The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope - Preview of the new Supermassive Games adventure

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is the new chapter of the horror adventure anthology created by Supermassive Games (best known for Until Dawn), whose goal is to develop titles that tell all kinds of existing horror stories, going from psychological thriller, to mystery, even getting to gore and splatter. To open the dances of this terrifying symphony (in the good sense) it was Man of Medan, which unfortunately brought some not very lusnghieri judgments by gamers and critics: both complained of technical problems regarding the camera, animations of the protagonists and not only. The software house has therefore collected the feedback and tried to improve things: but what will it be about Little hope?

Let's start by giving the most important information: it is not yet known when it will be released precisely, but we know that it will be released during the summer, or at least this is shown in the announcement trailer.

THEincipt of the story is very simple: due to a car accident on their route, a group of boys from New England take a detour, and find themselves in the strange and mysterious town of Little Hope, famous for being protagonist of a witch hunt during the 1692.

Angela, Andrew, Daniel, John and Taylor will unwittingly find themselves involved in events that they will meet past and present, as all those murders led to gods consequences particular ... very particular. The common thread that connects Man of Medan to Little Hope, as far as we know, is only the Curator, the man who writes our history and comments on our actions, hiding bottles of whiskey in books. So all players will continue to be "judged" by man, as he had predicted within the teaser trailer visible at the end of the first chapter, from which the developers of Supermassive Games they didn't want to go too far, since it will always be fundamental for gameplay to explore the environments to collect clues or information, to be reactive in the moments of Quick Time Event and above all make the right choice not to let the protagonists die. But then what are the changes mentioned at the beginning?

Cinematic and realistic

From what has been seen since gameplay, the camera will no longer be on the character's shoulders, thus causing that feeling claustrophobic that was often rehearsed in Man of Medan, but the developers decided to use the camera in a more "directorial" way, positioning it in such a way as to give the impression of watching a movie (as was also the case in Until Dawn), an accentuated sensation from in-game HUD reduction, which has been cleaned up and made as minimalist as possible, and will only appear shortly before the arrival of a QTE. The intention of the developers to render the title is clear how much more cinematic possible.

Furthermore, it is possible to notice how the plot proposed in this new chapter is a lot more mature than that proposed in Man of Medan, getting much closer to a story of psychological thriller that to a full title of jumpscares (although they will not fail). Excellent work of the cast selected in creating the right mood, which makes every single protagonist (main and not) very lively and well characterized, thanks also to the character writing work performed by the lead writer director… but unfortunately those problems concerning the already mentioned seem to remain animations. In defense of the developers it is possible to say, however, that there is still a long time to go prior to the game release.

A makes the aforementioned mood again more realistic and cared for it is the historical setting, reproduced with care too in the smallest details: the intersection between past and present exists and has been achieved in an excellent way. Supermassive Games also took care of the customs and traditions of the 1600s, which is reflected not only in the setting but also in the dialogues and the use of words chosen during the script. Cinematic and realistic, these are the two keywords that sum up the structure of Little Hope, and it is certainly complicated make the context real in which the narration takes place.

According to the developers it will always be possible to play in co-op with friends, whether locally or online, and two versions will be available: Theatrical Cut e Curator's Cut, which will unite and give a player the chance to look at another player's perspective, this of course only in the case of a game in coop.

If instead you are alone, you will be asked to choose which of the two modes to play, and this certainly increases the replayability, and according to the developers, they would like the Little Hope experience (as well as the entire Dark Pictures Anthology) to be played together with a friend or relative, and in the following chapters they will try to imprint the title more on the cooperative mode, compared to singleplayer game.

So, summing up all the information in our possession: the developers of Supermassive Games have collected all the feedback from critics and gamers who have played Man of Medan, the first chapter of the Dark Pictures Anthology, and have made some changes in their second chapter. In Little Hope, we will see much more of the supernatural as the protagonist, since the town where our group of protagonists will find themselves had had to do with the witchcraft. Due to the witch hunt that took place in the late 1600s, the present will suffer all the consequences of those murders, so probably ghosts or returns in the form of "undead", which probably they will return for revenge (as you can also glimpse from the trailer). Unfortunately, from a distance it seems that they recur some faults that were Man of Medan as far as the animations of the protagonists are concerned, but there is still time to improve them.