Horror games are a quickly growing genre in the gaming industry. Maybe because it is relatively new compared to other genres. But the quick pace can also be attributed to the insatiable appetites of horror fans—which is also why developers can release long-running series like The Dark Pictures Anthology.
For those who don’t know, The Dark Pictures Anthology will be a series of horror games released in an episodic format. The first game, Man of Medan, will come out this August. Afterward, fans can expect a new game every six months. Supermassive Games, the developers of the anthology, said they plan to release eight games under the collection.
Most of us found out about the anthology’s first game, Man of Medan, just last week. In the first game, five friends travel out into the South Pacific together on a ship when a large storm rolls in. From there, things begin to take a turn for the worse—the group winds up in a sunken ghost ship with a mysterious curse.
The gameplay for Man of Medan and the rest of The Dark Pictures Anthology plays out like a choose-your-own-adventure style gaming experience littered with quick-time events during the more heavy action sequences. A lot of the game is dialogue-driven, and we know in Man of Medan players can save all five of the friends from the ghost ship if they choose carefully enough.
This means The Dark Pictures Anthology will have a lot of replayability. The perfect thing to hold you over while you end up waiting another six months for the next game to come out.
Although all of the games are part of the same set, each separate episode will play out as an individual story with little connection to the others. The only thread tying all of the games together will be the presence of an enigmatic person known only as The Curator, who ties the games together as the narrator of the series. No word on whether the final episodes of the series will deal with The Curator or if his presence only serves as a frame for the anthology.
This isn’t the first horror game for Supermassive Games. The development team was also responsible for the popular Until Dawn, which first came out in 2015 for the PlayStation 4.
If you’re interested in The Dark Pictures Anthology, be sure to check out Man of Medan, which will be released on August 30th for Xbox One, PlayStation 4, and Windows PC.
