Dark Pictures Anthology - House of Ashes

So sue me....I will be talking lovingly about this game!

I admit like how these Supermassive games work; this could be a weird taste in games. However at my age something bit bit more contapetaive, visual and with choices that change the outcome is really enjoyable. I was ones of those people that thought the year Until Dawn came out, it was part of the Top-5 discussion for GOTY.

How I got here:
As I was signing up for PlayStation Plus Premium (and upgrade) I saw the Dark Pictures Anthology. I had heard of some of teh other games, like Man of Medan, a few years ago...like six years ago!! But I think because House come before Man alphabetically the House of Ashes showed up first on the list. I didn't know anything about the games in the anthology, but I figured they woudl all work the same way. If I play no other games the fact I could download the whole Anthology made the "Premium Upgrade price worth it. Yet, I seem to be playing them out of order...not that it matters story wise.

What a treat House of Ashes was to play this week! It is short only about 1/3 the size of Until Dawn, but seen as a compact little story - its enough. And, you get to see Disney child performer and the voice of Phineas & Ferb's sister covered in gallons of coagulated blood - what's not to like? What was most striking for me is the art direction used to create teh world. I enjoy studying Mesopotamian history; I have read many non-fiction book on the subject of the Akkad empire. So seeing some the culture and history rendered in game form was AMAZING!! David Hirst oversaw the art team's research into Mesopotamian architecture, dress for use in the game should be congratulated - the whole art team should win an award.

The game is no perfect, it didn't need to win an award two years ago. Nevertheless, it was just the sort of game I wanted to play and ist short enough that replaying it over and over again (something you must do in these games) is the work of only a few days. The ending of the story is a bit abrupt; it is serviceable enough to wrap it up though.

I quite enjoy the bite sized lengths of the DPA games. I think House of Ashes has been my favorite.

@ginormous76: It seems to be considered the best of the bunch, and I landed on playing it first by accident. I typically play Supermassive games on the "normal setting" but I foudn soem fo the QTEs in House of Ashes to be quite unforgiving. So for my 3rd playthrough I'm on the easiest setting with the most help, just so I can see the various series of events - thankfully, there are just two more thing I have to do to save everyone who IS save-able.

After that, I will play Man of Madan

I honestly stopped playing these Dark Picture games, after a game breaking bug happened that wiped out my entire save. And then going online and finding out this problem happens in pretty much all of their games. Some are lucky to avoid it before finishing the game, others get screwed. And I was playing on PS5 not PC when it happened. And I believe it was the Little Hope game it happened in.