“The Dark Pictures Anthology” is a series of independent horror games, each sending different characters into a scenario where the players influence the course of the story and have a say in which characters come out alive. “The Devil in Me” now officially wraps up its first season and gets the horror wheel spinning again.
When a lot of money lures into the murder house
In the last adventure for now, we guide a documentary film team who receive an invitation from a wealthy snob to make a film on a huge estate that offers countless mysteries, isolated on an island. The owner has a great fascination with the serial killer HH Holmes and promptly had the original murder house built by him.
That premise alone should set alarm bells ringing for the protagonists, but the seductive fame and big money are stronger. Because this Holmes was not only a simple killer, but is also officially considered the very first serial killer in American history. A unique opportunity awaits the film team to make a cinematic success. If they all survive.
But the film crew soon had to admit that maybe they shouldn’t have accepted this invitation after all. Because once they arrive, the horror begins. After learning that they are being watched all the time and that the killer hotel with its branching corridors keeps separating the team members and sending them into deadly traps, escape is no longer possible and the fight for survival begins.
The constant torment of choice
We already know what follows from the previous “Dark Pictures” episodes: we lead individual characters through eerie rooms, look for a way out, pick up objects, solve small, very simple puzzles and wait for the next cutscene so that the story continues.
We make decisions over and over again. In dialogues we can choose answers, we have to press buttons on the screen hard at certain points and every now and then we have to make difficult decisions to ensure the survival of a character.
Depending on how we decide and especially how quickly we react, the characters stay alive or the team gets smaller and smaller. In «The Devil in Me», this also means that there are different endings to discover and there is always uncertainty among the players as to whether they should have made a different decision.
Scary beautiful horror landscape
The atmosphere in «The Devil in Me» is just great and pulls you into the horror maelstrom very nicely. Already at the first steps on this island you literally feel the evil and the genre fan can’t wait for it to finally start.
The killer hotel with its branching corridors and the dimly lit rooms provides cozy goosebumps. The recreated serial killer hotel is just the starting point. Because in the course of the struggle for survival, a few other eerily beautiful environments await.
The game constantly builds tension and makes us curious. Who is the killer behind the mask and why is he the way he is? The content component is so strong that in some places we don’t even notice how bad the technical implementation actually is in some places.
The real horror: the technology
While some facial animations are excellent, the rest scares us. There are such huge differences in quality that you wonder how something like this can still be waved through. But that is not everything.
The controls are frustratingly spongy here and there, some interactions don’t want to work until after what feels like the tenth try, the lip sync is a cheek and when snippets of English words suddenly squeeze between the German lines, you want to give the developers a good shake.
goosebumps and tolerance
Conclusion: Yes, Supermassive Games’ “The Devil in Me” is very technically brutal in places. There are always times when imperfections come out and you have to take a deep breath in front of the screen. But as annoying as these technical flaws are, the playable horror story still captivates us for about seven hours.
Unlike the other “Dark Pictures” games, the characters here are not completely irrelevant. The drawing of the characters is quite successful, you suffer and try your best that one or the other survive the whole horror journey.
In addition, the killer hotel and the backstory of the masked killer provide a great fascination that we blindly follow and follow until the end to finally get answers to nagging questions.
“The Devil in Me” is a chillingly beautiful play-yourself survival horror movie and simply the best part of the first season of “Dark Pictures”. However, the technical imperfections demand a lot of tolerance.
“The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me” is available for Playstation 5, Playstation 4, Xbox Series X/S and PC. Approved from 18 years.
Source: Watson
I’m Ella Sammie, author specializing in the Technology sector. I have been writing for 24 Instatnt News since 2020, and am passionate about staying up to date with the latest developments in this ever-changing industry.
