Horrendous pacing, terrible editing, overly boring, couldn't care less about the characters, silly plot. I would argue it does better than the previous two entries due to not having any sort of outrageous twist or "it was all a dream" but good lord at least that would've made it fun to poke fun at.
I loved Until Dawn, but at this point Dark Pictures anthology has to be the most terrible series I will still play every entry of on release.
I loved Until Dawn, but at this point Dark Pictures anthology has to be the most terrible series I will still play every entry of on release.
كنت بنام لو ما كانت co op
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!
Easily the best one to come out from this series so far. Had some really frustrating glitches but overall I had an absolute blast with this.
holy fuck what a drag
Probablemente, mi título favorito de la The Dark Pictures Anthology. Creo que este juego tiene todo lo bueno de los anteriores y aún más pulido para que el gameplay y el sistema de decisiones funcione de la mejor forma posible, aunque también creo que fue en Until Dawn donde llegaron a su plenitud y desde entonces no han conseguido volver a ese nivel. Por otro lado también posee ciertas deficiencias que el estudio ha venido arrastrando durante toda esta saga, como expresiones faciales, fallos de raccord y pecar de historias poco profundas, cuando a mi parecer sus ideas son buenas y frescas pero no terminan explotándolas del todo.
En definitiva, es el juego más recomendable si te gustó Until Dawn y quieres un poco más de lo mismo. Y también lo veo indicado en caso de que quieras probar este tipo de juego.
En definitiva, es el juego más recomendable si te gustó Until Dawn y quieres un poco más de lo mismo. Y también lo veo indicado en caso de que quieras probar este tipo de juego.
Once again, I came in to play one of the Dark Pictures games with very low expectations, and it turned out to be a fantastic experience with friends. This is probably a really dull game to play alone, but it works wonders as a party game. Everyone was soon super invested in their characters and the action, even earlier than with Man of Medan (which we played last weekend). Soon enough everybody would be passing the controller in an excited "go go go" manner, specially with those new dynamic transitions between characters - which are, incidentally, very cool!
I was expecting another horror experience filled with tropes, but instead we got an Avengers simulator. Well, sort of; but if you reached the final section you will know what I mean, and it was amazing at that. I guess it was quite interesting to see what a pack of Marines would do in this kind of situations where we usually see "normal" people do the most stupid shit, or go the obviously least advisable route. The plot has its twists that felt smart, although they eventually go to some very wacky lengths.
At some point I was afraid the game would glorify the military presence of the US in Iraq, and in a way it did - after all, you are shown how they try to save the day while doing some cool stuff on the way. However there is room in the plot for criticism with the inclusion of Iraqi characters (Salim being the absolute MVP here) and a couple of scenes can be read as Americans regretting their own violent and nonsensical invasion. I wish the writers had committed more towards that idea, but it's not like they remained completely neutral.
On the technical side there is a lot to praise: sound design, animations, voice acting... Like in other entries of the anthology we had some minor issues with popping, and a few face animations took too long to respond, leading to hilarious situations.
I was expecting another horror experience filled with tropes, but instead we got an Avengers simulator. Well, sort of; but if you reached the final section you will know what I mean, and it was amazing at that. I guess it was quite interesting to see what a pack of Marines would do in this kind of situations where we usually see "normal" people do the most stupid shit, or go the obviously least advisable route. The plot has its twists that felt smart, although they eventually go to some very wacky lengths.
At some point I was afraid the game would glorify the military presence of the US in Iraq, and in a way it did - after all, you are shown how they try to save the day while doing some cool stuff on the way. However there is room in the plot for criticism with the inclusion of Iraqi characters (Salim being the absolute MVP here) and a couple of scenes can be read as Americans regretting their own violent and nonsensical invasion. I wish the writers had committed more towards that idea, but it's not like they remained completely neutral.
On the technical side there is a lot to praise: sound design, animations, voice acting... Like in other entries of the anthology we had some minor issues with popping, and a few face animations took too long to respond, leading to hilarious situations.
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.
My favourite in the series so far and the first time Supermassive Games lived up to the legacy they started with Until Dawn
This review contains spoilers
Thank God the monster isn’t fake this time 3 games in. out of the 5 characters only Salim is redeemable, well if you make him nice. The rest are asses even if you try to make them nice, and who could forget the racist that become not racist if you make him.
I mentioned in my reviews of other Dark pictures games that while they were alright by themselves, they paled in comparison with Supermassive's masterpiece of horror "Until Dawn". It's clear to me though that the company has listened to the fans complaints and took some extra time to improve upon this game as it was delayed and some extra work was done on it to make it a bit closer to their previous work, and I for one think it worked out in the end. First off, this game definitely feels longer than the previous two games which was one of my initial complaints, I don't expect an interactive drama to be very long but the previous two games felt very short, especially when compared to Until Dawn (And yes, I'm going to continue to use that game as a reference point) but this one felt like it was long enough without feeling so long that it ever dragged at any point. Another big improvement was the storyline and characters, while the characters were nothing to write home about, I did enjoy the drama between them and actually found myself caring a bit about them, and wanting to keep as many of them alive as I could, as is the main goal of the game. As for the storyline, I thought it was a pretty original take combining elements from movies such as John Carpenter's "The Thing" but mostly from "The Descent", an often overlooked but masterful and suspenseful horror film from 2005. I obviously don't want to get too into the story as I'll end up giving stuff away but I will say that it was much more enjoyable, particularly finding artifacts from past characters who have their own story to tell within the story of the game itself. If you were not a big fan of "Man of Medan" or "Little hope" like I was, then I encourage you to at least give this one a try, it's the same game for the most part but the story and characters are more reminiscent of Until Dawn so that fans of that game will likely be pleasantly surprised and find that this game is worth the price.
I did not expect this one to be my favorite Dark Pictures story so far yet it is. Initial premise sounded dull to me but they did a really good job and went places with it at the end. Doesn't reach the highs of Until Dawn but it's a few steps close.
Interesting.
The best Dark Pictures so far.
7,4/10
The Dark Pictures Anthology has had a rough start. Man of Medan was a semi-turbulent debut while Little Hope, the second entry, deserved to be burned at the stake. House of Ashes is the third entry and takes the series to Iraq circa 2003. It’s a unique place and time that’s ripe for a horror game and while it is the best of the trio, it’s still a clumsy narrative game filled with technical shortcomings, peculiar pacing, and wonky animation.
Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1198038-the-dark-pictures-anthology-house-of-ashes-review-ps4-ps5
Read the full review here:
https://www.comingsoon.net/games/reviews/1198038-the-dark-pictures-anthology-house-of-ashes-review-ps4-ps5
This review contains spoilers
English/German below
It took me almost 5 1/2 hours in co-op for this interactive survival action "horror". I also played the predecessors in co-op and overall House of Ashes is the best part for me. In retrospect, part 1 was rather weak, part 2 does it better and part 3 ultimately the strongest.
Nevertheless, you don't get your money's worth in terms of horror, House of Ashes is much more geared towards action. But that doesn't really bother me, for me personally there isn't much good horror anyway (regardless of whether it is a film or a game).
the atmosphere
We liked the setting very much, the narrow streets in this outdated system of ruins created an oppressive effect and made the demonic beings more threatening. The game has a fabulous staging that is graphically pretty, but has to deal with bugs and texture errors. The reloading of textures in cutscenes was already done in a very high density (Series X). The facial expressions were also a bit bumpy in places, which is a shame, especially with such a game that is more of a film than a game.
But I found the presentation itself outstanding, because a lot is staged by numerous video sequences. The cut scenes in particular were pretty good.
story
It's just more action than horror. The Iraq war had to serve as the starting point for the setting, but the whole thing then turns into very exciting and sometimes surprising twists and turns. I hadn't really expected to explain where the "demons" come from, even if you probably know it from well-known film adaptations. I just didn't think about it and was then all the more surprised and, above all, positively surprised how the game was developing. Even at this junction in the story relatively at the end, the scenery is really good again and grows beyond itself.
I basically all liked the characters, even if some of them were very questionable characterizations, but that's part of the character. Otherwise, in terms of dialogue, it is not the yellow of the egg, to put it cautiously, but there are really worse things. I found the conversation with the two "warring" soldiers' factions at the end very strong.
For me a significant increase in story building, but all in all nothing really special here. To be honest, I never approached the Dark Pictures Anthology with the expectation of experiencing the finest storytelling. It just goes with everything in the background.
Gameplay
Well, you know what to expect in terms of gameplay. That is not much. It's just more of an interactive film without great gameplay. Sometimes a Quicktime event here to explore something in the form of a walking simulator. It's banal and suggests a little more freedom in exploring, especially in the catacombs or the temple area, but it's still very, very limited. Here the game could have offered a little more gameplay sections, which does not mean that the cutscenes should be shortened.
The co-op worked very well for the most part and is divided up in an interesting way. My colleague could then make a comparison in the stream from time to time and there were clear differences until the characters were brought back together or not (4/5 or 4/6 survived with us, I don't even know how much those were). These differences existed right at the beginning of the tutorial, where everyone had completely different video sequences.
SORRY, we had desynchronizations from time to time, so that sometimes it did not go on because one of them had reached progress faster or connection errors (despite a two-sided perfect connection). Fortunately, this only led to going into the main menu for a short time and accepting loading times because the co-op partner was still playing on a One X. Annoying and definitely open to criticism, but not a complete break because the save points were set well.
Conclusion
So far the best part of the series for us and very fun, exciting and also surprising. Unfortunately, the horror is neglected again. 4/5 demons.
---------------------------------german---------------------------------
Knapp 5 1/2 Stunden hab ich im Koop für diesen interaktiven Survival-Action-"Horror" gebraucht. Die Vorgänger habe ich auch im Koop gespielt und insgesamt ist House of Ashes der beste Teil für mich. Teil 1 war rückblickend eher ziemlich schwach, Teil 2 macht es besser und Teil 3 letztlich am stärksten.
Trotzdem kommt man horrortechnisch nicht auf seine Kosten, House of Ashes ist deutlich eher auf Action ausgelegt. Das stört mich aber im Grunde nicht, es gibt sowieso für mich persönlich nicht viel guten Horror (egal ob Film oder Spiel).
Atmosphäre
Das Setting hat sehr gut gefallen, die beengten Gassen in diesem veralteten Ruinensystem haben eine beklemmende Wirkung erzeugt und die dämonischen Wesen bedrohlicher gemacht. Das Spiel hat eine fabelhafte Inszenierung, die grafisch hübsch ist, aber teilweise mit Bugs und Texturenfehlern zu kämpfen hat. Gerade das Nachladen von Texturen in Zwischensequenzen war schon in sehr hoher Dichte erfolgt (Series X). Auch die Mimik war teilweise etwas holprig, was gerade bei so einem Spiel, das mehr Film als Spiel ist, sehr schade ist.
Aber die Darstellung an sich fand ich überragend, weil auch gerade vieles durch etliche Videosequenzen in Szene gesetzt wird. Gerade die Cutscenes sind ziemlich gut gewesen.
Story
Es ist ganz einfach mehr Action als Horror. Zum Setting musste als Ausgangssituation der Irakkrieg herhalten, das ganze verfrachtet sich dann aber in sehr spannende und teilweise auch überraschende Wendungen. Gerade mit dem Erklären woher die "Dämonen" kommen hatte ich nicht wirklich gerechnet, auch wenn man das sicher aus bekannten Verfilmungen kennt. Da habe ich einfach nicht dran gedacht und war dann umso überraschter und vor allem positiv überraschter, wie sich das Spiel entwickelt. Auch gerade an dieser Abzweigung in der Story relativ am Ende ist die Szenerie nochmal so richtig gut und wächst über sich hinaus.
Die Charaktere haben mir im Grunde alle gut gefallen, auch wenn manche sehr fragwürdige Charakterisierungen darstellten, aber das gehört dann eben zu der Figur dazu. Ansonsten ist das dialogstechnisch jetzt nicht das Gelbe vom Ei, um es vorsichtig auszudrücken, aber es gibt auch wirklich schlimmeres. Gerade das Gespräch mit den beiden "verfeindeten" Soldatsfraktionen am Ende fand ich schon sehr stark.
Für mich eine deutliche Steigerung in der Storybildung, aber Bäume wurden hier nun wirklich nicht ausgerissen. Ehrlich gesagt ging ich bei der Dark Pictures Anthology nie mit der Erwartung heran Storytelling vom Feinsten zu erleben. Es läuft halt alles im Hintergrund so mit.
Gameplay
Naja, also man weiß ja was man gameplaytechnisch erwarten kann. Das ist nicht viel. Es ist eben mehr ein interaktiver Film ohne großartiges Gameplay. Mal ein Quicktimeevent hier mal etwas erkunden in Form eines Walking Simulators. Es ist banal und man suggeriert etwas mehr Freiheit im Erkunden, gerade in den Katakomben bzw. dem Tempelbereich, aber es ist trotzdem sehr sehr limitiert. Hier hätte das Spiel gerne mal etwas mehr Gameplaysektionen bieten können, was nicht bedeutet, dass die Cutscenes gekürzt werden sollen.
Der Koop hat meistens sehr gut funktioniert und ist an sich interessant aufgeteilt. Mein Kollege konnte dann bei mir im Stream ab und zu verglichen und da gab es dann schon deutliche Unterschiede, bis die Charaktere eben wieder zusammengeführt worden sind oder nicht (Überlebt haben bei uns 4/5 oder 4/6, ich weiß gar nicht mehr wieviel das waren). Diese Unterschiede gab es schon direkt am Anfang im Tutorial, bei dem jeder völlig andere Videosequenzen hatte.
LEIDER hatten wir immer wieder mal desynchronisierungen, sodass es manchmal nicht weiterging, weil der eine schneller den Progress erreicht hatte oder Verbindungsfehler (trotz beidseitiger einwandfreier Verbindung). Das führte dann zum Glück aber nur dazu kurz ins Hauptmenü zu gehen und eben Ladezeiten in Kauf zu nehmen, weil der Koop-Partner noch auf einer One X gespielt hat. Lästig und definitiv auch kritisierbar aber kein kompletter Beinbruch, weil auch die Speicherpunkte gut gesetzt waren.
Fazit
Bisher für uns der beste Teil der Reihe und sehr spaßig, spannend und auch überraschend. Leider kommt der Horror wieder zu kurz. 4/5 Dämonen.
It took me almost 5 1/2 hours in co-op for this interactive survival action "horror". I also played the predecessors in co-op and overall House of Ashes is the best part for me. In retrospect, part 1 was rather weak, part 2 does it better and part 3 ultimately the strongest.
Nevertheless, you don't get your money's worth in terms of horror, House of Ashes is much more geared towards action. But that doesn't really bother me, for me personally there isn't much good horror anyway (regardless of whether it is a film or a game).
the atmosphere
We liked the setting very much, the narrow streets in this outdated system of ruins created an oppressive effect and made the demonic beings more threatening. The game has a fabulous staging that is graphically pretty, but has to deal with bugs and texture errors. The reloading of textures in cutscenes was already done in a very high density (Series X). The facial expressions were also a bit bumpy in places, which is a shame, especially with such a game that is more of a film than a game.
But I found the presentation itself outstanding, because a lot is staged by numerous video sequences. The cut scenes in particular were pretty good.
story
It's just more action than horror. The Iraq war had to serve as the starting point for the setting, but the whole thing then turns into very exciting and sometimes surprising twists and turns. I hadn't really expected to explain where the "demons" come from, even if you probably know it from well-known film adaptations. I just didn't think about it and was then all the more surprised and, above all, positively surprised how the game was developing. Even at this junction in the story relatively at the end, the scenery is really good again and grows beyond itself.
I basically all liked the characters, even if some of them were very questionable characterizations, but that's part of the character. Otherwise, in terms of dialogue, it is not the yellow of the egg, to put it cautiously, but there are really worse things. I found the conversation with the two "warring" soldiers' factions at the end very strong.
For me a significant increase in story building, but all in all nothing really special here. To be honest, I never approached the Dark Pictures Anthology with the expectation of experiencing the finest storytelling. It just goes with everything in the background.
Gameplay
Well, you know what to expect in terms of gameplay. That is not much. It's just more of an interactive film without great gameplay. Sometimes a Quicktime event here to explore something in the form of a walking simulator. It's banal and suggests a little more freedom in exploring, especially in the catacombs or the temple area, but it's still very, very limited. Here the game could have offered a little more gameplay sections, which does not mean that the cutscenes should be shortened.
The co-op worked very well for the most part and is divided up in an interesting way. My colleague could then make a comparison in the stream from time to time and there were clear differences until the characters were brought back together or not (4/5 or 4/6 survived with us, I don't even know how much those were). These differences existed right at the beginning of the tutorial, where everyone had completely different video sequences.
SORRY, we had desynchronizations from time to time, so that sometimes it did not go on because one of them had reached progress faster or connection errors (despite a two-sided perfect connection). Fortunately, this only led to going into the main menu for a short time and accepting loading times because the co-op partner was still playing on a One X. Annoying and definitely open to criticism, but not a complete break because the save points were set well.
Conclusion
So far the best part of the series for us and very fun, exciting and also surprising. Unfortunately, the horror is neglected again. 4/5 demons.
---------------------------------german---------------------------------
Knapp 5 1/2 Stunden hab ich im Koop für diesen interaktiven Survival-Action-"Horror" gebraucht. Die Vorgänger habe ich auch im Koop gespielt und insgesamt ist House of Ashes der beste Teil für mich. Teil 1 war rückblickend eher ziemlich schwach, Teil 2 macht es besser und Teil 3 letztlich am stärksten.
Trotzdem kommt man horrortechnisch nicht auf seine Kosten, House of Ashes ist deutlich eher auf Action ausgelegt. Das stört mich aber im Grunde nicht, es gibt sowieso für mich persönlich nicht viel guten Horror (egal ob Film oder Spiel).
Atmosphäre
Das Setting hat sehr gut gefallen, die beengten Gassen in diesem veralteten Ruinensystem haben eine beklemmende Wirkung erzeugt und die dämonischen Wesen bedrohlicher gemacht. Das Spiel hat eine fabelhafte Inszenierung, die grafisch hübsch ist, aber teilweise mit Bugs und Texturenfehlern zu kämpfen hat. Gerade das Nachladen von Texturen in Zwischensequenzen war schon in sehr hoher Dichte erfolgt (Series X). Auch die Mimik war teilweise etwas holprig, was gerade bei so einem Spiel, das mehr Film als Spiel ist, sehr schade ist.
Aber die Darstellung an sich fand ich überragend, weil auch gerade vieles durch etliche Videosequenzen in Szene gesetzt wird. Gerade die Cutscenes sind ziemlich gut gewesen.
Story
Es ist ganz einfach mehr Action als Horror. Zum Setting musste als Ausgangssituation der Irakkrieg herhalten, das ganze verfrachtet sich dann aber in sehr spannende und teilweise auch überraschende Wendungen. Gerade mit dem Erklären woher die "Dämonen" kommen hatte ich nicht wirklich gerechnet, auch wenn man das sicher aus bekannten Verfilmungen kennt. Da habe ich einfach nicht dran gedacht und war dann umso überraschter und vor allem positiv überraschter, wie sich das Spiel entwickelt. Auch gerade an dieser Abzweigung in der Story relativ am Ende ist die Szenerie nochmal so richtig gut und wächst über sich hinaus.
Die Charaktere haben mir im Grunde alle gut gefallen, auch wenn manche sehr fragwürdige Charakterisierungen darstellten, aber das gehört dann eben zu der Figur dazu. Ansonsten ist das dialogstechnisch jetzt nicht das Gelbe vom Ei, um es vorsichtig auszudrücken, aber es gibt auch wirklich schlimmeres. Gerade das Gespräch mit den beiden "verfeindeten" Soldatsfraktionen am Ende fand ich schon sehr stark.
Für mich eine deutliche Steigerung in der Storybildung, aber Bäume wurden hier nun wirklich nicht ausgerissen. Ehrlich gesagt ging ich bei der Dark Pictures Anthology nie mit der Erwartung heran Storytelling vom Feinsten zu erleben. Es läuft halt alles im Hintergrund so mit.
Gameplay
Naja, also man weiß ja was man gameplaytechnisch erwarten kann. Das ist nicht viel. Es ist eben mehr ein interaktiver Film ohne großartiges Gameplay. Mal ein Quicktimeevent hier mal etwas erkunden in Form eines Walking Simulators. Es ist banal und man suggeriert etwas mehr Freiheit im Erkunden, gerade in den Katakomben bzw. dem Tempelbereich, aber es ist trotzdem sehr sehr limitiert. Hier hätte das Spiel gerne mal etwas mehr Gameplaysektionen bieten können, was nicht bedeutet, dass die Cutscenes gekürzt werden sollen.
Der Koop hat meistens sehr gut funktioniert und ist an sich interessant aufgeteilt. Mein Kollege konnte dann bei mir im Stream ab und zu verglichen und da gab es dann schon deutliche Unterschiede, bis die Charaktere eben wieder zusammengeführt worden sind oder nicht (Überlebt haben bei uns 4/5 oder 4/6, ich weiß gar nicht mehr wieviel das waren). Diese Unterschiede gab es schon direkt am Anfang im Tutorial, bei dem jeder völlig andere Videosequenzen hatte.
LEIDER hatten wir immer wieder mal desynchronisierungen, sodass es manchmal nicht weiterging, weil der eine schneller den Progress erreicht hatte oder Verbindungsfehler (trotz beidseitiger einwandfreier Verbindung). Das führte dann zum Glück aber nur dazu kurz ins Hauptmenü zu gehen und eben Ladezeiten in Kauf zu nehmen, weil der Koop-Partner noch auf einer One X gespielt hat. Lästig und definitiv auch kritisierbar aber kein kompletter Beinbruch, weil auch die Speicherpunkte gut gesetzt waren.
Fazit
Bisher für uns der beste Teil der Reihe und sehr spaßig, spannend und auch überraschend. Leider kommt der Horror wieder zu kurz. 4/5 Dämonen.
Another year, another installment of ‘The Dark Pictures Anthology’. Looking back at previous entries, I think ‘Man of Medan’ was OK but it wasn’t anything particularly memorable, while ‘Little Hope’ played and looked a bit better, so I think it was a step in the right direction.
Fortunately, I feel that ‘House of Ashes’ again managed to improve upon almost every aspect of its predecessors, even it’s still not on par with the absolute classic ‘Until Dawn’. Difficulty options are definitely a welcome change, and so are the more fluid controls. As for the story, in my opinion, the writing was fine, and I believe even the more experienced horror fans will be surprised at one or two plot twists. You can also expect the usual jump scares here and there, although they weren’t that effective this time around. Sometimes I found myself counting down to them with surprising accuracy.
We also get a solid cast of characters, and most of them are really worth caring for. With a little work you can turn even the most frustrating ones into more or less likable companions and useful allies – which makes losing them all the more annoying. And let me warn you, you WILL most probably see them die quite often… ‘House of Ashes’ is perhaps the most difficult episode in the series if you’re aiming to keep everyone alive. Good luck with that!
All in all, if you played the previous games, you obviously shouldn’t miss this one, either. And anyway, it’s Halloween, so why not put yourself into a horror movie?
Fortunately, I feel that ‘House of Ashes’ again managed to improve upon almost every aspect of its predecessors, even it’s still not on par with the absolute classic ‘Until Dawn’. Difficulty options are definitely a welcome change, and so are the more fluid controls. As for the story, in my opinion, the writing was fine, and I believe even the more experienced horror fans will be surprised at one or two plot twists. You can also expect the usual jump scares here and there, although they weren’t that effective this time around. Sometimes I found myself counting down to them with surprising accuracy.
We also get a solid cast of characters, and most of them are really worth caring for. With a little work you can turn even the most frustrating ones into more or less likable companions and useful allies – which makes losing them all the more annoying. And let me warn you, you WILL most probably see them die quite often… ‘House of Ashes’ is perhaps the most difficult episode in the series if you’re aiming to keep everyone alive. Good luck with that!
All in all, if you played the previous games, you obviously shouldn’t miss this one, either. And anyway, it’s Halloween, so why not put yourself into a horror movie?
Full review:
https://youtu.be/fIwAc47nxWc
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Choices really have an impact
Quick Time Events create tension
Great environments & atmosphere
Interesting story, characters and threat
Multiple unique deaths for each playable character
Little gameplay: more like an interactive movie
More action than horror
About 6 hours long with high replayability
Excellent voice acting and sound design
Multiplayer modes (2P online & up to 5P couch co-op)
* New additions: full camera control during exploration and difficulty levels
https://youtu.be/fIwAc47nxWc
--------------------
Choices really have an impact
Quick Time Events create tension
Great environments & atmosphere
Interesting story, characters and threat
Multiple unique deaths for each playable character
Little gameplay: more like an interactive movie
More action than horror
About 6 hours long with high replayability
Excellent voice acting and sound design
Multiplayer modes (2P online & up to 5P couch co-op)
* New additions: full camera control during exploration and difficulty levels
damn, more like the house of asses, that one was a doo doo snooze fest.
Much much more solid that the previous Dark Pictures games. More interesting gameplay, appreciate the threat actually being real instead of just using constant purposeful misdirection. Lot of fun twists.
Great one to play with friends and have a couple giggles.
Great one to play with friends and have a couple giggles.
probably the best Dark Pictures experience yet. Choices matter more than ever and the amount of branching paths is astounding; much more replayability. Characters are actually smart and likeable with meaningful arcs that can expand or flop depending on your actions.
The best entry in the series yet. Cuts down on the tedium and more narrow storytelling from Little Hope, which was 100% the right call.
The writing is still DTV quality at best and it's kind of hilarious how the game is punching WAAAAAAY above it's weight when it comes to trying to tackle some Serious Political Themes, but that just adds to the charm.
The Dark Pictures series has become a yearly Halloween tradition for me now and I'm optimistic that The Devil Within Me will be even better.
The writing is still DTV quality at best and it's kind of hilarious how the game is punching WAAAAAAY above it's weight when it comes to trying to tackle some Serious Political Themes, but that just adds to the charm.
The Dark Pictures series has become a yearly Halloween tradition for me now and I'm optimistic that The Devil Within Me will be even better.
This review contains spoilers
Definitely more refined than everything else since Until Dawn. I enjoyed the shorter experience in lieu of pointlessly walking around empty spaces looking for collectibles. Some conversation topics could be skipped without knowing what you were really skipping, which prevented us from getting some of the story. Jason, Salim, and Nick survived.
Assistido*
Eles tem que ruxar cada um dos jogos por ano, é claro que não vai ficar polido, e esse é outro exemplo, mas é legal de assistir mesmo assim.
Eles tem que ruxar cada um dos jogos por ano, é claro que não vai ficar polido, e esse é outro exemplo, mas é legal de assistir mesmo assim.
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
Pünktlich kurz vor Halloween gab es auch 2021 wieder einen Ableger der Dark Pictures Anthology, diesmal mit Irak-Kriegs Setting. Als Koop-Spiel funktioniert das Spielprinzip immer noch wahnsinnig gut, nur das Setting hat in diesem Teil nicht zu 100% meinen Geschmack getroffen. Trotzdem ist die Inszenierung top und allein durch das Spielprinzip war es eine gelungene Spielerfahrung.
SALIM MY BELOVED <333
not interested in playing us marines interrogating iraqi prisoners.
As far as the games in the series go, kinda enjoyed this one a lot more than I thought I would. Felt like a story dealing with military characters wasn't going to resonate well with me (especially given how very pointedly they try and make your initial interactions between characters awkward for one-another), but it kinda drew me in as the game progressed.
I still hate QTEs to death, House of Ashes at least made me feel like stealth and action moments were important, even if you could feel out the pattern of when the QTEs were coming (especially in the final stand-off of the game).
It doesn't win any awards for me and sometimes characters had a bit of that creepy uncanny valley look to them (Rebecca more than anyone else), but it was fun and probably the best DPA game in the series (if you don't count Until Dawn, which the series doesn't seem to do, either).
Get it on sale, as it's about six to seven hours if you are being careful and trying to find collectables (I collected all frames and 43/50 secrets). There is replayability as always because of different storyline potentials and achievements/trophies, so it's worth it simply on the principle of treating it like going to the movies -- this is largely just an interactive movie that runs about 3-4 times as long as your typical movie, priced at about 2-3 times the cost of a movie, with extra reasons to go back and "watch" it again. If nothing else, get a friend to come over and watch them play through it and see how much their choices differ.
I'd say it's a reasonable deal at 30% off, a steal at 50%.
I still hate QTEs to death, House of Ashes at least made me feel like stealth and action moments were important, even if you could feel out the pattern of when the QTEs were coming (especially in the final stand-off of the game).
It doesn't win any awards for me and sometimes characters had a bit of that creepy uncanny valley look to them (Rebecca more than anyone else), but it was fun and probably the best DPA game in the series (if you don't count Until Dawn, which the series doesn't seem to do, either).
Get it on sale, as it's about six to seven hours if you are being careful and trying to find collectables (I collected all frames and 43/50 secrets). There is replayability as always because of different storyline potentials and achievements/trophies, so it's worth it simply on the principle of treating it like going to the movies -- this is largely just an interactive movie that runs about 3-4 times as long as your typical movie, priced at about 2-3 times the cost of a movie, with extra reasons to go back and "watch" it again. If nothing else, get a friend to come over and watch them play through it and see how much their choices differ.
I'd say it's a reasonable deal at 30% off, a steal at 50%.