Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope - Review

 

A few years ago I played Supermassive Games' Until Dawn, a fantastic story-driven horror game. Naturally, when I heard they had released a series of games called The Dark Pictures Anthology I was excited. Last year I played the first game in the series The Man of Medan and was a little underwhelmed, everything was very so so, but I was willing to give the second instalment in the series Little Hope a chance. My lovely partner in crime got it for me at Christmas and just finished playing it this week.

With it being January I have been trying to reduce my intake of sugary goodness. I have been having slightly less bold things, one such thing is Milky Bar Milk Slice. Barely 100 calories, so how bad? Well it's a mixed bag, I like Milky Bars but these slices not so much, I mean I wanted to like them but just couldn't get into them. Playing Little Hope I have found myself asking did I like it or was I just trying to like it?

Story

The game is set in the small Salem-like town of Little Hope, an apt name. The story moves between the past, very past and present. There are five main characters and while you get to move between them Andrew is the main protagonist who is a student and comes across as fairly emotionless.  There are four others who make up the group, Angela, an old mean woman that is constantly stirring things up, although one of her main traits is that she is understanding? There is John, the professor who is a stick in the mud and prone to behaving rashly and attempts to be the leader no one needs.  There is Taylor who is a bit of drip and a troublemaker and her nice-guy jock boyfriend Daniel who seems nervous to go public about them until 'I trust you 100%'. 

The dialogue is quite poor and most conversations seem overly simplistic or over-explained. That being said the overarching story is actually really good and went a small way to making up for the dialogue. As with the Man Of Medan, and Until Dawn there are many dialogues choices and actions, some of which can result in the death of any or all characters.

Overall the story is good, but the clunky dialogue and poor characters really let it down, and how Supermassive Games went from the great story and dialogue in Until Dawn to that of Little Hope is beyond me. 

Visuals

The visuals are one of the strongest parts of Little Hope which is something Supermassive Games are constantly good at delivering on. While the quality of the visuals is good at a lot of the game feels like you are walking down a long road. What really stands out are the 17th-century sections which feel authentic, and eerie, from the clothes to the buildings. Without giving too much away the enemies are twisted and unnerving, which help in providing jump scares.

Overall there are some great visuals with two of the timelines but present-day feel likes you spend a lot of time walking down a long road, while there are detours along the way none of them really excited me as much of the 17th Century sections.

Music

The music left little impact on me and unfortunately no matter where I looked it I was unable to find a place to listen to the soundtrack. The music is composed by Jason Graves who has an extremely rich back catalogue of work, Command Conquer 4, Far Cry Primal, Until Dawn, Friday The 13th: The Game, Evolve, Dead Space, and Fear 3 to name but a few.

Overall the soundtrack sadly did not do a lot for me which is disappointing as Graves is an accomplished composer. Perhaps it was less to do with him and more how Supermassive Games incorporated his music into the games.

Gameplay

The gameplay like much of the rest of the game is underwhelming. There are a lot more chances to move around and control characters, than in the Man Of Medan. Unfortunately, movement is still an issue, it feels like trying to drive a forklift with only two wheels - that are both on one-side. Outside of movement, there is a lot of dialogue choices, while each choice does affect your relationship with the characters it does not really seem to matter. The only true thing that seems to matter in the game is how you react to quick-time events. If you mess up even one you can kill a character, which can be interesting, as much as seeing someone die horrifically can be interesting.

The game can be played solo or with friends, I would be curious to play it with friends to see how the mechanic works as while the game is short it might be difficult to get multiple people to play in one sitting or multiple ones. 

Overall the gameplay is very so so and I can't say it enough - how did SuperMassive Games go from something as good as Until Dawn to the Dark Pictures Anthology.

Final Thoughts

So, after six hours how did I feel?  Sadly, underwhelmed. The overall story was pretty good, but the characters were annoying and fairly unlikable, there were some good visuals, the music was meh, the gameplay felt like it was still in the Beta stages. That all being said there is still a part of me curious to play the next instalment. Overall this one gets a lowly 2 out of 5