Man of Medan
Makes cliched horror feel fresh again.
Man of Medan isn’t particularly scary. If it were a movie, it’d be the kind that releases direct-to-video, one of those schlocky DVDs lining the convenience store displays. The usual character archetypes are there: the nerd, the hunk, the blonde, the stranger, the horny creep that no one should put up with but do because at least one death should be cathartic. Queue up the ghost ship, pirates, and cheap jump scares galore.
As a film, it would be fun, but familiar and forgettable. But as co-op adventure game, Man of Medan is unparalleled. Think of it like a movie where you take control of one character at a time, oscillating between quicktime action scenes and dialogue sequences. Occasionally you’ll get time to look for story clues, tools, and soak in the setting.
Early into my online co-op playthrough, my coworker Joanna and I coerce our ship captain into letting us explore a sunken plane at the bottom of the ocean, but we don’t play two characters in the same scene. We play different scenes simultaneously.
In mine, a young couple explores the underwater wreck. As Julia, I reject my insecure partner’s relationship questions and stick to the matter at hand – the skeletons chilling in the plane’s disintegrating chassis. I mash X as part of a surprise quicktime event to avoid cutting my thigh on a sharp edge. Joanna laughs at my shrill yip over Discord. Later I’ll scream “LEECHES!” louder than I ever have and Joanna’s laughter matches the volume. The jump scares might be cheap and plentiful, but with a friend they’re hilarious.
Meanwhile, Joanna’s playing as Captain Fliss up on the ship, cooly rejecting Conrad’s every pickup line. (They get to second base in my solo run.) But I only know what Joanna tells me, so when she says a boat is approaching our own, I worry. I really worry when the boat speeds off and drags the diver line across the plane, knocking the cockpit off.
Imagine how I feel when I see two explosions up top as I surface. Do I swim up and risk giving Julia the bends or slowly depressurise with her neurotic boyfriend? At least he didn’t just ask Julia to marry him this time. The next playthrough, he does, and I send Julia up immediately.
It’s my turn to listen to Joanna panic while juggling her own choices or button prompts – I’m in the dark. She eventually gets some vital info across that informs my next move.
SUMATRA SISTER
It’s not as fun as co-op, but Man of Medan is still surprising alone. My solo story ended with a completely different cast and lasting consequences, but I don’t want to poke around the same three-ish hour long B-movie to see every outcome. The characters are too cliched and the plot too simple. But as an ambient experience played over time, Man of Medan is worth returning to for the social experience. What kind of incompetent hot people death-cocktail can we make...