Can you believe it, it has been 4 years since the first chapter of the Dark Pictures Anthology was released and that means that we are getting closer to the final chapter of the first season. Bandai Namco were kind enough to invite me to check out the fourth game, sadly via a hands-off presentation, but now I can report on what is new for The Devil In Me.

When the series begin with 2019’s Man of Medan and with each release in the series, the team at Supermassive Games have attempted to evolve the formula and that is the same here. Past games have been very linear in nature, you can walk around a little, but the path has generally been laid out for you, in this game that may not be the case. Each of the characters now has the ability to move and I don’t just mean by walking around, because finally they can run, something that any self-respecting horror game should have. In addition to two movement speeds, characters can now climb, shimmy, duck and more, which opens up new investigative pathways for them. These new movement options mean that you can now walk around the locations, stumbling in the dark, until you find a new way to move forward, which should help keep things fresh for those returning players.

As the game has a new cast of characters to enjoy, it has also upgraded them, by offering each a unique item that aligns with the type of people they are and the role they play within the production team. There are five members of Lonnit Entertainment, the owner is Charlie Lonnit, the host of the productions is Kate Wilder, behind the camera is Mark Nestor, responsible for all things electrical is Jamie Tiergan and on sound/intern we have Erin Keenan. Each of the people have an item that is there, while it can be given away, they will start with it and it is these items that tie into the next aspect of the game, the puzzles.

With the setting of this latest title being a murder house/replica hotel, there are puzzles, trap doors and a host more around the place. Much like the other games in the series, this one starts with inspiration from the real world, in this case H.H. Holmes a doctor from Chicago in the late 1800’s and America’s first serial killer. The man was said to have created a ‘murder castle’ inside of a hotel, where guest would check in, but never out and with 27 confessions of murder, plus potentially many more, it is an incredible place to start. When the team find themselves trying to avoid being trapped and killed, they will have to make use of their items and clues from around the place, in order to get out alive. Jamie, as the sparky, can rewire electrical switches by making use of her multimeter, where as Kate can use her writers pencil to help uncover hidden messages. Of course, as you can lose people, if Erin dies and still has her microphone on her person, then you lose the ability to hear through walls.

After the short presentation, we got to see around 15 minutes of straight gameplay, which brought all these aspects into play. The character that were focused on, was Jamie and Mark, with Kate floating around behind and while things were following the planned path, there were still a good number of jump scares to be found. Being able to free explore the environment is something that the series really needed to embrace and I am so happy that they have done that hear, House of Ashes had exploration, but that was still limited to you walking around, now however there is a more dynamic feeling to everything. The best way I can describe it, is going from Resident Evil 1 and its fixed camera to Resident Evil 4 and its totally open design, that is the level of which the game has now evolved. How that shakes out in the full game, which is said to last around 7 hours, well we shall have to wait and see, but so far its looking very good.

Supermassive Games have been very, very busy over the past few years, not only are they are on their fourth entry in a series, which has released each one a year since it started, but they also put out The Quarry. The addition of more movement options seems to shake things up and I can’t wait to see how people react, once they can get hands on with the game themselves. The Dark Pictures Anthology, may have started out slow, but this is looking like one hell of a way to end out the first group of games.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me will release on November 18 for PC, Xbox and PlayStation