A much needed leap forward in near every regard.
I've always been a sucker for silly little narratives and FMV games. While Supermassive doesn't go full FMV, they try to bridge the gap with their character models. Combined with an always wide hokey-horror net being cast, their games are always good fun. But after getting through Until Dawn, Man of Medan, and Little Hope... I was left wanting a little more. Individually they're all that silly, campy fun. But as a whole the gimmick was running dry. There needed to be strides made.
House of Ashes takes those strides.
The story. The controls. The graphics. The scale. The scope. The polish. And more. They all finally stepped forward. Lessons were finally learned. Things finally evolved. I was impressed. Don't get me wrong, it's still a irrational logic defying horror romp and stumble. You still laugh aloud and shoot riffs from the hip at it all. That b-movie charm is far from gone. But the game concept, finally, progressed. Which makes me all the more excited to check out Devil in Me and The Quarry eventually. All the lost steam has been found.
This is even taking into account that I did a super sloppy rushed playthrough. I'm letting my SONY-price-gouged PS+ Premium subscription lapse. I don't play enough and they didn't offer me anything new with the new gouged price. So I was churning this out as the deadline looms. I set out to kill certain characters and save others. Supermassive as they are, ruined my plans as always. Which is why I will enjoy revisiting all these some day. An impressive feat for a narrative game.
Supermassive got some well earned confidence back from me here. A welcomed improvement on the formula.
"Final Girl" was my ending trophy.
I've always been a sucker for silly little narratives and FMV games. While Supermassive doesn't go full FMV, they try to bridge the gap with their character models. Combined with an always wide hokey-horror net being cast, their games are always good fun. But after getting through Until Dawn, Man of Medan, and Little Hope... I was left wanting a little more. Individually they're all that silly, campy fun. But as a whole the gimmick was running dry. There needed to be strides made.
House of Ashes takes those strides.
The story. The controls. The graphics. The scale. The scope. The polish. And more. They all finally stepped forward. Lessons were finally learned. Things finally evolved. I was impressed. Don't get me wrong, it's still a irrational logic defying horror romp and stumble. You still laugh aloud and shoot riffs from the hip at it all. That b-movie charm is far from gone. But the game concept, finally, progressed. Which makes me all the more excited to check out Devil in Me and The Quarry eventually. All the lost steam has been found.
This is even taking into account that I did a super sloppy rushed playthrough. I'm letting my SONY-price-gouged PS+ Premium subscription lapse. I don't play enough and they didn't offer me anything new with the new gouged price. So I was churning this out as the deadline looms. I set out to kill certain characters and save others. Supermassive as they are, ruined my plans as always. Which is why I will enjoy revisiting all these some day. An impressive feat for a narrative game.
Supermassive got some well earned confidence back from me here. A welcomed improvement on the formula.
"Final Girl" was my ending trophy.