The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes announced, releases 2021

Have you ever watched The Descent? Fantastic little movie, although you wouldn’t think it at first glance. The acting isn’t great and the writing is a mess but it still holds a place in my brain as one of the scariest movies I’ve ever watched. It’s about a group of friends that go spelunking, get trapped underneath the ground, and are then hunted by a horrific sub-species of humanity. What makes it a winner is how it’s shot, with the lighting and cinematography creating a visual tension in how confined and claustrophobic the whole situation is. I think it’s a similar vibe to what Supermassive Games is trying to do with The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes which has been announced for release next year.

Just like last year’s Man of Medan and this year’s Little Hope (review coming soon), House of Ashes will play like a Supermassive Game. A heavy emphasis is placed on player decisions, incredible animation and graphics and plenty of quick-time events to keep you paying attention. While I’ve yet to play Man of Medan, I’ve played Supermassive’s first game that inspired the whole Dark Pictures Anthology, Until Dawn and that game rocks. If you’ve ever played that PS4 exclusive then you know what you’re getting into when playing House of Ashes.

From the trailer it’s pretty hard to make out any kind of story beyond, “Soldiers crash in desert, find buried city, clearly anger some kind of… guardians? Or just monsters whichever works best for your mental synopsis”. Oh, and it appears to star Ashely Tisdale? She made her name in High School Musical and Phineas and Ferb, s sure, I can back that career trajectory. I can clearly see the parallels to The Descent and if the game manages to be anything like that then I’m sold. No specific release date outside of the general “2021” and no confirmed consoles at this point but one has to imagine that it’ll be on PS5 and Xbox Series X. Maybe the older games will be upgradable in the future, who can say? I’m just impressed with how quickly Supermassive is pumping these games out.

Last Updated: November 2, 2020