As of right now, Man of Medan by Supermassive Games, the creators of Until Dawn, have gamers really talking about their Dark Pictures Anthology (Rate M for language and gore). The new game advertises different multiplayer options and encourages players to never play alone. Compared to their previous game, this feature seems like a good way to get everyone together to live out the roles they are playing. Unfortunately, not everything always goes according to plan.
Five friends go on a holiday cruise out into the sea. The group discovers underwater wrecks and suddenly wander upon a ghost ship that was tied to WWII. Without a choice, they must investigate the interior. That’s when everything starts to go wrong. Everyone must find a way to survive in order to leave but it’s never quite that easy.
There are no combat tactics here, but the game still has the personality traits to look at and quick-time events. By quick-time, it’s literally quick. If you bink or put your controller down for any moment you could miss a potential threat and end up dead. Exploring and using photos for predictions is still very much involved in this storyline. Although not as separated as the cast in Until Dawn, players will still need to be careful about who they run in to. Premonitions from pictures are a really big deal but you have to pay attention.
When the game goes into a cut scene, usually for story progression, there have been some major issues. During the narrative, it’s a good idea to have the captions on because some sections suddenly jolt and change around. It leaves people wondering if they missed a critical piece of the puzzle. Not only is this annoying, but also not common from major developers.
Among issues that have really put a wrench in the gameplay, is the quick time events are quick of course but the feedback can be slow. Sometimes you can mash the button and still miss the action, which can cause the death of your character. If you’re going for a perfect game then this is extremely frustrating. Between the lag and missed quick time events, this really pulls players out of the game. Next to these issues is the short playtime. The plot is actually pretty short even if you can play it multiple times for different endings.
Even with issues such as these, the game is amazing visually. The tension is thick with this game and the setting has a lot to do with that. Characters walking through disgusting puddles and metal barefoot makes me cringe. When the extra things are added, the environment makes me think I’m going insane with the characters as well. It seems like the balance is very back and forth. Sometimes you are extremely involved in the story while other times you are pulled out over some bugs. Hopefully, patches will be made soon before the new game Little Hope comes out.
Overall, the story is still very compelling much like Until Dawn. The addition of the multiplayer option is fun but not required for the experience. The bugs bring the game down quite a bit for the cost but the immersion and experience still speak volumes. If you’re already a fan of the previous game, then you will definitely like this one too.
7/10
Available on: PC, PS4, XboxOne
