Previews
‘The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes’ Sees a Significant Revamp to the Horror Game Anthology Series [Preview]
After getting the first real look at House of Ashes, the third entry in the narrative horror game series The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive Games have clearly listened to player feedback on what does and doesn’t work with it. As the anthology makes the jump to next-generation consoles, it transforms into a truer evolution of the Until Dawn formula.
Gone are the fixed cameras outside cutscenes and conversations; now, exploration is encouraged with a player-controlled 360-degree camera. The complaints about the ‘threats’ players faced in previous games? It’s been addressed with a genuine, very monstrous danger to the latest cast of potential victims. Along with some general tidying up of QTE mechanics and new difficulty settings, this is already a major departure from 2020’s Little Hope.
What does stay the same is thematic. House of Ashes blends evils of the past with a fairly modern cast. Set in 2003 Iraq during the war, a team of American operatives (including Ashley Tisdale as CIA operative Rachel King) is sent in to uncover a possible weapons silo in search of Weapons of Mass Destruction. After a firefight with Iraqi soldiers at the site of this silo, an earthquake causes the ground to collapse, trapping both sides underground in a long-buried temple built by real-life historical figure Naram-Sin of the Akkadian Empire.
So no WMDs, but a long-lost temple is surely a juicy discovery? Sure, if said temple wasn’t built as a failed attempt to appease the Gods and rid Naram-Sin’s people of a curse. The big discovery these unwitting intruders will make is that the ruins are overrun with some ferocious subterranean monsters out for their blood. The reassurance is there from Supermassive; this is no illusion; these bastards are real.
So the two warring human factions must team up to survive this hellish descent into history. As in previous entries in The Dark Pictures Anthology, the player switches between five different characters throughout the story (with alternate perspectives also available in the returning Curator’s Cut). There are no fail states if a character dies; the story continues without them. You can finish the tale with everyone alive or none of them; it all depends on the player’s decisions along the way.
The anthology structure has allowed Supermassive to have a healthy selection of horror sub-genres and influences to pick from. Not to mention the hook of each episode is based on some historical mystery or event. The most obvious nod in House of Ashes is towards Neil Marshall’s The Descent, but the developer notes Aliens, Predator, At the Mountains of Madness, and the historical fall of Akkad as the historical context also being key elements in House of Ashes‘ structure.
In a short gameplay segment shown to us, we got to see two American soldiers, Jason and Nick, as they first wandered the newly-discovered underground caverns. Nick is the character in the player’s control, and he tries to reunite with Jason at the start (with a subtle nod to the infamous Heavy Rain ‘Jason!’ shout). Jason spots an inhuman shape in the gloom of the cavern, but the creature skitters off before he can get a good look at it.
Once reunited with Jason (Nick’s superior), the pair bicker about what Nick thinks he saw but are interrupted by a scream. It turns out it’s one of their squadmates, tangled up in wires and bleeding profusely while his colleague stands by helpless. As Nick and Jason try to cut the poor sap down, the other squad member is dragged into the darkness by an unseen force. It seems the entity Nick saw earlier has brought some friends, and they’re quite hungry.
The remaining trio escapes for a moment, and what follows is a tense QTE where Nick tries to stifle the screams of the injured soldier while Jason attempts to stem the bleeding. All the while, the creatures are screeching away, clearly still hunting for them. There seems to be an implication these creatures are either blind or poorly sighted, relying on sound to hunt, which could throw up some interesting encounters and moments of tension.
I’m intrigued by the changes made in House of Ashes to the formula of The Dark Pictures. While Supermassive clearly has a vision for this ongoing project, it’s admirable that it is open to tweaking it on a game-by-game basis. One of my small issues with the previous entries was that the exploration felt limited by the fixed camera system. Here in House of Ashes, Supermassive’s decision to fluctuate between tight claustrophobic spaces and wide-open explorable caverns gives a best of both worlds approach.
With Frictional Games tackling desert caves, lost temples, cosmic horror, and screeching beasts lurking in the shadow in last year’s Amnesia: Rebirth, I’m curious to see a different take on it with a more cinematic effort. We’ve seen relatively little of House of Ashes so far, but it is already showing promise as the entry that sees The Dark Pictures hit its stride.
The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes is out on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Series X/S, and PC later in 2021.
The gaming world owes so much to David Lynch. “Twin Peaks” alone has inspired the premise and setting of so many games, from Deadly Premonition to Alan Wake, and its dreamlike tone is one that’s perfect for an interactive medium.
Silver Pines, the upcoming title from Swedish-based indie developer Wych Elm, is the latest in the lineage of Lynchian games, this time presenting survival-horror-style gameplay from a 2D perspective. While I’m not traditionally as hot on 2D games, after spending time with the demo, available now on Steam, I can’t wait to see more of this intriguing new world.
It starts out simple. After a brief, narrated dream sequence, you wake up in an empty diner in the small American town of Silver Pines. There’s a quick tutorial sequence that teaches you the game’s mechanics as you escape from the diner, followed by a phone call that sets up the premise of the game. You play Red Walker, a private investigator on the hunt for a missing musician named Eddie Velvet. It’s an elegant bit of exposition that’s delivered with a slightly dreamlike vibe, setting the tone for what’s to come.
As you begin to explore the titular town, you find it eerily abandoned, thanks to an evacuation order that’s caused the majority of the residents to take the ferry out of here. Empty streets and vacant buildings bring to mind Silent Hill, which is a great start in my book. There’s something really unique and special about small town horror like this, and Silver Pines is able to capture it immediately without feeling too much like a tribute act.
Navigating the Unique 2D World of Silver Pines
One of the things that impressed me immediately was how easy I found it to navigate the 2D space. Much like the indie classic Lone Survivor, you have a map that represents the space, and you turn down streets and hallways by pressing up or down at certain openings in the background to “turn” on the map. It seems like it should be incredibly difficult to follow directional shifts like this, but it becomes immediately intuitive, especially with the addition of diegetic signage that guides you without feeling out of place and handholdy.
I usually associate 2D games with more dynamic jumping and movement mechanics, but Silver Pines keeps things grounded, managing to find ways of creating navigation challenges without resorting to platforming tests that would feel out of place in a narrative like this. The map is particularly excellent in this game, as you can use a camera to add photos to it to help remind you what’s there. I love it when main characters mark up maps with locations of puzzles or items, and putting that power in the player’s hands was an interesting mechanical wrinkle that felt helpful and unique.
The other thing that gripped me from the start was the art style, which uses a slight cel-shading technique for the character models that makes them look hand-drawn. They really pop when compared to the backgrounds, which have a slightly different, but complementary, style to them. Wych Elm also shows off a masterful understanding of lighting, creating a shadowy look that’s never too dark to understand what’s going on.
The way the various layers of background and foreground give a parallax effect as you walk adds so much depth to every moment, making the imagery feel more dynamic. This game is treading familiar ground, with abandoned hotels and empty small town streets, but the unique look sets it apart enough to justify it among its peers.
Puzzles Balance Logic and Surrealism
Aside from just navigating the spaces, you’ll need to solve a variety of puzzles in order to progress. Many of them are just finding keys to open doors or figuring out which item is helpful in which situation, like an adventure game, but there were a few in the hour-long demo that gave me a level of satisfaction in actually figuring something out. Like the best survival horror games, the puzzles are an equal bit grounded in reality and slightly surreal, adding to the tone of the game. One of them gave me a Silent Hill vibe with its logic, asking me to win a BB gun shooting range mini game to get a pool key (which also teaches you how to use weapons).
While the game isn’t crawling with enemies, there are more threats scattered throughout the levels than I expected. Early on, you get a blade to defend yourself, which also acts as a key to cut through doorways blocked by cloth, and it’s just the right balance of effective and clumsy. There’s a surprisingly useful dodge that lets you slip past enemies. With the right timing, it’s not too difficult to survive one-on-one encounters, but it’s also not so easy that you can go on autopilot. Once multiple enemies get into the mix, it starts feeling more desperate, forcing you to make smart use of your stamina and weapon durability to survive.
A pistol gets introduced late in the demo, and that also felt surprisingly punchy, but its power was balanced smartly by limited ammo. One of my favorite gameplay elements of survival horror is ammo management, and it seems like Silver Pines is going to make that a core part of its combat experience, asking you to think carefully about which enemies are worth your precious bullets. This is further complicated by the fact that your gun can also be used to shoot padlocks to access previously locked areas, making it an even more valuable resource.
Enemy Design is the Demo’s Biggest Question Mark
Ammo and tape will be crucial to the continued use of your gun and knife, respectively, and there’s a quick little minigame for reloading and repairing that adds some tension to encounters. In addition to scavenging for resources, there was a vending machine I ran across where I could spend money to buy ammo or health kits. Be careful, though, the money is what you use to save at the payphone save points, so you don’t want to spend it all. It’s a clever variant on the classic Resident Evil-style ink ribbon system that makes your resource for saving a more abundant currency, but one that is used for more than just saving.
There were a couple of mementos that I ran across while exploring, and these can be equipped to provide specific character modifiers. I’m not entirely sold on the system yet, as there weren’t enough in the demo to really be able to craft a meaningful build, but with the surprisingly fun combat I’ve seen so far, I’m hoping that they will allow you to shape your playstyle in a way that’s tuned to how you like it. Any new wrinkles on combat are welcome, as it will need to find ways to keep fresh if it wants to stay compelling throughout.
As much as I think the combat is responsive and interesting, I think the enemies might be the weakest part of the game’s identity. This could also be a symptom of just seeing the early game, but so far, they are a bit more indistinct than I’d like, consisting mostly of shadowy people and bugs that didn’t have much going on. There was a boss fight that had a bit more of a menacing design, but I don’t know enough about the full shape of the narrative yet to see if the enemy design is in sync with the tone it’s trying to achieve. Right now, they just feel a bit generic, but I’m hoping things improve as it goes on, because they are pretty fun to fight for a survival horror game.
A Strong First Impression
Back to the opening thoughts about Lynch, the part that has me most interested in this game is the narrative. It’s simple so far, but there have been some surprisingly effective surrealist sequences that make me think this story is going to be something that will sink its hooks into me. One of the coolest moments of the demo involved turning off a light switch and being transported into an entirely different space, one dripping with dreamlike vibes. Even the choice to have the person you’re searching for be a musician adds a nice bit of texture to the narrative, putting a thematic focus on the game’s music in an important sequence involving a performance.
The cutscenes shift to a distinct painterly style, making them stand out without having to animate them, and it’s all brought to life with great voice acting. There’s even a little show you can watch in bits on TVs you pass, feeling a bit like a nod to Alan Wake II’s “Night Springs”.
I’m going to be honest, watching the initial trailer for Silver Pines had me feeling a bit sceptical. Not everyone can nail that Lynchian vibe, and when you try for that tone and miss, it can leave you with a narrative that’s either confusing or pretentious. Based on my hour with Silver Pines, I’d say they are on the right track, ready to deliver a surrealist narrative that draws from its inspirations while still carving out its own identity.
No word on the release date yet, outside of a vague 2026 timeframe, but I’ll be there day one to check it out.
Silver Pines is scheduled to release on the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series, Nintendo Switch, and PC via Steam.
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