Two men approach a ledge. They are underground in an incredibly hostile environment that neither could foresee arriving in when they woke up that morning. They are tired, mentally frayed and have an uneasy trust in each other based entirely on circumstances. The first man reaches the ledge, after an awkwardly long second staring he finally drops down the 3ft drop to continue along the dimly lit path. The second man approaches the ledge but rather than drop down he freezes, staring at it whilst his comrade looks at him perplexed. The man walks away from the ledge before coming back to it freezing again. He refused to jump down to continue their trek. Was it fear preventing him? Had the ordeal and horrors he'd witnessed finally pushed his mind to far?
No, it's just that playing House of Ashes in online co-op was a miserable buggy experience.
You see I played this with a friend, we play together nearly every evening and are always looking for a new Playstation co-op experience. We had enjoyed Man of Medan despite some issues and heard this game was supposedly all around the better of the two. We ran into constant technical problems though. Characters getting stuck, locking up for no reason. The game taking forever to actually perform an action, even picking up an item to look at was a complete chore of waiting 10 seconds to see if they would actually move. We had to quit out and restart half a dozen times to get past various sections and by the end we were frustrated by it all. The thing is it wasn't just the technical problems but a variety of issues built up leaving a bitter taste in our mouths. We beat the game, kind of hated it and moved onto Wild Hearts. The thing is, I decided to go back to it to see if the game was better playing it on my own and my second experience has left me softer towards it overall though certain flaws continue regardless of player occupancy.
For those unaware The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games by developer Supermassive Games that are more like quick time event interactive movies. Your inputs decide the outcome and the wrong move at the wrong time can see characters permanently die and adjust the story outcome slightly. Our first issue with this game is the button prompts for these events. They are based on the PS5 controller with white buttons with the Cross, Triangle, Square and Circle symbols overlayed in grey. They aren't clear without colour to tell them apart and when you only have a second to work it out...well the design is awful. I went into the accessibility options to change them all to cross because it was implemented so badly when playing on my own. I will at least give them credit for those features.
A lot of the rest of the game has it's ups and downs as well. I really liked the setting going with a Mesopotamian historical influence which isn't something seen in games all too much. The modern plot setting there of the 2003 invasion of Iraq looking for chemical weapons however certainly is...a choice. It did allow a good relationship build up between two characters of Jason a lieutenant in the US marines and Salim a sergeant in the Iraqi army. Their characters and relationship are the two best parts of the whole game with some well written dialog and voice acting that bring them to life as being both professional and empathetic. If only the rest of the writing was as good or even competent because most of the other characters are just unrelatable buffoons. I didn't care for the forced interpersonal drama between 3 of them and was quite happy for them to die. They are needlessly confrontational, rude and in a lot of cases completely inconsistent. In one scene as an example:
Character 1: "What's there to think about? We go and save him"
Character 2: thinks about it for a second
Character 1: "He isn't one of us lets leave him"
It's like they are different people from line to line at times completely breaking immersion when they 180, never mind in the same conversation. Frankly except Jason and Salim they are all extremely unlikeable. I understand the developers want to build a varied cast that will leave difficult decisions for the player with conflict but they went overboard leaving a negative experience in a lot of scenes because I just didn't care about what happened to any of them.
The story also kind of lacks suspense and scares which I was surprised by. It has an interesting setting and atmosphere but it never really uses them to build up any tension or fear of the unknown. Except for a few scenes early on the game is more just a military shooter than a horror title. The magic is gone when the monster is revealed and the curtain gets drawn back. In this case it just happens all too early.
I will say my second playthrough was far more enjoyable overall regardless of the issues above. The only bugs playing solo was a trophy not unlocking (I had to disconnect from the internet and restart my PS5 replaying the scene to unlock it as a work around found by the community). I really like the visuals and general ideas presented here, they just needed more polish and to iron out the cast to a better degree. Still I am glad I went back to it as it has convinced me to play the second game in the series Little Hope which I had initially written off after my first playthrough of House of ashes, I just won't play it online...
+ Jason and Salim are great characters with an excellent comradery.
+ Visuals are gorgeous.
+ Mesopotamian setting is a nice choice.
- The other characters could all rot for all I care.
- Playstation quick time buttons are unclear.
- Online is a constant buggy mess and a semi bugged trophy.
- Not scary, no tension or build up.
- War setting is...a choice.
No, it's just that playing House of Ashes in online co-op was a miserable buggy experience.
You see I played this with a friend, we play together nearly every evening and are always looking for a new Playstation co-op experience. We had enjoyed Man of Medan despite some issues and heard this game was supposedly all around the better of the two. We ran into constant technical problems though. Characters getting stuck, locking up for no reason. The game taking forever to actually perform an action, even picking up an item to look at was a complete chore of waiting 10 seconds to see if they would actually move. We had to quit out and restart half a dozen times to get past various sections and by the end we were frustrated by it all. The thing is it wasn't just the technical problems but a variety of issues built up leaving a bitter taste in our mouths. We beat the game, kind of hated it and moved onto Wild Hearts. The thing is, I decided to go back to it to see if the game was better playing it on my own and my second experience has left me softer towards it overall though certain flaws continue regardless of player occupancy.
For those unaware The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games by developer Supermassive Games that are more like quick time event interactive movies. Your inputs decide the outcome and the wrong move at the wrong time can see characters permanently die and adjust the story outcome slightly. Our first issue with this game is the button prompts for these events. They are based on the PS5 controller with white buttons with the Cross, Triangle, Square and Circle symbols overlayed in grey. They aren't clear without colour to tell them apart and when you only have a second to work it out...well the design is awful. I went into the accessibility options to change them all to cross because it was implemented so badly when playing on my own. I will at least give them credit for those features.
A lot of the rest of the game has it's ups and downs as well. I really liked the setting going with a Mesopotamian historical influence which isn't something seen in games all too much. The modern plot setting there of the 2003 invasion of Iraq looking for chemical weapons however certainly is...a choice. It did allow a good relationship build up between two characters of Jason a lieutenant in the US marines and Salim a sergeant in the Iraqi army. Their characters and relationship are the two best parts of the whole game with some well written dialog and voice acting that bring them to life as being both professional and empathetic. If only the rest of the writing was as good or even competent because most of the other characters are just unrelatable buffoons. I didn't care for the forced interpersonal drama between 3 of them and was quite happy for them to die. They are needlessly confrontational, rude and in a lot of cases completely inconsistent. In one scene as an example:
Character 1: "What's there to think about? We go and save him"
Character 2: thinks about it for a second
Character 1: "He isn't one of us lets leave him"
It's like they are different people from line to line at times completely breaking immersion when they 180, never mind in the same conversation. Frankly except Jason and Salim they are all extremely unlikeable. I understand the developers want to build a varied cast that will leave difficult decisions for the player with conflict but they went overboard leaving a negative experience in a lot of scenes because I just didn't care about what happened to any of them.
The story also kind of lacks suspense and scares which I was surprised by. It has an interesting setting and atmosphere but it never really uses them to build up any tension or fear of the unknown. Except for a few scenes early on the game is more just a military shooter than a horror title. The magic is gone when the monster is revealed and the curtain gets drawn back. In this case it just happens all too early.
I will say my second playthrough was far more enjoyable overall regardless of the issues above. The only bugs playing solo was a trophy not unlocking (I had to disconnect from the internet and restart my PS5 replaying the scene to unlock it as a work around found by the community). I really like the visuals and general ideas presented here, they just needed more polish and to iron out the cast to a better degree. Still I am glad I went back to it as it has convinced me to play the second game in the series Little Hope which I had initially written off after my first playthrough of House of ashes, I just won't play it online...
+ Jason and Salim are great characters with an excellent comradery.
+ Visuals are gorgeous.
+ Mesopotamian setting is a nice choice.
- The other characters could all rot for all I care.
- Playstation quick time buttons are unclear.
- Online is a constant buggy mess and a semi bugged trophy.
- Not scary, no tension or build up.
- War setting is...a choice.
Story was the thing that kept this game going. Animations was mid, nearly no eye movement and occasional robotic head movements made the characters much more artificial than they are. Textures are good. Finished it in one sitting in 5 and a half hour. Just play it if you have the time and money or other means to obtain it ;) otherwise it's not a masterpiece game that you should play. There are better games on this genre than this one, so go for them.
maaaan i really wanted to get into this but its mostly another nah from me. Little Hope still on top, I'm afraid, and its not a high peak! i feel like a lot of people are going to prefer this to the prior episodes bc it doesnt klutzily trauma metaphorize/bad tripify most of its horror away, but it kinda replaces that genre-disinterested sloppiness with several sins i might find even less tolerable. REALLY hated the sanctimonious and frankly gross both sidesy iraq war enemy of my enemy shit starring a truly heinous and visually indistinct cast that's not even fun to root against. sadly the legitimately fun stunt-casting of Ashley Tisdale is mostly wasted, as her role feels pretty joyless and minor and whatever happened with her wonky bobblehead character model animation is deeply rude to her tbh!! still some camp value to be derived from her wannabe The Descent cosplay bits but eh). The creature design is a huge step down from Little Hope in terms of conceptual inventiveness and setpiece choreo imo, and all the relationship/personality stat mechanics are back to feeling mostly pointless and unintegrated into anything structurally valuable. The pacing might also be the worst in the series... after a splattery and fun enough second act closer, the game totally flatlines during its pre-finale with some awful and overlong attempts at relationship building/EXPLORATION OF "THEMES", and the plodding infodumpery is just a mess. Pretty sure the overall playtime is comparable to the rest of the series at around 4-5 hrs, but the group i was playing with all got so fatigued at this point that any atmosphere completely deflated and things really began to feel bloated and tiresome. The whole escape/epilogue is an enormous whatever.
Idk, at this point it feels fair to say that doing a one year production cycle for these wildly ambitious, modular, and asset intensive games is unrealistic and borderline harmful to the team--I am rooting for this corny lil studio and think theres a lot of talent here but its clear they're not being given the time to script, sequence, and execute any of these potentially fun ideas with the care they deserve. Cant imagine the stress Covid placed on top of this already untenable work pipeline! Its just awful to think about and I feel bad even critizing something that so clearly suffers from being a product of directorial ignorance and project management bordering on abuse. I still value this series as enjoyable enough little spectator-friendly B games to get drunk and play through with friends--its still a rather untapped niche and this team does have an undeniable signature I find charming despite it all--and I might be being especially hard on this one bc the character i played literally did almost nothing aside from that snoozeville "breathe slowly and dont get detected" button press minigame for the entire story! Still leagues better than man of medan even so. I really recommend that anyone with brain worms like me who still inexplicably wants to endure each installment of this series check out Supermassive's way less visible murder mystery side game Hidden Agenda because, while still a mess in many ways, its absolutely superior to any of these!
Idk, at this point it feels fair to say that doing a one year production cycle for these wildly ambitious, modular, and asset intensive games is unrealistic and borderline harmful to the team--I am rooting for this corny lil studio and think theres a lot of talent here but its clear they're not being given the time to script, sequence, and execute any of these potentially fun ideas with the care they deserve. Cant imagine the stress Covid placed on top of this already untenable work pipeline! Its just awful to think about and I feel bad even critizing something that so clearly suffers from being a product of directorial ignorance and project management bordering on abuse. I still value this series as enjoyable enough little spectator-friendly B games to get drunk and play through with friends--its still a rather untapped niche and this team does have an undeniable signature I find charming despite it all--and I might be being especially hard on this one bc the character i played literally did almost nothing aside from that snoozeville "breathe slowly and dont get detected" button press minigame for the entire story! Still leagues better than man of medan even so. I really recommend that anyone with brain worms like me who still inexplicably wants to endure each installment of this series check out Supermassive's way less visible murder mystery side game Hidden Agenda because, while still a mess in many ways, its absolutely superior to any of these!
this was definitely the best one in the anthology so far! i kind of lost hope for this anthology as the previous games were very meh, but this was really good (except the weird control issues and visual bugs)
it started off slow but in time i started really caring for the characters, especially salim! i just wish clarice or merwin was a playable character as well, we have 6 playable characters but 1 of them you only play with at the start of the game for 10 minutes, so my partner had way less playtime than me because he basically played with 2 characters while i did 3.
it started off slow but in time i started really caring for the characters, especially salim! i just wish clarice or merwin was a playable character as well, we have 6 playable characters but 1 of them you only play with at the start of the game for 10 minutes, so my partner had way less playtime than me because he basically played with 2 characters while i did 3.
Strongest of this series so far.
The choicing and consequencing feels a bit more present, especially compared to little hope. Whilst the characters may be less memorable than it's immediate predecessor, it wastes no time getting going and staying well paced.
Still kinda short, so there's no long term choicing and consequencing as it'll be over in 3 hours. Monsters aren't spooky, but a specific area later is well designed artistically.
Get cheap or free if you can.
The choicing and consequencing feels a bit more present, especially compared to little hope. Whilst the characters may be less memorable than it's immediate predecessor, it wastes no time getting going and staying well paced.
Still kinda short, so there's no long term choicing and consequencing as it'll be over in 3 hours. Monsters aren't spooky, but a specific area later is well designed artistically.
Get cheap or free if you can.
Is this a good game? No, not really. Is it scary? No, its not scary. Would I ever play this alone? No, there is no way I'd be able to finish this game alone. Did I have a great time laughing at how bad this game is with friends? Absolutely. The way to play these games is to pass the controller around with some friends on the couch and laugh out loud at the dumb writing and clap when your friend botches a QTE and gets their face eaten by some creature. I'll definitely be buying the next one of these terrible, stupid games.
Esse jogo é realmente muito bom, só nao dou maximo por que nao acho que seja o melhor da franquia, mas ainda sim gostei muito, jogar em Co-op torna o jogo MT MELHOR
Fui nesse um pouco atrasado depois do lançamento por que pelos trailers pareciam algo meio chato, terror com setting de guerra normalmente é ruim, ainda mais um jogo ingles sobre a guerra no iraque onde os protagonistas são soldados americanos.
POREM todavia contudo, esse é o MELHOR de longe da antologia até agora, o protagonista iraquiano é EXTREMAMENTE carismático, a relação dos personagens foi super divertida de acompanhar, e a setting que se finge de algo militar na verdade é super interessante.
Ele é muito mais de "ação" do que terror, porem é aquela ação gostosa de filmes clássicos de terror. Super recomendo!
mais uma vez estou fascinado com a antologia, é muito bom se reunir com os amigos pra jogar.
POREM todavia contudo, esse é o MELHOR de longe da antologia até agora, o protagonista iraquiano é EXTREMAMENTE carismático, a relação dos personagens foi super divertida de acompanhar, e a setting que se finge de algo militar na verdade é super interessante.
Ele é muito mais de "ação" do que terror, porem é aquela ação gostosa de filmes clássicos de terror. Super recomendo!
mais uma vez estou fascinado com a antologia, é muito bom se reunir com os amigos pra jogar.
This review contains spoilers
This is the first Dark Picture that feels like it works well no matter how the story plays out. It felt unfair to review previous entries after a single play-through. What if you were one mistake away from a tighter plot, more thematic closure, better character arcs?
Surprise surprise, maybe Baldur's Gate 3 has really changed the way I approach gaming: pre-BGS3, when I tried Man of Medan and Little Hope, I thought that "winning" meant keeping everyone alive. A death, even open conflict between characters, meant that I had strayed from the "correct" path. I finished both games stressed and unsatisfied.
Once you realize that these games aren't really about keeping characters alive, or molding them into heroes, you play them completely differently. You see themes laid out in the prologue, and then try to shape the narrative around its premise. You note the archetypes of each character and realize that, actually, yes, some of them SHOULD be ripped apart by bat vampires in order to serve the story. And when things don't go as expected, you see opportunities for delightful chaos.
Does that make these games RPGs? I'm a dipshit and don't know enough about game genres to say one way or another, but I feel like they can be approached as such, to great effect. Give away some control to the designer's intentions and judge the writing and pacing on its own merits.
As far as House of Ashes goes, the setting and themes are so rich, the production values so great, that even if the plotting misses a few QTEs of its own, and the story stacks hats on hats (imagine watching the Descent, Aliens, the Mummy, and Ghosts of Mars at the same time), it all coheres. Top notch voice acting. An action director's sense of camera placement. But, most importantly: one moral character, another who could be redeemed, and three others who really need to die for the sins of American Imperialism. Hilariously, one of them is Ashley Tisdale.
Look, there's no number of ancient alien infestations that can absolve America of the innumerable crimes done to the Iraqi people. The American presence in Iraq in 2003 was the only the most recent extra-terrestrial visit. Like the British before us, we were outsiders trying to re-form the world's oldest civilization in our own image, and left only death in our wake. Maybe Salim should drive a stake through our hearts, too.
Surprise surprise, maybe Baldur's Gate 3 has really changed the way I approach gaming: pre-BGS3, when I tried Man of Medan and Little Hope, I thought that "winning" meant keeping everyone alive. A death, even open conflict between characters, meant that I had strayed from the "correct" path. I finished both games stressed and unsatisfied.
Once you realize that these games aren't really about keeping characters alive, or molding them into heroes, you play them completely differently. You see themes laid out in the prologue, and then try to shape the narrative around its premise. You note the archetypes of each character and realize that, actually, yes, some of them SHOULD be ripped apart by bat vampires in order to serve the story. And when things don't go as expected, you see opportunities for delightful chaos.
Does that make these games RPGs? I'm a dipshit and don't know enough about game genres to say one way or another, but I feel like they can be approached as such, to great effect. Give away some control to the designer's intentions and judge the writing and pacing on its own merits.
As far as House of Ashes goes, the setting and themes are so rich, the production values so great, that even if the plotting misses a few QTEs of its own, and the story stacks hats on hats (imagine watching the Descent, Aliens, the Mummy, and Ghosts of Mars at the same time), it all coheres. Top notch voice acting. An action director's sense of camera placement. But, most importantly: one moral character, another who could be redeemed, and three others who really need to die for the sins of American Imperialism. Hilariously, one of them is Ashley Tisdale.
Look, there's no number of ancient alien infestations that can absolve America of the innumerable crimes done to the Iraqi people. The American presence in Iraq in 2003 was the only the most recent extra-terrestrial visit. Like the British before us, we were outsiders trying to re-form the world's oldest civilization in our own image, and left only death in our wake. Maybe Salim should drive a stake through our hearts, too.
By FAR the best in the dark pictures anthology
Best of the series yet.
After a terrible Man of Medan and disappointing Little Hope, House of Ashes finally hits. The characters all work. The dynamics between them are interesting. The threat is interesting and the decisions taken in the story feel more important.
Setting the game during a war and having the group be composed of characters from both sides was quite smart and did a lot to amplify the intercharacter relationships. The antagonistic force is also much more intriguing with a cooler mythology behind it.
Playing this with a friend was a great experience. Yeah this is not very well written and the decisions aren't actually that impactful, I'm sure it would be worse on a repeat playthrough, but this is the best in the anthology by a mile and some of the most fun I've had playing co-op with a friend and making decisions together.
7.3/10
Setting the game during a war and having the group be composed of characters from both sides was quite smart and did a lot to amplify the intercharacter relationships. The antagonistic force is also much more intriguing with a cooler mythology behind it.
Playing this with a friend was a great experience. Yeah this is not very well written and the decisions aren't actually that impactful, I'm sure it would be worse on a repeat playthrough, but this is the best in the anthology by a mile and some of the most fun I've had playing co-op with a friend and making decisions together.
7.3/10
easily the best dark pictures so far in the series, so excited to start the new one as each entry has surpassed its predecessor. the character development has gotten better with each game. i really ended up loving this set of characters.
This is definitely my favorite Dark Pictures game so far, and may be my favorite Super Massive game since Until Dawn. This game is much more action packed than the previous games and the breakneck pace really benefits it. I felt like this game had much more variation in the choices and consequences than the previous Dark Pictures games. The characters are all great and memorable and while the plot goes to some pretty absurd places, I found the plot twist to be really cool and unique.
salim carried the entire game i swear , love triangle was annoying as fuck though
Easily the best of the anthology in my opinion. The usual slow start in the early chapters being prep for a military operation in enemy territory does a great job of not actually feeling like a slow start, and between the rising tension over the initial threat vs the new threat/s that reveal themselves, the game is always throwing curveballs at you to make sure you never feel safe.
The underground setting works perfectly for this style of tense thriller/horror, and the main cast being marines is not only a great way to allow some really cool scenes that are believable and make sense (due to equipment/training..etc) but also enhances the fear of the big bad because if these guys are scared, then I'm fucked.
The larger reveals near the end were just the right amount of horror movie crazy without leading into ridiculous or wacky territory, and the way the story unfolds is superb. Not only do you never feel safe, but every time you think you know what's happening, well maybe you don't know quite as well as you thought huh, punk.
Really happy I got back on this series. I'm not sure if I could say this is as good as The Quarry, if only because that game's cast and runtime allowed for more of the good stuff I like, but this isn't far behind at all for me.
Definitely recommend, if you only play one game from the anthology, make it this one.
The underground setting works perfectly for this style of tense thriller/horror, and the main cast being marines is not only a great way to allow some really cool scenes that are believable and make sense (due to equipment/training..etc) but also enhances the fear of the big bad because if these guys are scared, then I'm fucked.
The larger reveals near the end were just the right amount of horror movie crazy without leading into ridiculous or wacky territory, and the way the story unfolds is superb. Not only do you never feel safe, but every time you think you know what's happening, well maybe you don't know quite as well as you thought huh, punk.
Really happy I got back on this series. I'm not sure if I could say this is as good as The Quarry, if only because that game's cast and runtime allowed for more of the good stuff I like, but this isn't far behind at all for me.
Definitely recommend, if you only play one game from the anthology, make it this one.
Definitely the best of The Dark Pictures Anthology, great to see them improving with each game. If they keep it up the next one very well could be better than Until Dawn. Only main problem is that it probably could've been about a half hour to an hour shorter and would of been a much tighter experience. Jason and Salim becoming bros was awesome and I really liked them as characters. The whole love triangle with Rachel, Eric and Nick wasn't that compelling in all honesty as they all kinda suck lol but I liked them enough to wanna keep everyone alive, far from my usual MO with these types of games. The twist this time was much better, not that interesting but compared to the stuff Little Hope pulled, it was a relief. Can't wait for the next one
A massive improvement from the previous two Dark Picture titles. Man of Medan was very "meh" and Little Hope squandered the ending. House of Ashes swung with its very unexpected setting and did not miss.
First off, the monsters in this one? Peak. God damn, that's all I ever could ask for with these games. I really wish that I wasn't thinking "There is no way they do me wrong 3 times in a row" the entire time I was playing, but I had been burned too many times before. Nope. There is a genuinely icky threat to deal with here and while we don't learn all that much about them, they are violently diabolical enough to garner a few repulses from me whenever they showed up again. The setting sells it a lot. You feel trapped and claustrophobic. You're really unsure if there is a light at the end of the tunnel when it seems like the only way to go is further down into the darkness.
I really enjoyed those aspects a lot. There's much more action in this game in comparison too. I found it way easier to accidentally murder the shit out of the characters in this one, mainly because the thematic tells in this one were way less obvious. There was some genuine pants filling whenever you missed a QTE because you never knew if it meant life or death in that one moment.
There's two storylines going on in this one and one of them is very uninteresting. I don't want to get into it without spoilers, but there's a certain triangle of characters that have some extremely annoying scenes you have to get through when you really just want to see more of the horror instead. The other plotline was fairly predictable where it was going right from the beginning, but it made for a surprisingly warm ending if you were able to keep those character's alive.
It's short and takes you for a wild ride. I was pleasantly surprised.
First off, the monsters in this one? Peak. God damn, that's all I ever could ask for with these games. I really wish that I wasn't thinking "There is no way they do me wrong 3 times in a row" the entire time I was playing, but I had been burned too many times before. Nope. There is a genuinely icky threat to deal with here and while we don't learn all that much about them, they are violently diabolical enough to garner a few repulses from me whenever they showed up again. The setting sells it a lot. You feel trapped and claustrophobic. You're really unsure if there is a light at the end of the tunnel when it seems like the only way to go is further down into the darkness.
I really enjoyed those aspects a lot. There's much more action in this game in comparison too. I found it way easier to accidentally murder the shit out of the characters in this one, mainly because the thematic tells in this one were way less obvious. There was some genuine pants filling whenever you missed a QTE because you never knew if it meant life or death in that one moment.
There's two storylines going on in this one and one of them is very uninteresting. I don't want to get into it without spoilers, but there's a certain triangle of characters that have some extremely annoying scenes you have to get through when you really just want to see more of the horror instead. The other plotline was fairly predictable where it was going right from the beginning, but it made for a surprisingly warm ending if you were able to keep those character's alive.
It's short and takes you for a wild ride. I was pleasantly surprised.
For better or worse the Dark anthology series and Supermassive games as a whole is something I certainly have.... opinions about. House of Ashes though is the bloody worst of them all, by a long shot.
The lingering feeling of having missed or got an input wrong in previous games is here turned up to the max where frequently there seemingly is no correlation between what you try to achieve and what you actually get out of the game, unless what you wanted to achieve was meaningless walking and meandering looking for clues, collectibles and any semblance of having your actions as a player matter to the outcome of the story.
And by the Lord, do we have a story here. Little over a month since the end of the Afghan war, House of Ashes delights us with one of the most tone deaf presentations of the war in the middle East that was ever given in fiction. And that's just the thematic surface because below that we have a wide array of cinematic references to cult classic horror sci-fi movies such as Alien, and Aliens, or Alien³, and Alien Resurrection, Alien vs Predator and, sometimes, it will spice things up by bringing in Prometheus and Alien Covenant. And it will always, categorically, refuse to do anything interesting with any of its inspirations and rather just give us the barebone experience of boring military dudes stuck in a midly interesting situation and you have to just take the controller maybe a couple of times because this is an interactive movie and apparently that's how we do horror today.
Too bad all this series has been so far is covering for annoying cliches and taking what could amount to a bad hour and a half long movie and stretch it to a four to five hours slog, which isn't made better by playing it with your friends. At all. Watching horror movies with your friends is fun, at best they can be deeply engaging, visceral, camp even, but playing one of these pile of manure even with company is just passing around the controller to give inputs to meaningless chores, like picking up paper documents and opening doors and fucking breathing of all things, while a movie devoid of personality and character plays, diserargind pacing, enjoyment or any semblance of quality narrative.
To hell with all this.
The lingering feeling of having missed or got an input wrong in previous games is here turned up to the max where frequently there seemingly is no correlation between what you try to achieve and what you actually get out of the game, unless what you wanted to achieve was meaningless walking and meandering looking for clues, collectibles and any semblance of having your actions as a player matter to the outcome of the story.
And by the Lord, do we have a story here. Little over a month since the end of the Afghan war, House of Ashes delights us with one of the most tone deaf presentations of the war in the middle East that was ever given in fiction. And that's just the thematic surface because below that we have a wide array of cinematic references to cult classic horror sci-fi movies such as Alien, and Aliens, or Alien³, and Alien Resurrection, Alien vs Predator and, sometimes, it will spice things up by bringing in Prometheus and Alien Covenant. And it will always, categorically, refuse to do anything interesting with any of its inspirations and rather just give us the barebone experience of boring military dudes stuck in a midly interesting situation and you have to just take the controller maybe a couple of times because this is an interactive movie and apparently that's how we do horror today.
Too bad all this series has been so far is covering for annoying cliches and taking what could amount to a bad hour and a half long movie and stretch it to a four to five hours slog, which isn't made better by playing it with your friends. At all. Watching horror movies with your friends is fun, at best they can be deeply engaging, visceral, camp even, but playing one of these pile of manure even with company is just passing around the controller to give inputs to meaningless chores, like picking up paper documents and opening doors and fucking breathing of all things, while a movie devoid of personality and character plays, diserargind pacing, enjoyment or any semblance of quality narrative.
To hell with all this.
This is definitely the best game Supermassive has made since Until Dawn. The story is a little more campy, though definitely not as much as Until Dawn, and at least somewhat interesting characters that dynamically differ where they end from where they start.
The multiplayer part (which is the only way to play) feels seamless to transition. You assign a player to take care of each of the five characters and make choices and actions for them. You can play online (the game includes only one Friend's Pass though), or there's a Movie Night mode where you can pass the controller to your friends if you're playing local. My friends and I jumped on a Discord call with video and I controlled the characters physically based on what each person decided, and it ended up working well.
If you enjoyed Until Dawn, I can't recommend it enough!
The multiplayer part (which is the only way to play) feels seamless to transition. You assign a player to take care of each of the five characters and make choices and actions for them. You can play online (the game includes only one Friend's Pass though), or there's a Movie Night mode where you can pass the controller to your friends if you're playing local. My friends and I jumped on a Discord call with video and I controlled the characters physically based on what each person decided, and it ended up working well.
If you enjoyed Until Dawn, I can't recommend it enough!
o melhor da antologia, com uma cinematografia beirando o impecável, uma história bastante original e um desfecho totalmente imprevisível, ao menos na minha experiência. a dark pictures enfim retomou o bom gosto que, até então, havia ficado lá em until dawn.
И опять, в очередной раз я ищу каких-то эмоций, которые мне подарила Until Dawn. Которую надо бы пройти по-настоящему уже, а не на ютубе 8 лет назад (возможно эти эмоции - фикция). И опять те же грабли. Хотя и с изменениями. Давайте по пунктам
Бабочка опять халтурит?
Я прошёл игру два раза. Один раз в Онлайн, другой раз в Киновечеринке. И не сказал бы что два рана оказались разными. Пара персонажей разменял, да. Ну и всё. Тут как бы детали только меняются.
Например:
- Салима могут в конце забрать на базу, если вы рацию почините
- Кларисса может в конце залететь к вам. Ну свалите вы её в овраг и всё
- Отношения любовного треугольника. Хотя кста вообще в душе не знаю, роляет это на что-то кроме пары диалогов.
Но это просто растворяется в бесконечном хождение по катакомбам. И они в большинстве случаев линейны. Хотя в некоторых случаях казалось бы.
В прошлых частях было по сути та же витвистость, но в тут прям были очень паливные моменты, где разрабы засетапили выбор, но сделать либо не успели, либо не захотели
Перед финалом, некоторые из ваших персонажей могут получить ранения. А аптечка оказывается одна. И это проговаривается вслух. Если играть повторно, то можно прикинуть, что подлечить лучше Ника, так как он пойдет в логово врага. Но игра автоматом лечит. В моём случае это два раза был Салим.
А и ещё. Есть какой-то режим Куратора, который "содержит новые сцены, в которых можно управлять другими персонажами и принимать иные решения". И это либо брехня, либо ну очень малозначительные изменения, которые можно было и в основу запихнуть.
А поиграть?!
Я помню жаловался, что много ходьбы в предыдущих играх. Ну так вот. Теперь вы на ходьбу преимущественно смотрите. А в этом мало фана. Плюс персонажи постоянно ноют о чем-то. Например, чуваки впервые видят космический корабль. Как бы нихера себе. Но видите ли Джейсон когда-то гражданскую застрелил. И иранцу надо об этом сейчас рассказать
QTE те же. Завезите головоломок уже что ли. И то будет интересней локации пылесосить
В лицо смотри!
С анимацией всё так же. Эмоции героев очень сложно считывать по серьёзке. А иногда они могут просто резко поменяться в лице. Понятно, что у разрабов дедлайн и надо быстренько игру на полку, но это не дело, правда.
Ну и что?
Да ничего собсно. Игра проходняк всё так же. Играть не советую. Но буду ли я играть в следующие части? Конечно. Потому что всё таки в этом что-то есть. Хотя в одиночку я бы не стал себя мучить
Бабочка опять халтурит?
Я прошёл игру два раза. Один раз в Онлайн, другой раз в Киновечеринке. И не сказал бы что два рана оказались разными. Пара персонажей разменял, да. Ну и всё. Тут как бы детали только меняются.
Например:
- Салима могут в конце забрать на базу, если вы рацию почините
- Кларисса может в конце залететь к вам. Ну свалите вы её в овраг и всё
- Отношения любовного треугольника. Хотя кста вообще в душе не знаю, роляет это на что-то кроме пары диалогов.
Но это просто растворяется в бесконечном хождение по катакомбам. И они в большинстве случаев линейны. Хотя в некоторых случаях казалось бы.
В прошлых частях было по сути та же витвистость, но в тут прям были очень паливные моменты, где разрабы засетапили выбор, но сделать либо не успели, либо не захотели
Перед финалом, некоторые из ваших персонажей могут получить ранения. А аптечка оказывается одна. И это проговаривается вслух. Если играть повторно, то можно прикинуть, что подлечить лучше Ника, так как он пойдет в логово врага. Но игра автоматом лечит. В моём случае это два раза был Салим.
А и ещё. Есть какой-то режим Куратора, который "содержит новые сцены, в которых можно управлять другими персонажами и принимать иные решения". И это либо брехня, либо ну очень малозначительные изменения, которые можно было и в основу запихнуть.
А поиграть?!
Я помню жаловался, что много ходьбы в предыдущих играх. Ну так вот. Теперь вы на ходьбу преимущественно смотрите. А в этом мало фана. Плюс персонажи постоянно ноют о чем-то. Например, чуваки впервые видят космический корабль. Как бы нихера себе. Но видите ли Джейсон когда-то гражданскую застрелил. И иранцу надо об этом сейчас рассказать
QTE те же. Завезите головоломок уже что ли. И то будет интересней локации пылесосить
В лицо смотри!
С анимацией всё так же. Эмоции героев очень сложно считывать по серьёзке. А иногда они могут просто резко поменяться в лице. Понятно, что у разрабов дедлайн и надо быстренько игру на полку, но это не дело, правда.
Ну и что?
Да ничего собсно. Игра проходняк всё так же. Играть не советую. Но буду ли я играть в следующие части? Конечно. Потому что всё таки в этом что-то есть. Хотя в одиночку я бы не стал себя мучить
this is the one i threw a spear through my buddy at whoops
i really liked this one idk u guys r so boring
This one’s just the peak of Dark Pictures so far. My man Salim is just the goat here
I fucking loved this one. Goes insane with the scale in a way the preceding Dark Pictures games did not, and is full of really wild sequences and decisions. The wacky horror action movie vibe it goes for really works and I was on the edge of my seat for much of the time. Dying to replay it with a friend sometime.
I would d*e for Salim
I had so much fun playing this in online co-op. Playing these games online with friends has a lot of advantages. It's way more fun than playing alone. But in my personal experience, we were chatting so much over the majority of the cutscenes that a lot of the story was lost on me.
So it's to this games immense credit that I was still emotionally invested in the story and the characters despite only half paying attention. Supermassive have really hit their stride now with this format. The visual presentation and character development is the best it's ever been. It's probably the first game in the series where I'm interested in going back and replaying so that I can get a firmer grasp on the story as a whole.
I'm genuinely looking forward to the finale of this season. This series has really grown on me in a way I couldn't have anticipated.
So it's to this games immense credit that I was still emotionally invested in the story and the characters despite only half paying attention. Supermassive have really hit their stride now with this format. The visual presentation and character development is the best it's ever been. It's probably the first game in the series where I'm interested in going back and replaying so that I can get a firmer grasp on the story as a whole.
I'm genuinely looking forward to the finale of this season. This series has really grown on me in a way I couldn't have anticipated.
I haven't hated a videogame in long while..
If I was benevolent towards this, I could point out how it is not scary in the least, how it has glaring technical issues(texture pop in) or that the face animations for some reason look worse than they do in previous installments....
however I don't see a reason to be benevolent, since this game choose to frame its silly camp fest of a plot around one of the most unnecessary military invasions in recent history.... i find it utterly tasteless!
If I was benevolent towards this, I could point out how it is not scary in the least, how it has glaring technical issues(texture pop in) or that the face animations for some reason look worse than they do in previous installments....
however I don't see a reason to be benevolent, since this game choose to frame its silly camp fest of a plot around one of the most unnecessary military invasions in recent history.... i find it utterly tasteless!
Até o meio do jogo é bem mediano, mas o final salva muito. Salim carregou o jogo nas costas e é fácil o melhor personagem da antologia inteira até agora, também gostei muito da lore do casal separado e do Jason, o Nick é o único que fica meio que sobrando