Supermassive Games must be super massively busy with its Dark Pictures Anthology series. They seem to have a formula down and are putting out these games like they were EA putting out Madden NFL titles. Sometimes equally as buggy, while also far more entertaining. Anyway, Madden NFL aside, The Dark Pictures Anthology series is good fun, even if it’s somewhat linear gameplay with a heavy amount of quick time events (QTE) leading the design and the illusion of exploration taunting gamers all the way through. The game design in this series is basically the same each time and rarely strays from its blueprint. Why would it? The real treat of the DPA design is the story and which is more focused on than anything else.
On that note, this time around, The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me jumps way into the past with its premise that features an H.H. Holmes mimic murder castle experience on a lonely island on a lake, where its antagonist wants to live the H.H. Holmes life. The game is unsettling, can be confusing at times, and is just the right amount of creepy to sit proudly with its DPA older siblings.
Let’s get it going.
Story
If you’re not familiar with the story of H.H. Holmes, then let me shed some light on his killing adventures. He was America’s first serial killer that built an insane hotel that would essentially trap and kill its occupants. He and this building went unchecked for years, he killed a lot of people and even sold their skeletons to local universities around the Chicago area. All of this before the turn of the 20th century.
Anyway, you’re given this backstory within the first five minutes of the game, where you get to live the lives of a newlywed couple checking into Holmes’ hotel for the first and last time. You get to see the man, the monster, and the malicious murderer and how he worked. It’s an unsettling start to the game and one that sets the tone for the rest of the adventure.
Once back in modern times, the story shifts from Holmes to a struggling director and his film crew trying to boost their failing show about famous serial killers. They are mysteriously invited to a rich man’s home on a lake island and promised a first look at an H.H. Holmes home lookalike. As you can imagine, and probably predict perfectly, the situation for the director and his crew goes south quickly. Like any good horror film, the twists and turns can be seen from far away, but it doesn’t make it any less entertaining, especially with some good jolts to get the blood going here and there.
Honestly, I had no clue about H.H. Holmes’ life, which makes this game far creepier to me than probably other horror fans out there. I think that the folks at Supermassive did a good job of taking that classic and true horror story of a twisted and sick man and making it their own to put players through a wild experience. While I’m not totally a fan of taking the tragedy of others and profiting, this game is the same as any good horror movie that does the same exact thing. Putting a sense of reality into a game story makes it more real. Again, it’s a wild experience.
If you’re looking for a story that is going to jerk you awake and keep you guessing what’s next, then The Devil in Me is that game. It’s a good story for The Dark Pictures Anthology series.
Gameplay
If you have never played a DPA title before, then let me enlighten you on how the gameplay works. The game will unfold its story and switch between characters as the player journeys through the three-act narrative. Each character will have a series of decisions to make as the game jumps from moment to moment. Each character has their own journey, and each character eventually meets up with other characters as the plot of the story brings them in. For example, the director in the story, Charlie, has an unhealthy obsession with smoking. He spends one moment of the story searching for a smoke in the bar of the hotel and his search brings about some exploration, choices, and finality in his decision-making. Eventually, Charlie meets up with another character and they travel the journey together until they’re separated again. All of this is driven by the user and QTEs. Once his portion of the act is done, the game skips to another set of characters with their own small narrative and repeats the same process of separating and then bringing them back together.
While there is nothing remarkable about how the game handles the user experience, as it is basically rinse-wash-repeat, it’s a narrative-driven game that focuses on the horror delivery rather than the gameplay design. That’s not to say your time is wasted, not at all, because if you always wanted to be in a horror movie, then this is your game. I personally do appreciate games that let stories drive them, sometimes in spite of the lack of complicated gameplay, so I enjoyed what was given here.
Now, the experience doesn’t last too long in the game. As mentioned previously, the game does allow you to explore certain areas brought into the story, but it strictly keeps you on track with the narrative’s intentions. You won’t stray too far from the story, but that is by design. Supermassive doesn’t want you to go on a tour or spend too much time away from progression. It wants to give you the illusion of some freedom of choice in the game, but ultimately, you’re stuck on a track that is hellbent on completing its mission in 4-6 hours. That’s not a helluva lot of time to enjoy the game. The trade-off is that you get to replay it if you didn’t perfectly help everyone survive. Maybe you make better choices and get different endings. Well, endings have some differences. For the first run-through, I managed to get one person out alive. For me, that seemed like a great success. But the goal in the game is simple – survive. Making the best choices means that you’re going to have the best chance of keeping everyone alive.
As for the survival parts of this game, I think they work for the most part. Most of what you deal with when it comes to QTE decision-making is guesswork with no real hint of the right choice. That’s a bit frustrating when you consider how much you probably want to get whatever situation you’re presented in “the moment” right. That’s the joy of some branching narrative moments in the game, where your moral compass is put to the test, and sometimes your morals fail when it comes to results. For example, toward the end of the game, I lost two characters with what I believed to be the right choice based on my character’s personality. I had one character that had been gruff and tough all game, and making a decision that went against that meant that it would go against the development of the character. The gameplay competes sometimes with the story, which does make it interesting, but also somewhat frustrating to a gamer trying to perfect a go-around with The Devil in Me. This particular moment, which I won’t give too many details about (don’t want to ruin things) had no direction or hint on which choice I should make quickly. I get that it wants to give you some freedom, but if it means that your character, at the very end, isn’t going to survive, then it’s all guessing. Again, that’s frustrating.
In the end, this type of guesswork in the game equally motivates you to replay the experience. It’s a good push for the player to spend more time with the game, which justifies the purchase price.
Technical hiccups
While the story and delivery were fine for the most part, the technical side of The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me suffered from some hiccups. The first, and the most noticeable problem I ran into is the loading screens. While they only lasted about half a second or so, they disrupted the gameplay. I was playing this on the PlayStation 5 and I would have preferred jumping from scene to scene with fade-ins/outs rather than popping ever so briefly to a loading line zipping across the bottom of the television. Can you imagine a movie doing this? It would be disruptive and take the experience away from the viewer. This is what happened during my gameplay. The PS5, which is known for quick load times, did this loading thing ever so often. It just disrupted the story and kept the pieces disjointed. In other words, it was annoying.
Another hiccup came randomly during gameplay. Occasionally, a camera movement would get snagged when it was shifting and would force a jump with the graphics. It didn’t happen a helluva lot, but it did happen. Staying on the same track, there were a few times when my character would almost get stuck or actually get stuck in the game which forced me to re-load the save point. For example, there was a time late in the game when I had to push a large box from a scaffold to the ground. Once on the ground, the game didn’t give me a lot of visual hints on what to do with it, so I improvised and tried pushing it toward a door. When I got close to the door, it tipped me off to try and open the door. I tried, but it was locked, and I looked around. I spied where the box should go, but unbeknownst to me I had shoved the box against the stairs leading to the door and the game wouldn’t allow me to push the box away from the stairs. I couldn’t jump on the box (like I had previously done to get to the door) and I couldn’t move the box with the bar in front of me. I was stuck on the steps. I had to re-load the save point to get out of this situation.
Another glitchy moment in the game is when it allowed me to fall off a small cliff I was on which sent me through the rocks below. When I say through, I mean inside the rocks. I was briefly stuck inside the rocks, for a good 3-5 minutes, trying to wiggle my way out. Since the game doesn’t allow you to roll or to jump on your own without a prompt, I was just wiggling around hoping to break free. Thankfully, I broke free. There were a few moments where it felt like I was stuck in stages and had to move awkwardly to get unstuck. It didn’t happen a lot, but it happened. These are small things that needed to be sewn up before or right after launch.
Beyond the occasional glitch, the game worked more than it broke. The story was still good, the gameplay was still on par with previous DPA games, and the game should entertain those who love the series or those who enjoy experiencing some mindless horror.
On that note, let’s wrap this up.
Conclusion
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me uses a piece of real history to deliver a B-movie-level horror show experience. The H.H. Holmes backdrop makes for a devilishly uncomfortable story experience, while the gameplay design falls in line with the DPA game series. The game does have some technical hiccups here and there, but it should satisfy those who enjoy the previous iterations of the series.
