us whenever we tripped up."

Screaming bloody murder

One thing that you need to be able to do if you're going to star in a Supermassive game, and especially the Dark Pictures series, is to be prepared to die horribly, in a variety of ways. "It's a good icebreaker for us as a cast, you know, early on in the day, you know, by lunchtime, you've all heard each other scream at the top of your lungs several times. And Supermassive's games are obviously kind of famous for having some pretty epic and dramatic death scenes," says Poulter. 

He adds that, despite what you might expect, you don't need to ham it up for mo-cap. "The technology, as it is currently so good, you don't need to heighten any element of performance whatsoever. And it will pick up on, you know, the minutiae of your emotional expression which is so exciting. And obviously, from an acting perspective, that's great; the notion of having to sort of ham it up or something would be a shame."

For all the times he's seen himself on the big screen, Little Hope will be the first time Poulter has seen himself recreated digitally. "It really is so strange. Anytime you watch yourself even in kind of a live-action context, it's hard not to think back to where you shot it, how you shot, etcetera. But that kind of phenomenon is just compounded by the fact that there was nothing there. I mean, you were in a blank studio, and now you're in this world interacting with all the props and it just speaks to just the fact that what you do was the tip of the iceberg."

"I tried to see if I could get my eyebrows replaced entirely, but they weren't happening," he jokes. "They apparently worked quite well for horror."

Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope will be released on October 30 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. For more on the game, check out our interview with Supermassive CEO Pete Samuels. 

The first trailer for The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope takes us back to the witch trials of the 1600s, and true to history, the witch accusers are probably far eviler than any accused witches themselves.

The follow-up to Man of Medan switches up the scenery quite a bit; from the dilapidated innards of the Ourang Medan to Little Hope, a small town with a dark history. The series' all-knowing narrator says about Little Hope that, "all that suffering, all that malice, leaves a profound effect. It creates repercussions."

And repercussions there will be. In my time playing Man of Medan, I unknowingly killed or otherwise caused the death of two of my friend's characters because of reasons I'll leave to you to find out. I found the first entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology a thrilling and inventive co-op experience, and I'm expecting at least the same from Little Hope.

We already knew Little Hope was coming some time this summer, and the new trailer doesn't reveal anything more specific on that front. With any luck, we'll be stumbling our way into Little Hope's deceiving pitfalls earlier in the summer rather than later.

Little Hope is the second of eight entries planned for Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology. The studio is probably best known for 2015's Until Dawn, another standout horror game with a focus on decision-making and consequence, but without the multiplayer focus of The Dark Pictures Anthology.

We included Until Dawn in our round-up of the best horror games to play right now.

The first entry in the Dark Pictures Anthology, Man of Medan, drops Friday on PS4, Xbox One, and PC. But before most of us have even had the chance to play the game, its sequel, titled Little Hope, has already been revealed with its first teaser trailer. The brief trailer features at the end of Man of Medan, revealing a 2020 release window. 

Narratively removed from Man of Medan, Dark Pictures: Little Hope takes place in a small rural town, grimly named Little Hope, where something awful is using chains to drag young people to their dooms. It seems to be a theme in Supermassive's narrative horror games to put young adults in a race to survival against unthinkable monsters, with 2015's excellent Until Dawn setting the trend.

The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of narrative-driven horror games by Supermassive Games, with Man of Medan and Little Hope being the first and second entries in the franchise. Like Until Dawn, the games rely heavily on branching narratives that tell different stories depending on the decisions each player makes.

In our review of Man of Medan, Leon Hurley finds a lot of potential in the two-player single-player story and praises the tension-building and genuinely scary moments, but makes notes of the inconsistent pacing and abrupt ending. Certainly not a bad start for the Dark Pictures Anthology, and it'll be interesting to see how things progress with Little Hope and future releases. If 2020 is the planned release date for Little Hope, this could be a series that stretches well into the 2020s.

We talked choice-based games in a new episode of 'Dialogue Options' - won't you join us?

There’s some serious magic in Man of Medan’s two-player single-player story, but it doesn’t completely cast its spell until both of you can meet up afterwards to talk about what happened; discovering all the ways you saw and experienced the same events differently. Until that moment what I played was still a great choose your own adventure b-movie horror flick in the style of SuperMassive’s previous game, Until Dawn - you wander spooky corridors looking for trouble and, when it finds you, there are seconds to choose between prompts that are usually ‘die’ and ‘probably die’ - but the pay off only really kicks in after all the blood has settled and you’ve had a wipe down. 

Twice upon a time

First up, though, let me explain what I mean by a ‘two-player single-player story’ because it might take a couple of goes. Man of Medan’s main mode is basically a single player story you can play alone if you want, or in a pass-the-pad Movie Night mode where up to five people can control of each individual on-screen character. But the way it was meant to be played is with a second player online. Doing that sees you share the different characters, jumping between them and often splitting decisions and conversations in scenes. But, more importantly, you can experience the same scenes differently, with different conversations and even branching off into completely different areas. It means that while you more or less experience the same story you can approach certain situations or conversations armed with different knowledge or experiences. Obviously it’s best played without any kind of chat to avoid spoilers, leaving your friend as a sort of erratic NPC you question furiously afterwards about what the hell they were playing at. 

The opening prologue is a great example of how the two-player set up works. Playing as a pair of American WW2 soldiers (myself and GamesRadar’s own James Jarvis aka JJ) at some point in the past, it sets up the Medan’s haunted heritage as the crew descend into unexplained madness. You start in different rooms with my character having to prize a key from a dead body to escape before releasing JJ from a jail cell. From there we both had to hide from a deranged soldier shooting everyone, via a heartbeat matching mini game before chasing a ghostly child into a storeroom where we were separated. Once alone, I found JJ’s character dead on the floor before seeing the ghostly child hide in a locker. Despite riddling it with bullets the little zombie kid was still alive when I opened it up and my character fell to the floor dead. End of intro: ship’s haunted now, please come back in 60 years with a tourist boat full of American tourists for more fun. 

EXCEPT... 

...it was only after talking to JJ that we discovered we’d had totally different experiences despite being together for more or less the whole time. JJ, for example, never saw the ghost I chased. He just saw me stopping suddenly, or darting down dead end corridors for no reason. And, when the game separated it us, it got extra dark: while my ending saw me shooting up a locker to kill the skeletal child after finding JJ’s character dead, JJ’s playthrough saw him hiding in a locker to escape a different ghost before being shot by a mystery assailant. Try having a post-game conversation where you sorta maybe killed your friend but also totally didn’t. Might of. 

I heard a rumour...

The game is built around moments like this. Later, in a prologue where a cast of American tourists prepare for a diving trip, you and your partner separate for different conversations with other characters on deck, before reconvening to all talk together but knowing different things. A larger deviation sees one of you stay on the ship to make repairs and get a barbeque going, while your partner dives underwater to visit a wreck. Part of this can play out completely differently based on decisions you made during earlier conversations where you don’t entirely know what’s being talked about, or what it might mean later. I knew my character was talking about proposing to his girlfriend for example, because I’d seen him looking at the ring, but at that time JJ was at the other end of the boat chatting to someone else and just told me to ‘go for it’ when he came back to talk of a ‘big life decision’ he knew nothing about. 

These decisions can also affect your characters in ways that aren’t clear at the time but can come back to haunt your choices. Choosing to do certain things or not, or to agree/disagree with certain people, can affect things called Traits and Relationships. Traits effectively level up your character’s personality, making them braver or cowardly for example, depending on how you react in certain situations. These Trait changes can open up or remove some options later, depending on how you’ve played. Relationship changes on the other hand vary how people feel about each other and, again, can potentially change the options you get later based on your behaviour. Finally, very significant choices can result in a Bearings Change, which is big, game altering moment that fundamentally shapes the future in some way. 

The path ahead

There’s obviously a lot of potential variation here, with numerous branches and changes you could trigger, often without knowing the ramifications initially. And that’s spread between two people making the calls both together and apart. It also includes items you can move or take that could be useful later depending where they are. It creates so many ways you can branch and affect the story, but the really interesting layer is that you could make any of these decisions, or react numerous ways, without entirely knowing your partner’s motivations or reasoning, and vice versa. 

That’s the magic. Based on playing roughly the opening hour and a half, myself, JJ and two other people at the event where we played it, sat and talked for a good three or four hours afterwards - picking apart the difference between all our playthroughs. It was an evening punctuated with ‘wait, what?!’ interruptions and hand waving realisations as we discovered things we didn’t know had happened, or the reason some things had. I didn’t even know JJ had never seen the ghost I was chasing until several hours later. As a basic horror game Man of Medan is a promising mix of scares and decision making, but throw in the two player branching and the frantic post-game discussion it provokes and this is a really exciting idea. 

“Don’t Play Alone” warns the Ghost Ship trailer for Man of Medan, which introduces an ominous narrator to Supermassive Games’ first entry in its Dark Pictures anthology horror series. The new gameplay trailer arrived online a few weeks ago, but a longer, extended cut debuted tonight, which you can check out for yourself in the video below, if you dare...

Man of Medan is an interactive horror adventure game that builds off of Supermassive’s success with 2015’s excellent PS4 exclusive, Until Dawn, in which a group of naval party animals come across a mysterious, submerged wreck from World War 2. Naturally, all manner of horror unfolds, as the trailer teases, but it’s up to you as to whether all five members of the group will survive this nautical nightmare. 

As the “Don’t Play Alone” moniker implies, Man of Medan is designed to be best enjoyed with friends, as a dark twist on the party game in which you collectively work to see the story out to its end. The title will be launching for PC, PS4, and Xbox One in early 2019, set to be the first in a series of self-contained interactive horror stories from Supermassive Games, with a new entry releasing approximately every six months. 

As Gamescom 2018 continues to roll on in Cologne, Germany this week, GamesRadar's After Dark show has more news, interviews, and gameplay for your viewing pleasure, which returns on Twitch today at 7PM CEST / 6PM BST / 10AM PT / 1PM EST.  

Yesterday's show, which you can catch up on here, featured appearances from Destiny 2, Two Point Hospital, and - now that it's been fully revealed - Man of Medan, the first scheduled title in Supermassive Games' new anthology horror series for PC, PS4, and Xbox One. 

The Until Dawn developer stopped by After Dark to talk all things Man of Medan, and you can watch our chat with Game Director Tom Heaton in the video above, alongside extended footage of the intriguing adventure title in action. Talking to GamesRadar+, Heaton explained that Supermassive learned "many, many lessons" from 2015's Until Dawn, and has used that experience to create a more ambitious kind of horror game in Man of Medan, which is just the first of several titles in the Dark Pictures series that the studio plans to release, at a rate of two per year. 

For example, the relationship system has been fleshed out and turned into a meta game in and of itself, while a new mechanic called "Premonitions" lets players look into the future to inform the decisions they make in the present. As expected, the branching, choice-and-consequence focused narrative of Until Dawn also remains very much intact, aa Heaton promised that it'll be "very very difficult" to finish Man of Medan with every cast member still breathing. Oh boy, I'm going to get everyone killed again, aren't I? 

Until Dawn is on our list of the best horror games of all time. Here's hoping Man of Medan is scary enough to make the cut when it releases next year. 

Dark Pictures comes from the minds behind Until Dawn, so I really shouldn’t be surprised that my time with it kicks off with an eerie narrator with a thoroughly proper accent explaining how he sincerely hopes the outcome of all this is what I want. Needless to say, I don’t trust him one bit. There’s also no chance that I believe this will end well. As Dark Pictures is an anthology series, the tale I’m about to embark on - Man of Medan - is just one of the narratives available. Each one is a spin on an urban legend, with an emphasis on choice and atmosphere, and the same branching decision system from Until Dawn where your actions determine who lives and who dies. Man of Medan is centred around a mysterious shipwreck that some intrepid (and doomed) youths have decided to explore. 

I’m curious how my choices actually affect the events of Man of Medan. So right at the beginning when this definitely-untrustworthy narrator asks me if I’m rational or emotional when it comes to decision-making, I decide to try both on for size. First I take the rational approach. No sooner have I selected the ‘rational’ option, the narrator tries to convince me that even though I’ll try to do what’s “right”, there is no right or wrong in Dark Pictures. It’s as if he’s already trying to make me doubt myself, planting that seed of doubt in my mind when it comes to figuring out which decision is the correct one. It’s… unnerving. 

Let’s be rational about this

I begin on my own as Fliss, the skipper of the boat that has brought the young explorers to the edge of the shipwreck. Somehow I’ve got into a situation where I’m at gunpoint being ushered through the ruined ship by a very nervy individual who’s convinced that there’s something out to get us. Walking through the rusted corridors and watery floors is a cinematic masterpiece, so much so that for a moment I don’t realise I can move as I assume I’m still in a cutscene. Every now and again I see something flash in the distance, and can choose to go up to it and inspect it. On one occasion it’s a hat with ‘MEDAN’ embroidered onto it, and another it’s a spent bullet next to a very dusty corpse. After each discovery I’m alerted that I’ve uncovered a “secret”, but nothing of noticeable consequence occurs. It’s a shame, really, as a hint about what exactly went on in this rusted ship would have pushed the eeriness to the very edge and given me just a glimpse of how it got into this decrepit state.

Alone, there’s not much for me to do with these objects besides mutter to myself about what they could be. Fliss isn’t much of a talker though, so she doesn’t go into a lot of detail. Me and my jumpy associate wander around the ship, before he becomes convinced that something is around the corner. Psyching himself up and getting out his gun, he leaves me behind and disappears down a corridor. As you’ve probably guessed, it doesn’t end well. The sound of gunfire reverberates around the metal ship, but when I go after him he’s nowhere to be seen. A smashed torch is all that’s left.

I nearly jump out of my skin when Brad, the socially-shy member of the group, appears out of nowhere. Faced with the choice to act suspicious or surprised, I go for suspicion. How the hell did he manage to sneak up on me? His explanation isn’t particularly convincing, and he only gets weirder. When we make our way down past some more dessicated corpses he says something that freaks Friss the hell out, and I can either reassure him or tell him to (bluntly) stop acting so damn weird. 

Rationally, I’m now super suspicious about Brad. He just turned up out of nowhere, then acted really strange. So when the opportunity comes to save him from a gaggle of reanimated corpses I… try to pull him to safety. Yeah, it doesn’t make sense to me either, but it was my one irrational moment in this playthrough. And I paid the price. Brad lurches forward, and I’m ready to accept his thanks - but instead dead, lifeless eyes stare out from his skull as he reaches out towards me and the screen fades to black.

Emotional baggage

Second time around, I tell the creepy narrator that I tend to be more emotional when it comes to creepy ships and the ever-present threat of death. His response is different this time: “I do hope the outcome is what you want” he purrs. Great. That sounds promising. When I begin, I’m now accompanied by Brad right from the very beginning. Upon examining the same items as before - a hat, a bullet, etc - we have a little chat about what it could be and I feel less alone. I even begin to like Brad, in his own shy, socially awkward kind of way.  

I’m unsure why Brad was now alongside me every step of the way. Perhaps it’s because the ‘emotional’ option I picked assumed that I’d find it harder to make decisions if I knew someone I cared about was in danger. Quite possibly the game wants to take advantage of my emotional decision making and endear Brad towards me, making me even more conflicted when the time comes to either rescue Brad or save my own skin.

Either way, each playthrough pushes me towards the Brad vs zombies conflict, no matter if I treat him suspiciously or try to ease his jittery fears. Both sessions have me face off against a decomposed face that emerges from a pool of water, trying to strangle me with disembodied hands. I succumb to its grisly embrace in my emotional playthrough, but I have no idea how - or if - it affects Brad as the screen fades to black and I’m back at the menu screen again. Dark Pictures has reeled me in with an intriguing mystery in its first episode, but something tells me the consequences to my actions are going to need more time to become apparent than a 10 minute demo offers. Half of me wants to obliterate the memory of Brad’s withered face from my mind… while the other wants to see if we could save him. Dark Pictures is already working its dark, malevolent magic...

Of all the announcements to come out of Gamescom 2018 so far, the announcement of a new horror anthology series from Supermassive Games will send the strongest shiver down the spines of horror fans. The Dark Pictures Anthology will launch in 2019, and the first game will be Man of Medan, the tale of a diving trip gone wrong. 

"With each title being a stand-alone game we have the opportunity to create a unique horror experience every time, with new stories, settings, characters and cast." says Supermassive Games CEO Pete Samuels.. "As a studio we have a passion to deliver powerful cinematic horror, and we can’t wait for players to experience these new games."

Man of Medan looks like a classic ghost story, one that starts when a gang of attractive young people goes rooting around for treasure in a wrecked WW2 plane. 

The series is an exciting prospect because Until Dawn was a mini-masterpiece of horror genre, making the most of the real-world acting talents of rising stars like Mr Robot's Rami Malek and delivering a real slasher film experience. Even better, the anthology set up means there should be a flavor of horror for every macabre taste. 

The series will launch on PS4, Xbox One and PC. 

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