Name: At least the dog survived
Item: The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me
Rating: 6
Author: robiu013

Yeah, this one isn't exactly my favorite story-driven horror game on the PS. The Devil in Me is the fourth entry in the Dark Pictures anthology, which is appearently a spin off to Until Dawn. Earlier this year I also played The Quarry which is another horror episode of it's own in Supermassive Games' horror series. If I were to compare this one to the other two, I would probably prefer to play either of them.

The story of The Devil in Me is that of a film crew who is making a documentary on a guy called DuMet who is a big fan of H. H. Holmes - a real life and first american serial killer. He invites them to his replica of the killer's house. Little do they know the house and the mysterious man hold some secrets.

The cast this time around is slightly smaller than than in the other two Supermassive games I played. Only 5 characters in the crew and perhaps I'm ignorant, but I don't really recognize most of them. There's Jessie Buckley as the presenter/ main actor of their film called Kate, who I atleast recognize from I Think We Should End Things and the Chernobyl mini series. The rest of the cast is a bit of a mystery. In general I wasn't too particularly attached to them. My Favorite was Charlie, the selfish director with an unhealthy nicotin addiction. Mark is Jessie Buckley's love interest and camera man. He is kinda loyal and humble, but he has a fear of heights (guess what phobia his levels include). Erin is like a grey mouse girl, who wants to do her best, but is held back by her asthma. Last but not least we have Jamie, who is the electrician and trouble maker of the crew.

Too be honest the game is a bit abrupt in it's story. Personally I wasn't too satisfied with the ending I was given. It just felt drawn out with the survival scenarios, the climax was kind of a meh action scene and not much satisfying happened with the story. Maybe if I did better choices I'd get more explanations. But atleast this game tries harder to kill off some of it's protagonists when compared to Until Dawn and The Quarry. With the Until Dawn biggest killer being the last scene and The Quarry actually being quite easy to keep your squad alive and even offering 3 rewinds.

Presentation-wise the graphics look good on the surface. But especially the opening scene had some uncanny quality to it with how stiff the characters acted both verbally and action-wise. Sometimes the faces just looked off, but other times it weren't even the characters which bothered me. It's at times just really framed like an awkward amateurish b-movie and I doubt it's intentional. There were like several times throughout the game were transitions, the camera focus and character reactions just felt sloppy or awkwardly paced.

Oh, I almost forgot to write about gameplay. I guess if you are familiar with Until Dawn or The Quarry. You know what you are getting yourself into. It's mostly just a narrative-driven game with dialog and decision choices. There's some QTE's to spice up the action and other times there are puzzles, where you need to create some form of pathway to progress the story. The game barely improves or evolves gameplay when compared to the older Supermassive games, it's just minimally different in how the QTE mini games are played.

Overall it was an ok game, but it lacked a bit of level diversity, locking you into dark labyrinthian corridors for the first half of the game and only later switching up things with a dark rainy garden and (the best part) a lighthouse. The "big bad" of the game wasn't really that amazing to me and the characters were fine but not great. Might still give the older Dark Picture anthology games a playthrough eventually as this is still up my alley in general.

Yeah, this one isn't exactly my favorite story-driven horror game on the PS. The Devil in Me is the fourth entry in the Dark Pictures anthology, which is appearently a spin off to Until Dawn. Earlier this year I also played The Quarry which is another horror episode of it's own in Supermassive Games' horror series. If I were to compare this one to the other two, I would probably prefer to play either of them.The story of The Devil in Me is that of a film crew who is making a documentary on a guy called DuMet who is a big fan of H. H. Holmes - a real life and first american serial killer. He invites them to his replica of the killer's house. Little do they know the house and the mysterious man hold some secrets.The cast this time around is slightly smaller than than in the other two Supermassive games I played. Only 5 characters in the crew and perhaps I'm ignorant, but I don't really recognize most of them. There's Jessie Buckley as the presenter/ main actor of their film called Kate, who I atleast recognize from I Think We Should End Things and the Chernobyl mini series. The rest of the cast is a bit of a mystery. In general I wasn't too particularly attached to them. My Favorite was Charlie, the selfish director with an unhealthy nicotin addiction. Mark is Jessie Buckley's love interest and camera man. He is kinda loyal and humble, but he has a fear of heights (guess what phobia his levels include). Erin is like a grey mouse girl, who wants to do her best, but is held back by her asthma. Last but not least we have Jamie, who is the electrician and trouble maker of the crew.Too be honest the game is a bit abrupt in it's story. Personally I wasn't too satisfied with the ending I was given. It just felt drawn out with the survival scenarios, the climax was kind of a meh action scene and not much satisfying happened with the story. Maybe if I did better choices I'd get more explanations. But atleast this game tries harder to kill off some of it's protagonists when compared to Until Dawn and The Quarry. With the Until Dawn biggest killer being the last scene and The Quarry actually being quite easy to keep your squad alive and even offering 3 rewinds.Presentation-wise the graphics look good on the surface. But especially the opening scene had some uncanny quality to it with how stiff the characters acted both verbally and action-wise. Sometimes the faces just looked off, but other times it weren't even the characters which bothered me. It's at times just really framed like an awkward amateurish b-movie and I doubt it's intentional. There were like several times throughout the game were transitions, the camera focus and character reactions just felt sloppy or awkwardly paced.Oh, I almost forgot to write about gameplay. I guess if you are familiar with Until Dawn or The Quarry. You know what you are getting yourself into. It's mostly just a narrative-driven game with dialog and decision choices. There's some QTE's to spice up the action and other times there are puzzles, where you need to create some form of pathway to progress the story. The game barely improves or evolves gameplay when compared to the older Supermassive games, it's just minimally different in how the QTE mini games are played. Overall it was an ok game, but it lacked a bit of level diversity, locking you into dark labyrinthian corridors for the first half of the game and only later switching up things with a dark rainy garden and (the best part) a lighthouse. The "big bad" of the game wasn't really that amazing to me and the characters were fine but not great. Might still give the older Dark Picture anthology games a playthrough eventually as this is still up my alley in general.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

At least the dog survived

Player Score

robiu013