One of the most presistant questions horror stories, whether it's movies, games, or TV shows, present us is who lives and who dies by the end of each tale. But what if we could have full control over the characters' fates? That's where developer Supermasive Games comes in! Inspired by their previous work on Sony's Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of reularly-released horror games where your actions and dialogue choices influence how the story plays out. But you must be careful; even the most innocent of actions can lead to disaster. Each game starts a known character actor as one of the leads, giving audiences someone to hopefuly root to survive. We even get a delightful horror host in The Curator, a British gentleman who reviews your actions at certain points and comments on how well or not things are going! However, not every game in the series has been solid. Therefore, we're ranking each of the 4 original games (excluding Directive 8020 and the VR spin-off Switchback) so far from worst to best and detailing what works and doesn't work in each one. Ready to see which of these spooky tales are worth checking out? Read on and find out!
4. Little Hope
Hands-down the second game in the antholgy is easily the worst. However, the reasons why aren't apparent until later on. The game centers on a group of students, lead by Andrew (Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3's Will Poulter), on a class trip whose bus breaks down in the titular Little Hope, Massachusetts, a town clearly inspired by Salem and with its own apparent history of witch trials as seen in visions. The group then spends the game trying to make their way through the town to get help, all the while avoiding monsters that are stalking them. Sounds simple right? Well it is....up until the very end. Without spoiling exact details (think Fight Club meets Silent Hill), the game is undermined by a final twist in the last scene that makes you question if anything that happened was even real. Even worse, it's the same regarless if everyone lives or not. It's a frustrating reveal that hampers the overall enjoyment of an otherwise competent game and can make replabilty all the more of a reluctant chore. Sorry, Suppermassive; this is one tale not worth revisting.
3. Man of Medan
The first game in the anthology, released in 2019, is significantly better, but may feel squiffy in terms of enjoyment for certain reasons. The plot this time around focuses on a group of college students, including Conrad (Shawn Ashmore of X-Men fame), who stumble upon a dellirct American warship, the Duke of Milan, floatting out in the ocean while on a diving expedition in the South Pacific Ocean. They eventually board it, only to be played by ghostly visions seemingly out to kill them. The catch? The reason for the visions is that the boat was contaminated by an experimental hallucinogenic bioweapon that causes people to eventually scare themelves to death if not careful. What puts this just over Little Hope is that, while we do get a more understandable reasoning for the spooky occurances this time, there otherwiise isn't really a proper physical threat still. We do get a group of sea pirates who kidnap the group early on, forcing them onto the deserted ship and are minor obstacles occasionally, but the game takes more stock in the psedo-supernatural elements than them. Also, the playable characters are a bit bland and forgettable, which could be tempting if you want them all to die in your first run. Overall, it's a decent start to the series, but the devs needed to do better. Thankfully, that's exactly what they did!
2. The Devil In Me
This game and the next one have a major factor in making the top 2 spots on this ranking: an actual main threat that gets the audience interested and not just a vague premise! Starring recent Oscar-winner Jessie Buckley, the game centers on a group of documentary filmmakers invited to an island masion in Lake Michigan by an enimagic figured named Granthem Du'Met. It's not long there that not everything is as it seems as, of course, Du'Met is far more unhinged than first appears. As hinted by the title, he has an obsession wiith infamous serial killer H.H. Holmes, having turned his mansion into a booby-trapped madhouse akin to Holmes' fabled "Murder Castle" and goes about wearing a porcelin mask with a Holmes-eque mustache. The group must then find away to escape the murderous fiend and his island home. All of this gives the game more of a slasher vibe that provides tension and suspense as our characters escape traps and flee the mustached murderer throughout the game, all the while descending deeper into his lair. It's a simple premise that, coupled with fun gameplay, makes for a better experience in this antholgy than half of them so far.
1. House of Ashes
This is easily this writer' favorite of the games to date and one with themes of teamwork and tolerance that ring closer to home as of late. Starring Ashleey Tisdale of Phineas and Ferb fame and set during the 2003 war in Iraq, the game follows 2 groups, one American soldiers and what remains of a group of Iraqi Repuliican Guard troops, as they unwittingly find themselves deep underground and besiged by vampiric creatures that threaten to escape above and wreak havoc. To survive this threat, the group has to work together to escape. What really sells this is the relationships between characters, especiailly between Jason on the American's side and Salim, the lone surviving Iraqi solder who seeks to return home to his son. The frienship that can form between these two felt genuine to me and gave me all the encouragement I needed to see them survive. On top of that, the "vampires" are fierce and terrifying, with a neat little sci-fi twist to them near the end that doesn't feel forced. Overall, out of the 4 games to try out, give this one a shot first if you can. You won't regret it!
What's your ranking for each game? Let me know in the comments below!
Drective 8020 is out now on PS5, Xbox Series X/S, and PC, along with the other Dark Pictures Anthology Games.