The first season of the Dark Pictures Anthology series has been an exciting journey, starting at sea with Man of Medan and continuing in the mysterious town of Little Hope. These smaller 5-6 hour tales showcase different forms of horror, but all involve keeping as many of the cast alive as possible.
House of Ashes begins with a prologue set in the ancient Mesopotamian city of Akkad in 2231 BC. During an invasion by the Gutian army in the Akkadian kingdom, a bloody slaughter ensues. The battle is fierce, during which something underground awakens as a solar eclipse takes hold – then everyone is seemingly massacred by this unseen monster.
Fast forward to 2003 in the middle of the Iraq war, you control a team of American soldiers as they search for Saddam’s weapons of mass destruction. After an initial briefing where you get to know the characters, satellite intelligence indicates an underground complex in the Zagros mountains, which they suspect contains chemical weapons.
As the mission progresses, the Americans capture and question some local townsfolk, at which point, they are attacked by the Iraqi forces. What follows is an explosive skirmish, and the ground shakes and opens up, resulting in many soldiers on both sides falling underground into ancient caverns, not seen since, well the prologue.
The camera work is particularly impressive and is focused tightly behind your back, adding to that sense of claustrophobia and dread as you creep through the dark caverns with just a torch. For the first time in the series, the camera is also fully controllable and somehow this cranks up the tension even more. Character movement is still slightly clunky, but QTEs are now adapted by various levels of difficulty, making the game much more accessible for the casual player.
So, this Halloween, turn off the lights, close the curtains, switch on your console, and crank up the volume. Either grab a few friends and play movie-night mode, share a story online or if you’re feeling particularly brave, play it alone late at night – remember, you won’t be alone for long…
