The Interactive Horror of The Dark Pictures Anthology Season One

Every choice has a consequence. Sound familiar? It's something we've been told since childhood and it’s something The Dark Pictures Anthology reminds you of in each game.

The Dark Pictures Anthology was developed by Supermassive Games in 2019. Most of the games are available to play on Playstation and Windows- some can be found on Xbox and Nintendo Switch. While I recommend playing each game for the first time by yourself, there are two multiplayer options: shared story (online) and movie night mode (local). 

These horror games stand out amongst others because they’re played almost like an interactive movie. That doesn’t mean the player is less involved; there's always the tricky quick time event (QTE) lurking around the corner and a decision waiting to be made. 

In addition, each game has hundreds of different endings all depending on the choices you make. The number of endings keeps the player coming back to find new details they missed. 

The Dark Pictures Anthology consists of four games: Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me. Other games with very similar play styles like Until Dawn have a tendency to get looped into the anthology, despite not being a part of the series. 

Until Dawn is Supermassive Games’s first crack at an interactive horror game, the anthology started afterwards. I played each game in the anthology in release date order, after I had finished playing Until Dawn, so I could get a better in depth look at each game.

Man of Medan

Released August 30, 2019, Man of Medan followed the success of Until Dawn. It plays and feels incredibly similar to Until Dawn, while also bringing new things to the table. Due to Man of Medan coming out after Until Dawn, Man of Medan doesn’t get to shine in the shadow of its predecessor. 

The gameplay of Man of Medan focuses on the relationships between characters and the decisions made by the player. Like Until Dawn there are plenty of QTEs and the abundance of them is balanced out with exploration. 

Paranoia lingers for the action packed four hour play time. To add to this growing pit in your gut is the setting. A freighter ship stranded at sea with a mysterious past. Unearthing the truth is the only way to make it to land again. 

If you’re claustrophobic it might be best to sit this one out. The narrow corridors limit your field of view and the fixed camera angles create unease. What doesn’t help is the restricted movement mechanics that keep you on edge the whole time. 

I only had one issue with Man of Medan. For eagle eyed players the big reveal can be pieced together early on, leaving the rest of the game play to almost be boring as you wait to see a twist you’ve already figured out. 

My favorite part of Man of Medan is a character called The Curator. The Curator serves as a break between chapters and helps guide the player, while also planting ideas in your mind that increase your paranoia. The Curator is in every installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology making his iconic role recurring and a highlight of every game.

Man of Medan sets up the anthology beautifully, but it falls in third place for me. I find, I forget this one exists because it's just average to me. The other installments all stand out in different ways. Leaving Man of Medan to have no notoriety when compared to the others. 

Little Hope

Little Hope is the second game in The Dark Pictures Anthology. It was released October 30, 2020 and takes roughly five hours to complete. 

The story begins with a bus crash at night, which strands our protagonists at the edge of the titular abandoned town Little Hope. The story uncovers the dark past of the town.

Little Hope is a fun change between the usual cast of young adults- there are two older characters. The player gets to experience being characters that are slow and not as resilient as the typical gang of young protagonists.

The different ages aren't the only realistic thing about the characters. The characters don’t just accept that weird things are happening all around them, they lash out in shock and shut down in disbelief. It's refreshing to have a cast that doesn’t always get along and allows for some great character dynamics.

The visuals are stunning and- for lack of a better word- real. It feels like a huge step up from Man of Medan’s visuals. The way that Little Hope plays with darkness is one of its best traits. The only reliable source of light is a dingy cell phone flashlight for most of the game. The darkness and lack of proper lighting is incredibly disorienting causing players to double back on the paths they’ve already taken.

Little Hope uses its dark setting to have scares that are subtle and have the player questioning if they were seeing things or if that shadow really did just move. 

Little Hope’s story is one of the best in the series, but the ending is rather upsetting. It’s one of those cliche endings that everyone dreads, however I feel the rest of Little Hope makes up that. The ending makes a second playthrough of the game a must because you pick up on little details that make it all click perfectly in place. I rank Little Hope as my second favorite out of all four games. 

House of Ashes

House of Ashes is the third installment released on October 22, 2021. It doesn’t feel repetitive compared to the other games and is also longer than its predecessors with a seven hour runtime. House of Ashes is rather different when compared to the others and while it would definitely draw in a new crowd, I feel as though it may have lost the fans of Man of Medan and Little Hope. 

The story takes place at the end of the Iraq war and with an American military group. After a battle the protagonists fall into an underground temple. The rest of the story follows the characters as they try to escape. 

Unlike its predecessors, House of Ashes introduces a cast that is strong and battle hardened. A nice change of pace from the usual teenage cast – like Little Hope did with its cast of varying ages. Even though the characters are soldiers that have been trained for anything, they’re still under equipped for the horrors that face them in the temple, something that makes the game even scarier. 

House of Ashes spends a good chunk of time giving you the back stories to characters and making the players love the characters, something the other games don’t do. While this attention to detail is something I typically love, I find it bogs down the story and slows the pace of the game. 

That's not the only thing that's a let down when playing House of Ashes, The Curator- my favorite character- is less prominent in this game compared to others. 

For someone looking for a traditional horror game experience House of Ashes is not that when compared to the previous two games. Which is why this game falls in fourth place for me. It doesn’t feel at home in the anthology. Yes, it has the classic choices with consequences and QTEs that make your stomach drop, but it doesn’t have the same lingering atmosphere as the other games. 

The Devil in Me

Released November 18, 2022, The Devil in Me completely subverts expectations. The others in the anthology are all supernatural threats while The Devil in Me does something completely different. 

The band of protagonists spend the seven hour runtime chasing the story of America’s first serial killer, H.H Holmes. He killed his victims in a ‘murder castle’- a hotel full of traps and moving corridors. The crew explore and film in a replica of the home. Once there everything begins to unravel and they’re stuck fighting for their lives. 

The Devil in Me finally adds a running mechanic and new movements like balancing on beams, shimming through tight spaces, and vaulting over drops. There’s also an added inventory system which allows characters to collect objects and even give stuff to other characters. Some items collected are functional and help provide light, while others can save lives. As always, the outcome lies within the player’s choices. 

The Devil in Me is the best horror experience in the anthology to date. The others games heavily rely on a shock factor- especially with their jumpscares- The Devil in Me has jumpscares but doesn’t rely on them. It keeps the tension and the peak of fear from a jumpscare throughout the full game. 

The Devil in Me is the perfect combination of the games that came before, while also bringing its own personality to the table. The narrow corridors in The Devil in Me feel a lot like the claustrophobia of Man of Medan. The eerie past haunting the narrative is like Little Hope. The antagonist that is constantly lurking and watching, just like the enemy in House of Ashes. 

The Curator has even more screen time and his scenes are better than before. It’s this little bonus that makes me rank The Devil in Me as my favorite of the anthology. The Devil in Me is the perfect wrap up for season one of the dark pictures anthology. 

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Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me are just season one of The Dark Pictures Anthology. Season two will kick off in 2026 with Directive 8020. Until then if you're looking for more games like The Dark Pictures Anthology, give Until Dawn or The Quarry a shot.