Dark Pictures Anthology – The Devil in Me

The Devil in Me is the fourth installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology series and follows in the footsteps of its predecessors. adventure game with construction solutions etc. quick events. Although the title copies or even better leaves the same patterns in the gameplay, it is not afraid to come changes that make the whole experience a much more gruesome event.

History is one such change. The narrative again introduces us to a group of characters, this time five who follow the trail of the first serial killer, H. H. Holmes, straight to a replica of his hotel mansion. So, you have an abandoned hotel and a serial killer. If that doesn’t sound like a recipe for horror, add in the fact that the five characters are part of a film crew that decided to shoot a documentary in this location, and you’ve got all the flavor of horror in a bun. . And very spicy buns.

Maybe you’re just trying to find the change I was talking about. This is primarily an attempt to tell a story that is truly believable, and thereby present the player with a premise that will not sound like something out of a sci-fi thriller, but like a real event. In other words, the game too does not work with supernatural elements. And when it does, it does it in such a mysterious way that you either involuntarily believe or very simply transform it into a really possible situation.

This has a big impact not only on the gameplay, but also on the characters. Logically, if you find yourself in a more tense and painful situation, you will start to worry a little about the characters for whose actions you are responsible. And for me to worry about my characters, or even hint that I like them, that probably never happened to me on the show. The main characters are not perfect, many of them have half-empty characters, but whether I’m with the whole group or individual actors she was the most sympathetic in the game series. For example, when I lost the character of Erin, there was a moment when I really regretted my decision, even though it was quite stupid, and because I sympathized with this character. But that brings me straight to the solutions.

I made a stupid choice because the game practically led me to it. Explain: the solution seems very random. While you can usually decide the outcome of one decision, like the Hercule Poirot case, with another you can carefully weigh the pros and cons, but in general it will be like the 50/50 clue in “I want to be a millionaire.”

I understand that this may be a reflection of the fact that certain split-second decisions can be a) complex and b) truly random. Personally, I think it’s a shame when with a name pretending to help you at any cost, but in the end, help is like a scream in the dark. Nobody.

An excellent case is, for example, the so-called foreboding, which you know from previous episodes, which should give you a hunch of what might happen, but rarely helps. Or a bunch of evidence and information that only leads to a lot of useless hints that make you make the wrong choice. On the other hand – and this can please and infuriate you – such decisions in the game in reality not so much. At least compared to the previous parts.

The devil in me is making one big change, and that’s getting rid of the label that many would surely give the game: Illustrated or Interactive Film. Supermassive Games are known for their cinematic cutscenes and stories that develop on their own but require the player to find direction. It hasn’t gone away, but the creators are trying to make The Devil in Me a real adventure, not an interactive movie. Almost imagine a light concoction of the Resident Evil series in the hands of Supermassive Games. This is a bold statement, so take it with a grain of salt, but there really is something to it.

The fourth game in the series uses free movement and camera work. This means that static angles are kept to a minimum here, and you play with the controls in your hands for most of the game. And mostly with good control. Although the studio had and still has small bugs in the case of camera control, which do not favor narrow spaces, progress is clearly visible. Even this change has a significant effect on atmospheric change.

Games from Supermassive Games have taught us that before every jump scar or action scene, the game takes control and gives us enough space to vent our fear. However, in The Devil in Me, you feel like they don’t need it, which makes the game even more terrible. Thus, control is in your hands until the last possible moment when you need to defend yourself. And sometimes the game even leaves it up to you.

In this case, I mean not only the quick events that have become typical for the studio, but also the construction of decisions. The Devil in Me adds an additional game mechanic that tells you: ha, now it’s all in your hands. In the game you can not only to run, but now you can (and should) also hide. The title offers you quite a lot of time, but it’s not what I expected from a game like this, which is why I was more scared than I wanted to be on more than one occasion.

But this is not the end. In the game, you will continue to collect various documents and clues that will help you solve the final puzzle and learn more about the antagonist and characters. But you also get items that characters may or may not subsequently use. Some items, such as a business card, a camera or a flashlight, will be with the characters from the very beginning, and with the exception of some that you may lose through your own fault, most of them will remain with you until the end. However, you can also transfer other items to another person, thereby significantly influencing future events and their fate.

Although the result turned out to be few useful things, I must appreciate this step of the creators. The game is not only more like an adventure game, but also this brings another way to interact with the characters and the environment into the game.. And the title just needed it.