House of Ashes – Review
House of Ashes, the next instalment in the uneven Dark Pictures series, is set in the Middle East and tells the story of US Marines searching for WMDs who end up discovering something far worse. They are trapped beneath and must deal with not just the animals that are chasing them, but also their own personal concerns. Because that’s when you want to chat about your relationship with your ex, when you’re covered in blood, have witnessed the horrific murders of your companions, and only have a few moments before winged demons track you down.
Pros:
Fascinating premise
Looks great
Fun co-op
Cons:
A slow start
Score – 8/10
The setting of the Iraq War leads one to believe that House of Ashes will be a combat game. Soldiers from the US military and Iraqi troops, on the other hand, are finding that they have more pressing issues to cope with than human foes. While the US side searches for former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction, they have no idea that it would have aided them in their studies on the Akkadian empire in this game. It’s a factual narrative about a 4,000-year-old empire, but the account of its destruction is shrouded in legend.
You alternate between commanding five characters, four Americans and an Iraqi soldier named Salim, who is the only pleasant member of the entire group, as they team up, get separated, pair up again, fight creatures, and squabble. Any of them can die, and the game will adapt the tale and proceed – until you’re so horrible at people management that you have them all killed, as in previous Supermassive games.
The game begins with a prologue that sets the stage for the historical events that lead to the current-day shenanigans, and your participation is so limited that you’re basically free to make a sandwich. Then there’s a horrible made-for-TV war movie that lays up the main personality types – he’s an arsehole, he’s the smart mouth, she’s the bitch, etc. – with soap opera style talks as our group of Marines storm a house, shoot several residents, and end up underground.
If you’re a Clive Barker fan, horror can make you experience a variety of emotions, including dread, terror, discomfort, and strange sexual stuff, but you should never be bored. It appears to drag on for so long that you’re practically pulling for the monsters to start murdering people in the most heinous ways possible. Only the game’s awkward story beats about heroin peddling, shooting unarmed bystanders, and some musing about “maybe war is bad?” like it’s a high school essay will make you uncomfortable during these early hours.
The game does, however, administer one more shiv to the kidneys, with a concluding scenario that is more difficult and cruel than everything else in the game. It’s classic horror movie fare, but all of your choices in getting the characters to that point suddenly appear irrelevant, which seems like an injustice rather than the huge conclusion the makers may have hoped for. If you make it through, you’ll feel a diet version of triumph; if you don’t, it’ll seem like a heist.
Even at its worst, The Dark Pictures Anthology gives a unique “stuck in a horror movie” experience that nobody else does, and is approachable enough to allow for intense couch co-op with some buddies, despite the problems. It’s not a fantastic horror game, but it’s a good one, and that’s all that matters sometimes.
The game’s production values were excellent, and the scripting was excellent. Throughout the game, the notion of “enemy of my enemy is my friend” resurfaced multiple times, and it helped me through some difficult decisions. The creatures in the game appear to be incredibly dangerous, and they frightened me enough that I despised it when they pursued my characters.
Although the gunplay has improved, it is still clumsy. Even though I could move around more freely during the action, not just at the stage where I was exploring, I still hoped I could move around more freely during the action. Overall, I think it’s a great addition to the series, which I’ve been enjoying since Until Dawn. Some of it is becoming old in terms of being overly familiar, but the writing and storytelling are always excellent – at least for the purposes of horror games.
While the graphics are better than previous generations’ games, I feel Supermassive should make some substantial improvements to minimise latency, improve movement, and yet achieve a higher degree of graphics realism. I eagerly anticipate future instalments in this series.
