The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope isn’t a long game by any measure, but what it delivers in its time is used effectively enough to purvey a sense of dread. While not necessarily a traditional horror game full of jump scares or horrific machinations, Little Hope attempts to deliver nuance in the style of an arthouse horror film. It mostly gets there depending on a player's choice, but overall it doesn’t completely stick the landing. Little Hope’s themes put in a 2020-context make it stand out as a horror title but otherwise, it offers very little in terms of true horror.
“So. Much. Death.”
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope straddles the line between identity turmoil and interpersonal conflict in a time where we struggle to truly understand who we are as a society. Falling somewhere closer to A24’s The Witch (2015) than The Blair Witch Project (1999) in terms of horror, Little Hope often asks questions deeper than a typical horror romp. Who are we in our own stories? What guilt do we carry with us throughout our lives? How do we deal with internalized existential dread without affecting our loved ones? Little Hope is more than just the title of Supermassive Games’ latest entry, it embodies every stitch of the story it attempts to unfold.
It’s seemingly difficult to fully review Little Hope based solely on the fact that so much of what makes the game work is how it doles out its story, and I would be remiss if I were to spoil any major plot points. That being said, Little Hope does little in the way of actual jump scares or throwing various macabre depictions in the player’s direction. Instead, Supermassive opts to lull players deeper into the town of Little Hope, teasing players with eventual scares instead of revealing its hand. The game never feels truly horrific in the moment; it’s only when reflecting back on choices made and themes revealed does Little Hope’s horror start to stand out.
Little Hope follows five atypical horror characters stranded from a bus crash who are seeking to make it through the night in the town of Little Hope. It’s a town besieged by industrial shutdowns and job losses, showing what a true economic downturn can do to a small town. But the horror within Little Hope is centuries old: the main tourism draw is its cruel history of witchcraft and community distrust. As the five characters dive deeper into the town’s past, a mysterious ghost drags each of them back in time to witness the cruelty of the Little Hope Witch Trials and the fallout from them.
Player choice, a staple in Supermassive’s Dark Picture Anthology games (along with 2015’s Until Dawn), is key in the storytelling throughout Little Hope. Player decisions and actions/inactions play key roles in determining the fates of all of the characters throughout a single playthrough. In my two different 3-4 hour playthroughs of the story, I found that all of my choices did culminate in different endings; although I do feel as though my first playthrough/ending was the most defining one. Again, it’s difficult to divulge too much information here, but I’ll leave you with this: even if you seek redemption and attempt to do the right thing, it may come back to bite you in the end.
The gameplay mechanics throughout Little Hope do very little in terms of innovation from past Supermassive titles. Little Hope controls and presents itself as it did in Man of Medan, using locked camera angles to create a surreal cinematic experience throughout. What really stood out were the awkward cuts between various scenes throughout the game. Since the game is very choice-heavy with multiple scenarios playing out based on what a player chooses, oftentimes scenes would have weird jump cuts between dialogue and action, or between one dialogue scene and another. It was often jarring and sometimes comedic as a character would occasionally say a line of dialogue that seemed like they were going to elaborate on, only to awkwardly transition to a scene of them walking away or going silent completely. It could be a technical limitation based on current-gen hardware, but these sorts of hitches made many pivotal scenes fall flat.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope isn’t a long game by any measure, but what it delivers in its time is used effectively enough to purvey a sense of dread. While not necessarily a traditional horror game full of jump scares or horrific machinations, Little Hope attempts to deliver nuance in the style of an arthouse horror film. It mostly gets there depending on a player’s choice, but overall it doesn’t completely stick the landing. Little Hope’s themes put in a 2020-context make it stand out as a horror title but otherwise, it offers very little in terms of true horror.
