I already knew this game wasn't very good from the start but holy mother of God, I didn't expect it to be this bad. I mean, Until Dawn, with all it's flaws, was such a fun game! But Man of Medan is just... so uninspired and dull. For something that relies so much on it's story and narrative you would expect a little more effort put into it.

This first chapter in the Dark Pictures anthology brings absolutely nothing new and is a massive downgrade, even mechanically, compared to an interactive movie released 4 years before. Great stuff.

The asynchronous multiplayer aspect is a neat concept, but seeing as I wanted to play through solo, I wish it would have been structured similarly, giving me one character to play through the game as, maybe even selecting whom at the start. It would incentivize replays if you only wanted to play solo and it would ensure you get to experience all of the content. The curators cut is a step in that direction but the initial playthrough just wasn't what I wanted so it felt like a waste to go through it all again.

Supermassive's big breakout game, Until Dawn, remains one of my very favorite PS4 titles, taking some of the best elements of choice-based, QTE-heavy "story games" and implementing them into a great schlocky horror thriller. Their latest effort, the cheaper and shorter first entry in the planned Dark Pictures Anthology franchise, is trying to hit many of those same notes but is far less successful.

Man of Medan once again features a group of young adult fodder with cliched personalities, as they face off with a band of Captain Philips-esque pirates and a ghost ship which causes powerful hallucinations. It can't help but feel clunkier and far more forgettable than its predecessor. It echoes so many moments from Until Dawn that it gets a little distracting, from the "dark pictures" serving the same basic function as the butterflies from that game, to the ominous narrator interludes, all the way to the "exit interviews" at the very end. I think that the obvious budget cuts for this one didn't help. Animations are less realistic, character lip-syncing can prove distracting, and the game cannot quite capture the feeling of tension it is going for. You'd better be good at QTEs though, as most as my problems came not from my choices but failing to press buttons in the short window you are given.

Man of Medan has taken several interesting approaches to multiplayer. Shared story allows you to play along with a friend, as each of you control a character at all times throughout the story. It leads to a couple of interesting moments as a result of players receiving different information that occur very late in the game, but mostly it just means that you're missing out on a good chunk of story scenes. Playing this way cuts down the playtime by over an hour. The other option is movie night, where players in the same room pick a character and pass the controller around when prompted to. That mode does make more sense to me, and making fun of the weak characters and tacky dialogue and animations makes the experience more bearable at the least.

I do hope that the next chapter releasing this summer comes out a bit better, since on paper the idea of a whole anthology series of these games is really exciting. It's just all about the execution, and that's where Man of Medan fails to stick the landing with its bland story and distracting jank.

Completed 3 Endings
Platform: PC - Steam
Release Date: August 29, 2019
Genre: Action Adventure » Survival
Finished in: 8.3 Hours

A series of standalone cinematic horror games. Players will be challenged to explore and uncover each story with the knowledge that all their choices have consequences and all playable characters can live, any and all can die.

Man of Medan is the first game in The Dark Pictures anthology, bringing supernatural horror to the South Pacific. Five friends set sail on a holiday diving trip with a rumored WWII wreck to find. These 5 people's ship is hijacked by stowaway and find the map related to place where they believe treasure located. As the day unfolds and a storm rolls in, their trip soon changes into something much more sinister.

The three endings I have completed so far are some of them are survived, Alex brothers survived and all survived.

✔ Well prepare for rendered background and objects
✔ A good sample of horror atmosphere
❌ Cringe dialogues
❌ Too short to be finished compare to Until Dawn (est. 4 hrs)
❌ Overused and misplaced facial expression
❌ No choice matter for significant impact
❌ Easy to predict the ending
Verdict: 5/10

I’m surprised this game gets so much hate. As a horror fan, but someone that also struggles to play horror games, due to high anxiety and the intense situation of controlling how things play out, I had a pretty good time with Man of Medan. Sure it’s not as thought out or as scary as Until Dawn, but it’s fun enough to play for a 4-5 hour play through. I just wish they didn’t have those cheap jump scares all the way through, as they got super tiring after the first few. There are other ways to drive up anxiety in players. Looking forward to playing Little Hope next.

A solid enough story-branching horror that runs light on the horror, has mediocre choices, and struggles with some occasional visual glitches and shaky voice acting. It has some pretty good visuals on PS5 and had solid atmosphere and character models, along with an interesting system of rotating characters and making decisions - plus it was fun to play in coop. Left frustrated when I missed one quick-time event and it ruined my whole ending, but I was able to go back and see the ending I wanted to get.

I went into Man of Medan hearing/seeing how much people enjoy the Dark Pictures games but had no expectations of my own for it.

I’m glad that was the case because while visually, it’s absolutely stunning even 4 years on, and, it has a really interesting premise for its story - I just feel it never quite goes anywhere with it, the game just kinda… ends.

I also found it rather easy to keep everyone alive, something I thought to be incredibly challenging given what I’d heard about it and yet I had no issue.

Aside from the story starting strong then going nowhere I take issue with the reliance on jumpscares. I only say this because there are plenty of times in this game that it does some “good” horror scares, with things moving in the foreground and background that work well in creeping you out. Then you have 9 times out of 10 where its just loud noise in-your-face obnoxiousness to try force a scare out of you.

It wasn’t as enjoyable as Until Dawn, but it was still alright.
None of the characters really felt like they got any sort of real development. The only character I can even kind of remember liking at any point was Fliss.
Everything about this game just kinda felt rushed. Not necessarily from a production standpoint, but from a narrative standpoint.
If you do play this game, I’d recommend doing it co-op with a friend. It honestly made the whole experience a lot more enjoyable than it would have been otherwise.

The game is only around four hours long, but I think that's better for this game, since you can't skip any cutscenes and you can get to the choices faster. I played it solo, but it seems like a good multiplayer game.

Everybody looks like they're made out of shiny plastic, somehow worse than Until Dawn. The characters feel heavy to control, and you sometimes have to be in a certain position to view objects, so you'll find yourself moving back and forth trying to get in the right place.

I enjoyed the game's story, but it was rather barebones and feel like there could have been some more "inbetween" parts. It's very linear.

The characters in this game are pretty bland. They are all just kinda there. Nobody really "evolves", bar maybe Brad. With the choices you make, your traits change and your relationships go up or down, it doesn't seem to make a difference. They always act the same.

I think it's weird to single out Conrad to put on the cover. Maybe it's just because of his actor. He doesn't do anything particularly main character worthy. In fact he was completely absent in my playthrough.

Story sucks, when you aren't making choices for them, the characters are as dumb as balls. Make decisions that could be easily avoided and that *I* have to fix for them. Some events don't even flow well into each other and feel completely random when you get onto the ship.

Some good scares nonetheless, even though they're all bullshit fakeouts with maybe one genuine scare that actually didn't get a reaction out of me lmfao. I like the narrator dude more than the actual characters.

Hated the navigational gameplay, very tedious and sometimes locks you in a room until you clunkily explore every nook and cranny before progressing to a cutscene.

It's fine, pretty subpar plot, only fun to play for the suspense and scares.

Until Dawn was a visually impressive game. It was also very atmospheric and had some memorable scenes. Supermassive Games has a talent for world-building and giving you the fine details. The downside is that Until Dawn didn't have any memorable characters. They were B-grade actors with stereotypical college student personalities and they never stood out. The same is present for Man of Medan. This is an ongoing horror series full of short stories with the overarching narrative being kept together by The Narrator. He gives you hints and a couple of tips to help keep everyone alive in the game.

Man of Medan is also visually impressive. Great textures, detailed character models, impressive lighting effects, and great camera work. The game suffers from Supermassive's previous weaknesses. Forgettable stereotypical characters that you see in B-grade horror movies. The acting is spotty and all over the place and includes facial animations. Sometimes it looks great and other times they look like stiff mannequins. You play as four college-age people who take a boat trip to go scuba diving to find an unmarked airplane that was downed during World War II. Things take a turn for the worse when they get kidnapped and brought onto a World War II ship to look for Manchurian Gold. They meet supernatural beings and must escape. Your job is to keep them alive.

While the overall tale is interesting and I really wanted to know what happened to this ship and the things going on, the game is so short that the characters get zero back stories and it's just jump scare after chase scene after QTE event. You keep the characters alive by mainly being successful with QTE events. These are when the characters' lives are in danger. If you played any cinematic adventure game in the last 20 years you know what to expect. There are various ways you can make the game easier or more difficult by walking around and searching for objects. This is the only gameplay here. Walking around small hallways and looking at objects. If you see a sparkle it means you can interact with it. Picking up objects and turning them overlooks cool and the objects are insanely detailed, but it doesn't add anything to the experience. You can easily just go straight to the end of every scene.

That's another problem with this game and these types of games as a whole. There's almost no gameplay. Most gameplay is just an excuse to keep the player engaged. Thankfully Man of Medan never gets dull and is always moving at a good pace. When creepy stuff happens it's done very well. I was wigged out by some of the creatures on screen. Supermassive's camera work is superb here. I felt like I was playing a movie which is more than I can say for most games. The only excitement in the game is the quick decisions needed before timers run out. You can get premonitions from finding pictures hidden around that show 3-second clips of what might happen in the future. Sometimes these helped and sometimes I realized what was happening too late. I managed to only lose one character and it was at the very end of the game. I have to say that the whole bearing and trait system makes no sense to me. During conversations, you can pick one of two answers and this will unlock traits or increase others. It's never explained well. Finding certain objects and adding to bearings, but I have no idea what this does. Again, there's no explanation.

Overall, Man of Medan is an interesting first outing into this new series and I look forward to seeing more. While I don't doubt Supermassive can supply an entertaining ride, the characters need to be more interesting, the facial animations need more work, and the bearing and trait system needs more explanation. The 4-5 hour runtime is over before you know it.