The Dark Pictures Anthology has been a really fun movie night game franchise for me and some close friends since they first came out. We've been chasing the high of a playthrough of Until Dawn we all watched many years ago, but the Dark Pictures games haven't lived up...until now. House of Ashes seems to perfectly capture character interactions, clear themes, surprising twists, and real threats throughout that make the game so tense.

While still the same loop of quick time events, choice making and clue finding, this game works really well as it always feels like you're on the verge of discovery right before the reveal. More than the previous games, Man of Medan and Little Hope, House of Ashes has me seriously contemplating a second playthrough to see how I can correct the wrongs of my first one. This game would likely not have been as much fun on my own, but having played it in a group made for a really good time. As a game night with a group of IRL friends, I honestly couldn't recommend it more.

the only other game i’ve played by supermassive was until dawn and this was a massive improvement in every way. story was way better paced, it didn’t feel like i was just playing a “walking simulator,” story wasn’t as cringey either despite the love triangle. the characters were written well and i actually liked them (besides rachel). graphics have improved tremendously since until dawn. gameplay feels a lot smoother as well. just feels like they’ve improved on the formula that they found with until dawn here and i can’t wait to check out the other games. saved salim, jason, eric

A massive improvement from the previous two Dark Picture titles. Man of Medan was very "meh" and Little Hope squandered the ending. House of Ashes swung with its very unexpected setting and did not miss.

First off, the monsters in this one? Peak. God damn, that's all I ever could ask for with these games. I really wish that I wasn't thinking "There is no way they do me wrong 3 times in a row" the entire time I was playing, but I had been burned too many times before. Nope. There is a genuinely icky threat to deal with here and while we don't learn all that much about them, they are violently diabolical enough to garner a few repulses from me whenever they showed up again. The setting sells it a lot. You feel trapped and claustrophobic. You're really unsure if there is a light at the end of the tunnel when it seems like the only way to go is further down into the darkness.

I really enjoyed those aspects a lot. There's much more action in this game in comparison too. I found it way easier to accidentally murder the shit out of the characters in this one, mainly because the thematic tells in this one were way less obvious. There was some genuine pants filling whenever you missed a QTE because you never knew if it meant life or death in that one moment.

There's two storylines going on in this one and one of them is very uninteresting. I don't want to get into it without spoilers, but there's a certain triangle of characters that have some extremely annoying scenes you have to get through when you really just want to see more of the horror instead. The other plotline was fairly predictable where it was going right from the beginning, but it made for a surprisingly warm ending if you were able to keep those character's alive.

It's short and takes you for a wild ride. I was pleasantly surprised.