The Dark Pictures Anthology is taking the interactive movie style of game popularised by games like Heavy Rain and Until Dawn and pushing the idea of horror and angst heavily alongside games of varying quality.

Man of Medan was a little too much movie and not enough game but was a well nuanced story with good critical development. Little Hope flipped the idea on its head and gave us a really nuanced, in-depth witchcraft influenced psychological horror, with a huge reveal in an ending. I got my hands on Little Hope last year and had a fantastic time with it. Little Hope elevated my hopes for the next game in the series especially high.

House of Ashes is a really difficult game to make a clear-cut decision on. Is it as well thought out, and developed as Little Hope? Not even close. Is it’s story and critical character development as good as Man of Medan? Not even remotely. Is House of Ashes the most gameplay filled game in the series? Absolutely.

House of Ashes is an absolute rollercoaster ride of a game. Set during the Iraqi War, during the time that America was searching for the chemical weapons storehouses after the occupation and removal of Saddam Hussein. Your cast consists of Eric and Rachel King, husband and wife who have been separated for the last year. Eric having lost a leg in a referenced (but not elaborated on) event involving the two, and Rachel losing control of her unit, as a result of Eric’s satellite technology possibly discovering the secret chemical weapons warehouse. Rachel is an incredibly human character, with a depth of emotion and personality. Eric is an insufferable git of a man, who cannot accept that he caused the collapse of his marriage and that he is the one that is holding on still.

Jason, Nick and Salim make up the remainder of the team. Jason and Nick are uneasy with each other, after an incident at a checkpoint resulted in the death of an innocent woman. Nick struggling to deal with the guilt of having killed the woman, whilst Jason is attempting to suppress the issue and ignore it. Jason is the very typical “Oorah, America is great baby! Woo-hoo” sort of Marine, whilst Nick is probably the most human character alongside Rachel. Which makes the “affair” Rachel is having with Nick, feel perfectly acceptable and the relationship I preferred. Salim stands as the opposite of Jason. A reluctant Iraqi soldier, forced into the situation rather than an active willing participant. The development of the relationship and friendship between Jason and Salim is possibly the best part of the game.

Of the five main characters, Rachel, Salim and Jason are the best. Nick is perfectly acceptable if not a little bland. Eric is insufferable, and I was quite happy when I managed to kill him off. Whilst the cast of Little Hope was a little more enjoyable overall, House of Ashes main cast and their interactions feel accurate to the supernatural cosmic horror situation they find themselves in, particularly with how you can develop the understanding of each other with Jason and Salim. Helping them become friends with each other, is far more enjoyable than any scene with Eric being in utter denial about the collapse of his marriage.

The story is definitely the biggest aspect of the game that I find myself struggling to answer a couple prudent questions. Is this game good or bad? And am I actually enjoying myself?

The story starts out incredibly slow, and I really wasn’t sure where they were going to go with it. The opening sequence is fun, and I think if the game applied more focused on this setup from 2000BC, it would have endeared itself, embracing the strange cosmic horror, rather than the actual story that was told. The kingdom of Akkad is being destroyed by drought and the king is executing and sacrificing people to bring the rains back by appeasing the gods, your first glimpse of the demonic creatures are given to you here.

My biggest issue is how the story plays out once we get back to the modern day. An attack on a small village where the assumed weapons silo is. A counterattack by the Iraqi ground forces, and an ensuing battle. An earthquake then sends everyone below ground. Each person experiences a different set of troubles, yet the most difficulty thing to believe is that only select persons are exposed to the nearly 10-foot tall, huge bat like demon creatures that are down in the catacombs at first. A lot of the fear and danger of the creatures are almost instantly wiped away in the first few encounters, with Salim being able to kill one. Instantly these terrifying demon vampire creatures are far less scary.

Immune to bullets, put a rusty pipe through the chest is enough to put them down. As is the Dark Pictures methodology you are given various difficulty choices, and whilst it is suggested that there is close to 80 potential death scenarios, most of them I think you’d realistically have to just be bad at quick time action events to die in. The biggest danger in the game feels like it comes from myself, and not the demons themselves, this is because there are some really intense sequences that kept me intrigued and wanting to keep playing, because the actual gameplay and story segments were unfortunately paced and lacking in engagement. The best scene is when all the characters are finally reunited, and depending on your choices, an infected team member is either still with you and becomes a danger, you get an onslaught of demons to survive against, and the appearance of a 2000-year-old character who has succumb to the curse.

This is where my schism with the game occurs though. Little Hope built tension, it made you feel hopeless, and worked on psychological horror. House of Ashes almost feels like Resident Evil 5 was to the Resident Evil series; far too much action, not enough horror, but still a solid game. House of Ashes begins to descend into a deeper cosmic horror, sci-fi route, that feels really out of place with how the game started and where it seemed to be building. Without ruining it, we go from “Ancient civilization warring, and demons are a curse” to “Warzone resulting in an Earthquake and demon/vampires that infect you” to “Parasite infected alien species.” If the game wasn’t attempting to be a horror game, and wasn’t following on from Little Hope, House of Ashes would have a better chance at being a good action horror game.

House of Ashes is an interesting entry into the Dark Pictures Anthology. Whilst not as good as the previous title, it’s an interesting concept and I don’t dislike the direction that it went. The final few hours are a really intense experience, and the decisions you make feel important. The Curator has a lacking presence in this game, and it feels bizarre to have him so quiet in contrast to the previous two games. House of Ashes definitely allows for a multiple playthrough experience, and there appears to be a deeper focus on the couch co-op and co-op story than there was in previous entries. An interesting third entry, that should tide fans over to the final entry of Season One of The Dark Pictures Anthology, which looks far more intense than all other previous entries.