May 7, 2025
The Dark Pictures Anthology
Supermassive Games, creators of the legendary choice-driven game Until Dawn, has continued its work with a mixed bag of horror choice-related games in The Dark Pictures Anthology. The Dark Pictures Anthology is a collection of horror story-based games all within the same universe. The collection presents a wide variety of options. Are you looking for a game involving aliens? Play Directive 8020. Want to fight vampires? Try House of Ashes. How about a good Slasher flick? Then perhaps The Devil in Me will be your choice. Whatever it may be, The Dark Pictures Anthology has wide array of horror options where within the game that you do pick; you will be bombarded with the phrase “every choice matters.”
Does every choice truly matter though? When it comes to the genre of choice-driven horror games, which we see Supermassive Games constantly delving into, does everything add up? Unfortunately, not so much, but that doesn’t make the games bad. The Dark Pictures Anthology has constantly been reviewed as “mixed” by audiences. The series contains great horror elements, fun story plots, great ideas, graphic death, and the like. There is certainly a lot to praise for The Dark Pictures Anthology, from the mystery of the Curator, to the satisfaction of reaching the ending you were wanting, to the sometimes great characters. These good traits in The Dark Pictures Anthology don’t always carry over; however, while these games are fun for what they are, they also leave a lot to be desired. No matter what, it seems that there is a curse of each game having unlikeable or just generally boring characters, the situations are often interesting, but critiques often focus on poor characterization.
Would I recommend playing The Dark Pictures Anthology? Yes! I completely would; they are fun for what they are, and if you aren’t trying to be some critic about everything, then you should be able to look at a game like this, play it, and have fun with the often campy nature of things. The games are even more fun when you play them with other people. Uniquely, Supermassive Games offers a co-op and multiplayer experience to their story-driven games, a concept I haven’t seen often done before. These multiplayer experiences offer a much further depth of fun to the games unlike any other choice-driven games in the market. Perhaps your character might die because of your friend’s choice; maybe you miss a quick time event and suddenly you are ripped to shreds! Through their unique multiplayer system, The Dark Pictures Anthology provides loads of fun … as long as you have a friend. So grab a friend, and pick one of these games up! I’m certain you will feel like you’re in a horror movie right alongside your best pal.