Quick Look: The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me

Wait... Which "H"??

I think they do get some pretty famous actors in these games. Jessie Buckley is also pretty awesome.

Once again, it's time to see how Triple H's hair looks in a video game.

what's with the hate for this series all of a sudden? I don't mean the technical part, that sucks but they've always been goofy and not THAT scary, but for me as someone who is waaaay to scared they're perfect, and every "jump scare" works tbh, I thought that was the point of those games?

@deepressed: I didn't want to get too detailed and totally dominate the Quick Look, but here's my reasoning:

Man of Medan: A lot of people hated this cuz it was the first Dark Pics Anth game (lower budget, quicker turnaround, shorter game), and it's hard to follow up something as bangin' as Until Dawn. Looking back on it though, it's a pretty good romp with some effective scares and an interesting plot (that gets ruined by the end, but I think it taught the devs a good lesson about not doing the thing they did there, and how it's a cop-out that disappoints the audience.)

Little Hope: Jump scare city!! To the point where it was pretty obnoxious. The characters were also just really shitty to each other, to the point where it was hard to have a favorite that you wanted to protect. The plot was also just kinda weird and confusing (it kinda took place in 3 different eras), but it had some SUPER cool monsters in it and very awesome deaths that made up for it. (Fun fact: This game was originally pitched to be in the Silent Hill IP!)

House of Ashes: I think this is the strongest of the Anthology series so far. Jump scares that are far more earned and aren't just "SCREAMING THING ALL OF A SUDDEN." Some hateable characters, some likeable-but-flawed characters, some hateable-but-you-warm-up-to-them-a-bit-once-you-find-out-why-they're-a-bit-of-a-dick characters. A neat premise that manages to not be "America Ooh-rah!" while being all about a bunch of marines (It ends up having more of an Aliens Marines vibe for me?) Very cool, unexpected monsters - and really dramatic/action-packed finale with non-boring pacing in general. It still doesn't approach Until Dawn or The Quarry's level of polish, but it held its own!

And here we come to The Devil in Me: This is such a promising premise! H.H. Holmes meets some SAW bullshit? Hell yeah! And then they made me do, like, 2 hours of tutorial bullshit... the opening chunk of which wasn't very interesting cuz like, you absolutely know these two randos are going to die at the hands of a mortal guy with a goofy murder hotel. And the second chunk of which is establishing 5 unlikeable and/or boring coworkers, and exploring the grounds of the mansion a little before going in (an overlong tutorial for shimmying, crawling, mantling, and an introduction to some of the individual character gimmick items that don't do much in the game). And now the jerks are wandering around getting picked off a bit while a shadowy guy in a bowler hat walks by the camera with a mildly scary sting multiple times. Just awful pacing. There's just not much intrigue going on (like I said, I'm gonna play more simply because I'm hoping the bad guy is a werewolf in a bowler hat,) and there's not enough story or character charm to keep me interested. Like, this coulda been REALLY goofyspooky (look at the SAW movies for goodness' sake) and it just whiffed it cuz the characters are so boring, and the shadowy hat man has no charisma/isn't very threatening. Plus, the animations and cutscene direction is just not as good as any of the other three :( It's a bad entry in the series that is clearly meant to be the Budget Side Series, so that makes it even sadder, cuz the other budget ones are more competent and have better pacing (despite making other mistakes along the way.) It's a step backward from House of Ashes, which learned a lot from the two before it, and that's a shame!

@voidburger: OMG thank you for taking the time and writing all of this, this totally makes sense and I agree with most of your points and maybe I’m weird but I don’t mind that stuff too much :D

Thanks again for clarifying these points I bet some others also appreciate that!

Oh and I LOVED the Quarry and Until Dawn, the Medan Game Things are - at least for me okay - especially with some beverages and friends.

I recognize Kate from the movie Men that I had the misfortune of watching in the movie theater.

Played by Jessie Buckley. Not sure if she is B tier or not. But most of the smaller games had one recognizable character in it. Man of Medan had Shawn Ashmore. Little Hope had Will Poulter. House of Ashes had Ashley Tisdale.

Maybe in the minority, but Jessie Buckley is A tier to me. When I heard she was in the next Dark Pictures game, I assumed she must have grown up playing video games and being in a video game fulfills a childhood dream.

@defel: She did an interview on the publisher's YouTube and I think she mentioned she doesn't play games.