The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes (PlayStation 5) Preview

By Sandy Kirchner-Wilson 29.05.2021

Review for The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes on PlayStation 5

The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of horror games by SuperMassive Games, the developers of Until Dawn. So far they delved into two very different horror adventures in their games Man of Medan and Little Hope. House of Ashes looks to expand and diversify the series even further. The games are published by Bandai Namco and are available on a multitude of consoles as well as PC. SuperMassive has just finished showing off their newest game House of Ashes and it's promising a pretty large upheaval of their existing systems. The timing of this reveal is great, adding some flavour to the game's news listings just before E3 hits! Will Doyle, one of SuperMassive's Game Directors, leads players on a journey through everything House of Ashes. The excitement is palpable so let's dive on in.

This time the game follows a group of soldiers during the Iraq war who, instead of uncovering chemical weapons, find themselves at the centre of an ancient horror. During a scuffle an earthquake hits, plunging the cast into the depths of the earth. As with previous Dark Pictures games the story is based on local legend, real history and more, giving the horror a real edge of believability like a well constructed conspiracy theory. Players can look forward to exploring, puzzle solving and choosing the way the story plays out, influencing which characters will survive and which will not. As with previous games they were quick to remind everyone that literally all the characters can die in the game so best be careful when making choices. Playing as soldiers can sometimes take the tension out of a horror title but it looks like this will not be the case here.

Screenshot for The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes on PlayStation 5

Visually the gameplay shown is superb, featuring incredibly convincing acting and crazily realistic environments. The detail far outstrips what has been shown in the previous titles with what looks like a totally new lighting system. Characters all look awesome and lifelike
while the new monsters, what little we see of them, look very spooky to say the least. It looks a lot like the little robotic ticks of characters in previous games have been ironed out with each character coming across as lifelike throughout the showcase. It's genuinely impressive to see. Those playing on the new consoles can also experience a higher graphical fidelity, the features of which have not yet been revealed.

Screenshot for The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes on PlayStation 5

Along with all of this great news all of the game modes from previous installments are here to stay. Single player allows for one player to play through the story with only their choices influencing the story. Shared story mode means both players make decisions for characters drastically altering survival rates. Movie night mode allows for 4 players to couch co-op their way through the story each as different characters. These were wildly entertaining in the previous titles and are very, very welcome in House of Ashes.

Screenshot for The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes on PlayStation 5

Final Thoughts

House of Ashes is shaping up to be very interesting! The tweaks in gameplay design with more freedom to explore and search areas paired with the new scenario means this should be another bombastic, entertaining and terrifying piece of entertainment. SuperMassive blew Cubed3 away with the previous title, Little Hope, and this looks set to blow it out of the water. Look out for further news later in 2021.

Also known as

House of Ashes

Developer

SuperMassive

Publisher

Bandai Namco

Genre

Horror

Players

4

Online enabled

C3 Score

Rated $score out of 10  n/a

Reader Score

Rated $score out of 10  0 (0 Votes)

European release date None   North America release date None   Japan release date None   Australian release date None   

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