The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes

This third installment really shows the growth and love that Supermassive has given us horror fans. Man of Medan was fun, Little Hope had the best jump scares and House of Ashes is probably my favorite story line. The visuals and the ease of gameplay have really improved. I am never bored with these games and as an achievement hunter I played about 4 play throughs of this one to get 100 percent and honestly was sad that it was over. The others took a few more but that is not me complaining. As fun as it is to see the different outcomes, the other games seemed to give way less leeway when failed qtes came in to effect. House of Ashes definitely exceeded my expectations with the over all relationships, qtes and story. I also enjoyed that they added a difficulty level so that when I play with my friends that don't game as often, have an easier time keeping their character alive. This has become one of my favorite series and I cannot wait for the next one!

1. It was fun, campy (the usual for Supermassive) and I never got bored.

2. Took me about 2-3 hours less than the new Resident Evil game.

3. Cost me half as much as the new Resident Evil game.

I say it's a win.

THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY: HOUSE OF ASHES (2021) is a really great installment to the series. I personally enjoyed this one more than Man of Medan.

The characters are all pretty interesting and some were compelling enough. They all had original personalities and back stories and I appreciated the (Non- Western / American) story of Salim as well, giving more depth to the geographic region the story takes place in.

"A group of American marines comes across an underground nest of pure, ancient evil while trekking through the Arabian desert."

As per my usual, I played this game with a group of friends and it thoroughly entertained us. While not super scary, it certainly held tension and offers a very cool story (and creature). Fun trying to make split second decisions and keep your characters alive. A great installment in the series!

House Of Ashes is personally my favourite installment to derive from the Dark Pictures Anthology. It cleverly crafts its daunting antagonists, but also offers its five central characters depth and exploration. Like previous installments from the franchise, choices and actions determine your story, which the game extends on remarkibly, adding bigger want for replayibility. On the other hand, due to these decisions, some characters will never equally recieve the same likeability as others in one playthrough, resulting in desinterest for few players. As for the story, it has vastly inproved and contains great engagement into its chilling atmosphere even despite the odd campy dialogue scattered throughout. There is area for improvement, which I hope the next installment, 'The Devil In Me', follows through with. Either way, House Of Ashes is an 8/10 from me.

Originally I had completely trashed this game since I got the casual plot development, that is at the end of the day only one of the playable characters survived, and that unfolding made the game look like it lacked any spark or commitment.

However, after playing The Quarry, coming from the same SuperMassive Games, I felt kind of guilty for downgrading the House of ashes, so I decided to try another playthrough, instead this time I aimed for saving every playable character, resulting in a better plot.

Keep in mind it starts off pretty weak and slow, and despite the game's polished appearance, it is hindered by a feeble premise, a tediously monotonous setting throughout the entire playthrough and the ineffective long overused monster creatures that fail to evoke fear. Those are the major issues you need to be aware of.

While it is a much better game in Dark Pictures Anthology series compared to the previous 2, which were simply horrific, it still cements the dev's lack of commitment to produce something decent enough to stand next to the legendary Until Dawn. It seems these guys have settled for a mediocre level of quality and are not striving for anything better. Just like with the previous 2 instalments, they come up with a good concept but then ruin it.

As I unlocked more plot developments required for different achievements, the script variations slightly redeemed the whole thing, hence, if you want to get the most out of it, you better go for platinum.