Review of House Of Ashes – Cave of Demons

Perhaps all reviews of games in this series begin with a sigh that since Until Dawn (where the developers were supported by Sony’s huge budget as an exclusive publisher) in 2015, the authors have failed, despite tangible efforts to repeat the same quality. However, the games in the Dark Pictures Anthology series are an enjoyable pastime for horror fans, ideally in collaboration with other players, where you can challenge each other over every story choice. The third part of the series has perhaps the most interesting story, a new style of control and camera, and in addition, for the first time, it uses the power of new consoles.

• Platform: PS5 (peer review), PS4, X1, XSX | S, PC
• Publication date: Oct 22 2021
• Producer: Supermassive Games (England)
• Genre: movie adventure
• Czech location: Not
• Multiplayer: 2 players online, 5 offline
• Data to download: 30 GB
• Game time: 5+ hours
• Price: 899 CZK (Xzone)

60 deaths

The war in Iraq is coming to an end, but the Americans are still looking for hidden caches of enemy weapons. A new satellite system will intercept suspicious signals underground in a seemingly innocent mountain village, and a special unit, which includes CIA agents, is sent to the scene. However, after an initial encounter with Iraqi soldiers and several explosions, the survivors find themselves inside a terrifying underground labyrinth that turns out to be much more than just a cave system. Hidden hundreds of meters below the surface is a large temple dedicated to the demon Pazuzu. But besides the horrific ruins and the scattered soldiers of both sides of the conflict, there is something much more dangerous in the darkness: a monster of an unknown nature, which is not good enough to stop with gunfire.

The classic template of the series is applied again: you will gradually control five characters whose decisions affect not only their survival, but also nuances such as their character. For example, the main character, CIA agent Rachel King, may have different romances with two of the story’s characters, or she may stand on her own two feet and refuse to get close to others. Likewise, your toughest soldier can either be the ultimate violent extremist or have a secret heart of gold and reveal it at the most tense moments. Of course, it’s all the more interesting that your party has soldiers from both sides of the conflict, so you’ll have to think a lot about who to link up with and who to betray (there are also a few NPCs around you). And it all becomes even more complicated as soon as the mysterious contagion spreads between the characters.

You have to think a lot about who to connect with and who to betray.

To further complicate the decision, QTE sequences appear in the game, mastering which means the worst possible outcome for you and the characters – the solution in this case is to simply ignore the QTE challenge and let go of the situation without your intervention. . Sometimes it’s very difficult to define these moments, especially since some twists and turns are genre clichés, while others are really unpredictable. The main characters can die in 60 unique ways, so there are always plenty of traps around you. There are three main actions in the game, and the good thing about building a story is that as soon as you seem to look into it, it reveals an unexpectedly fundamental new fact, and the events and genre of the story move to a new level. Thanks to this, I was a little bored in the middle, but during the finale, the game returned all my attention to me.

Gaming and tech news

Although House of Ashes is very similar to the previous games in the series, it still has some improvements in terms of gameplay and technology. In addition to the tricky QTEs mentioned, you’ll also find a choice of overall game difficulty, or detailed QTE difficulty settings (how many button types, what time limit, whether to press fast or just hold, etc.). Thanks to this, you can adapt the stress caused by the game part of the game to yourself and your teammates (two people online or five people on the same couch with passing controls for each chapter / character). New is a fully controllable camera (previously used a pre-installed one) thanks to which you can more easily explore your surroundings, for which you also have an on / off and flashlight aiming button. While the character animations are somewhat unwieldy compared to traditional third-party games, otherwise the controllable camera is a welcome improvement.

On the PS5, flash recording of individual scenes contributes greatly to the smooth and cinematic experience of the game, but don’t expect more use of the DualSense driver. But you can count on HDR and improved lighting, which in some places really suits the game. Sound system and acting are good. You can beat the House of Ashes in one night (which is pretty good for a group game), but during a replay you can make completely different choices and get a noticeably different story. Despite my best efforts, I ended the first playthrough with two impressively tragic deaths between the main characters, but it actually seemed to me much better than if everyone had survived. But be careful because it’s true that everyone can survive, but everyone can.