Checking out The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes - Preview
Over the past few years Supermassive Games have created a few entries in a series they call The Dark Pictures Anthology, while Man of Medan and Little Hope were well received, it seems that the developers were taking all feedback aboard for the third chapter, House of Ashes. Thanks to Supermassive Games and Bandai Namco, we got to here from the games director, Will Doyle and see some all-new gameplay.
The Dark Pictures collection of games is one of those examples of an interconnected world, but also completely isolated tales, so if you have not played any or just one of the current two releases, picking up House of Ashes, won’t leave you out in the cold. One of the core parts of the series is that all the stories have ties to real world legends and myths, with the first game connected to the Ourang Medan and Little Hope, explored the myths around Salem and the witch trials conducted therein. House of Ashes will explore an all-new mystery, but this is not some few hundred-year-old saga, this is connected to something much older and much darker, even if it starts out in the bright and sunny vistas of Iraq. Most folks who played Little Hope will have seen the teaser for House of Ashes, when they beat the game, showing a woman walking through a river of blood and bone, using another bone as a makeshift torch.
While the myth the team are using might be centuries and centuries old, the current setting is not, set in 2003 at the end of the Iraq war, a group of American soldiers and spooks are sent in, when a satellite detects a massive underground cavern, thought to contain chemical weapons. Before they can begin their investigation proper, a team of insurgent fighter’s attack and in the midst of their battle, an earthquake hits and the ground falls out beneath them, plunging the team into ruins of a temple of Akkad, a Mesopotamian city. While the ruins of the temple are not to far below the surface, further down is something extremely dangerous and out for blood, the team were looking for weapons and they found the most dangerous ones they could have imagined.
Narām-Sîn is a real ruler of the city of Akkad, around 2,250 BC, so 4,000 years ago and while he was a mortal and ruled his kingdom, he proclaimed himself the God King and after upsetting the gods, he and his land were cursed. While the story has a somewhat dark ending in real life, the game is going for something a little more mystical, with Narām-Sîn building the temple that the modern folks find themselves in, in order to appease the gods and undo their curse, but the pleas remain unanswered and the curse still in effect.
What I liked about the story, at least what I know of it, is that the game is taking real grounding and tweaking only a few elements, to create something new and that new is not just adding in made-up people but twisting the lore to create new enemies that you haven’t seen before. The first character that we got to meet, is being played by Ashley Tisdale and while the setting might impart that she is a soldier, she is in fact a CIA office, named Rachel King. She is one of the playable folks that you can play in the game, with another two being proper soldiers and while their other characters that you will interact with, I will leave their names out, to keep things a mystery.
New characters are not the only thing that players will find, as the game has been updated their environments, camera and more, to provide a real sense that you are being watched. One of the bigger changes, as mentioned before, is that of the camera as it is now a fully controlled camera, operating in a 360degree space. This means there are no more isolated views, only seeing what the developers want you to see, it instead allows for you to explore every nook and cranny of the world and given that the world is a temple that has been untouched for thousands of years, there should be a few cool things to find. Of course, if you are exploring a dark and mysterious temple, then you would want to see what is around you and that is now possible with the dedicated flashlight button, letting you light up that dark corner or wherever else you look. As this is a game, there is a catch, when you have the flashlight on, you move a little slower, so it is perfect for exploring the dark catacombs and rooms of the temple, not so great if you are trying to see what is chasing you.
Something that some players will also like is the fact that the game is now going to allow you to select a difficulty, so you can opt for the easier choice, or throw your arms wide open and let the game throw it all at you. A difficult option is not all they have done for accessibility, they have modified how quick-time events play out, which is great, as in Little Hope it was something that we had issues with. You can set the speed of the QTE’s, meaning that if you are someone who struggles with repeatedly pressing a button as fast as you can, you can now lower the requirements, to make it feasible.
From what we got shown of the game and what Will Doyle explained, the third entry in the series, seems to be changing up what players have had in games past. The switch to a totally free camera means that the game will allow for a lot more exploration, but it could also mean people miss moments. I am also on board with the new accessibility options, especially the quick-time event preference settings, how well they work though, we will have to wait and see. The team at Supermassive Games seem to be on the right track, a new world for most everyone to explore, dangerous new enemies and more inclusive elements, time will tell if it sets the world on fire though.
The Dark Pictures Anthology - House of Ashes is coming to PC, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S, later in 2021
