Is The Dark Pictures Anthology Good? (and How to Fix it?)

With the most recent trailer for House of Ashes, the third instalment of The Dark Pictures Anthology, I had completely forgotten about the series after moving it from my conscious thoughts to a different part of my brain. Expectations used to be high for SuperMassive after Until Dawn, which has led to some disappointment. With high hopes for a return to greatness for the studio, expectations have now been cast aside.

After Until Dawn, Supermassive released two VR experiences that were tied into the Until Dawn universe with Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and The Inpatient but it’s safe to say that for the large majority of Until Dawn fans, this wasn't what fans were looking for. The other release was Hidden Agenda, which relied on the PlayLink feature that tried to add a level of interactivity with non gamers but failed to catch on. The Inpatient and Hidden Agenda both switched to the Unreal Engine for reasons unknown as they were still PlayStation exclusives.

Fast forward almost five years, Supermassive leaving an exclusive Sony publishing deal, fully leaving behind the now famous Decima engine and finally returning to the genre that put the studio on the map. In late 2018, Supermassive announced The Dark Pictures Anthology, an eight part series that would be revisiting the interactive survival horror genre, just like Until Dawn, which put the studio on the map. Initially, it was revealed that the series would aim for a release every six months approximately but that timeline has doubled since its announcement as there have been unforeseen circumstances, namely a pandemic, have likely altered that schedule.

Present day Supermassive have now caused expectations to be rock bottom after two fairly mediocre, at best, entries with Man of Medan and Little Hope. There are lingering questions, Have these entries been just as good as Until Dawn but expectations were too high or has SuperMassive failed trying to capture that magic in a bottle that became a cult hit and commercial success in 2015? Not all hope is lost just yet as there might be a chance for House of Ashes to see drastic improvements from the first two entires, which we will touch on later.

Supermassive Problems

Sadly, one of the major hindrances of The Dark Pictures Anthology and the first two entries is that the writing has become fairly one note and predictable. Huge spoiler alert for the first two entries of The Dark Pictures Anthology but when the big reveal for Man of Medan and Little Hope are both based around some type of hallucinations or altered mental state causing all the problems, it ends up deflating the story, especially when you can see it coming. Even Until Dawn used mental illness in some capacity with Rami Malek’s character Josh. To use a similar narrative twist in three interactive survival horror games does nothing more than devalue each game.

The shift from Sony to Bandai Namco might have been in their financial benefit but more importantly it meant that Supermassive was going to have to learn to do the same experience on a different engine. The Decima Engine that was created by Guerilla is a Sony engine meaning that for The Dark Pictures Anthology, the studio had to transition to the Unreal Engine. Even thought Until Dawn came out in 2015 compared to the 2019 and 2020 entires from The Dark Pictures, there are still aspect of Until Dawn that look and play better.

Man of Medan sold relatively well for the first entry in an eight part series but there are questions as to why. Was it because people were happy to see Supermassive Games back doing interactive survival horror or was it because the word of mouth of the game was good? In August of 2020, Bandai Namco spoke with GamesIndusty.biz and mentioned that Man of Medan had sold over 1 million copies, which feels like a success for a title of that size and niche genre.

We have yet to get concrete financials on the follow up, Little Hope. Although the data we received for Man of Medan was given a full year after release and Little Hope came out in October of 2020. When Speaking with GamesIndustry, they said “The Dark Pictures Anthology is very much a long term vision and that can be difficult to discern at first glance….each volume will grow the audience. There’s a lot of ambition for us in this series” Clearly Bandai Namco sounds to be fully behind this project as a whole and if we try to read between the lines then we could assume that Little Hope will have sold as good as, if not better than Man of Medan.

The only possibility that this might not have happened would be if too many people felt burned that Man of Medan didn’t quite live up to the expectations that Supermassive set with Until Dawn in 2015. However, this doesn't seem to be the case when looking at google trends the interest for The Dark Pictures Anthology when Man of Medan was released is nearly half of the amount of Google interest when Little Hope was released. The one thing worth mentioning is that when comparing that trend to Until Dawn, there still seems to be much greater interest for what has seemingly become a cult classic.

House of Ashes

Seeing the announcement trailer for House of Ashes at the end credits of Little Hope we can see some modern day military exploring a religious temple that looks to have been recently discovered with one of the voice overs asking if you believe in god? It also insinuates with John McTiernan Predator like sounds that something is down there along with them. In a recent video, Will Doyle, Game Director said that “House of Ashes is greatly inspired by Predator, James Cameron's Aliens, and The Descent in addition to HP Lovecraft's book Mountains of Madness.

The most recent teaser trailer shows more of what the creature might also see with a Predator like sonar vision. The trailer is also once again showing the same exact thing that the first two entries in the series did with two different time periods. This time we are seeing WW2 era soldiers exploring the temple and being hunted. Based on the previous games, it would be safe to assume that SuperMassive is going to be incorporating hallucinations or an altered mental state into House of Ashes in some form. Possibly those who believe in God are spared? Either way, the big hope is that the studio and more importantly the writers use other forms of narrative devices to tell the story this time around.

In the most recent video from Supermassive that gave a longer glimpse into House of Ashes, there was enough things said that seem like the studio is not resting on their laurels. According to Doyle they are “listening to feedback from the first two game and focusing on areas that matter the most to gamers” Instead of just saying this as lip service, they detailed some important changes that are being made to the third entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, which gives hope.

The biggest change, is the move from fixed camera perspective to fully player controlled 360 degree camera, which will allow for more immersion hopefully and a better sense of exploration. This new change also goes hand in hand with a new flashlight mechanic that allows the player to shine the light where they please in hopes of discovering clues but it also hinders the player by slowing them down, which could work well for some high tension scenarios.

House of Ashes will also see three levels of difficulty which will allow each player to tailor the experience to their skill level, which is a genius idea because interactive games like that of The Dark Pictures Anthology attract both casual and hardcore gamers.

Finally, Supermassive have implemented a new single player mode called the curators. As much fun as it can be to play this game co-op with a loved one on the couch or a friend online, there is something far more terrifying about feeling isolated in horror games. It did mention that the would be part of the pre-order bonus, which wasn’t clear. Hopefully Supermassive isn’t locking this feature behind a pre-order wall. If they are able to deliver on those other series improvements, then this would feel like two steps forward and one step back.

One of the areas that doesn’t seem to be getting much improvement based on the trailer is the facial animations. Characters still have a slightly dazed look to them and they just feel a touch weird, which does eliminate some of the tension that the game is striving to create. Although, House of Ashes will be the first I the series to be optimized for the next gen consoles, so hopefully other areas will be able to heighten the tension.

Despite how House of Ashes looks promising, Supermassive’s interactive survival games including Until Dawn, Man of Medan and Little Hope have been on the decline since Until Dawn, despite critical consensus disagreeing. Until Dawn scored a 79, Man of Medan 69 and Little Hope 73. However, if the audience is growing with the series, this would likely mean more budget, more time getting allocated to the project and hopefully a script that doesn’t use the same crutch as their other games. With these meaningful changes that supermassive is implementing, there still might be hope for a return to greatness.