The Dark Pictures Anthology Review (Xbox, PlayStation & PC)

The Dark Pictures Anthology has a way of unraveling our true colors when it comes to navigating the highs and lows of life—the woes, the challenges, and the moments that frequently culminate in the death, the sacrifice, or the salvation of others. It’s a series that, when it boils down to it, piques our curiosity and makes us want to dabble in alternate realities, not to satisfy a craving for a perfect ending, but to scratch an itch and illuminate the possibilities that exist beyond our imagination. What would have happened if I missed that prompt? Would someone have died if I had accidentally skipped a QTE? Would there have been a better ending if I had just made more of an effort to strengthen the bond between two of the most unlikely characters? A lot of questions arise, and it’s only very rarely that we ever uncover the entire story. That, in short, is what The Dark Pictures does best: it keeps us second guessing the butterfly effects—the crossroads and the pivotal events that shape a tale that has no real borders. It might not always get it right, but boy does it make us want to delve back into the hot seat and pull the strings time and time again to unravel more of its wings and patterns.

If Supermassive Games is anything at all, it’s a master in the art of storytelling—a curator of character-driven eulogies that knows all too well how to deliver a compelling story arc and a nonlinear experience that can effectively bend and wean to your every decision. With thanks to its tight grip on a system that allows for creative control over most aspects of the journey, the studio has, rather gracefully, created a signature image with a lot to offer its audience. The plot lines might not always hit the right spot I’ll admit, but where The Dark Pictures often falls short of picture-perfect cinematic masterpieces, it definitely makes up for in its timeless charm and natural ability to incubate experiences with vast swaths of possibilities and avenues to explore and tailor to your own boots.

At the heart of The Dark Pictures Anthology is a deep and oftentimes thought-provoking experience that learns to build its axis upon your actions. With QTEs and branching dialogue being at the center of each of its thrilling escapades, the saga has kept to a rather open mind set—a mantra, if you will, that develops its core message via a conduit of your own making. The conversations might not always feel organic, and the characters might often come across as paper thin caricatures—cliches, even—but the series has, of course, been an advocate for personal growth and custom world-building. And that’s a strong suit that, frankly, only Supermassive Games can accomplish: being able to deliver an episodic format that feels almost fresh each and every time you jump into the front seat. Telltale Games is another great example, but that’s another story for another time.

From Man of Medan to Little Hope, House of Ashes to The Devil in Me, The Dark Pictures Anthology has, after working through a handful of settings and time periods, collectively worked to build a complete and comprehensive tapestry of episodic horrors that each fulfill the iconic Supermassive mantra. Designed with an evergreen spirit in mind, the anthology has, at least up until this point, been able to weave a compelling saga into a timeless escapade that bears the brunt of a thousand pages. With hundreds, even thousands of branching storylines and consequences, the series has been capable of keeping that elusive quality perfectly intact—the sense that you have yet to unravel all that there is to see and do with all of the playable heroes on display. It has replay value, is the point that I’m trying to convey here.

While there’s no telling which chapter in the timeline is the best of the bunch, there is a general consensus among fans of The Dark Pictures that Little Hope and House of Ashes are both fit for a suitable crown within the Supermassive hierarchy. And it feels like a fitting place to put them too, as both chapters in the series have, in all fairness, been able to knuckle in some of the most gripping plot points and palpable details to date. The audiovisual aspects have remained mostly the same I’ll admit, but between the second and third installments in the anthology you do, in all honesty, have a solid foundation for what Supermassive Games wants to accomplish with its formula. This isn’t to say that both Man of Medan and The Devil in Me are poor choices; it’s merely acknowledging the fact that, between Man of Medan’s less impactful plot and The Devil in Me’s concerning amount of bugs and lack of visual polish, the meat of the saga—the second and third—do edge just a little more towards a better quality. A matter of opinion, true, and something that is likely to change based on player experience.

There is, sadly, a downside to The Dark Pictures: it falls into Supermassive Games’ underling category. With the likes of Until Dawn, The Quarry, and The Casting of Frank Stone each possessing stellar talent, voice acting, audiovisual elements, and cinematic effects, The Dark Pictures does often come across as a softer, almost watered down version of its standalone chapters. And sometimes, frustratingly, it shows a little too much, with sloppy visuals, shorter campaigns and a worrying amount of technical issues. But that’s The Dark Pictures’ worst issue: the fact that it feels the need to meet a deadline and launch on an annual basis, even at the expense of losing its quality and post-development polish. That being said, for a saga that has a ton of replay value at an affordable price, it does feel awfully difficult to make a complaint. It’ll never be the cinematic equivalent to its standalone counterparts, but then, perhaps it doesn’t need to be.

Verdict

Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures Anthology feels like an easy series to recommend, especially if you’re one for choice-driven episodic tales that bend to your every action and prompt. With a handful of unique tales that each carry their own themes, tones, and butterfly effects, you more or less have hundreds of hours’ worth of content to dice up on the cutting room floor. It might not boast the technical polish and complexity of the studio’s standalone works, but to give credit where it’s due, it does have an evergreen quality that makes you want to play god and pull the strings several times over. The question is, will the series ever amount to the same level of success as, say, Until Dawn or The Quarry? Only time will tell on that one.