OF MEDAN THE DARK PICTURES ANTHOLOGY – MAN

Supermassive dips its toe once more into choice-driven horror

Padding around this rustbucket ship barefoot, the risk of catching tetanus is the least of poor Fliss’ troubles. The young sea captain started her day introduced to four spoilt American tourists, and it’s only got worse for her from there – and we haven’t even mentioned the fact she’s being coaxed through the ghost ship at gunpoint…

The man with the gun is Danny, a twitchy fellow prone to jumping at shadows – an undesirable trait for anyone holding a firearm, to be sure. In the short slice we play, slowly padding through leaky hallways illuminated only by the shaky beam of Danny’s flashlight, we press q to inspect discarded dog tags and naval uniform caps. When we try to get a good look at a frame on a wall, Danny pushes us along. It’s not all leisurely strolls aboard condemned vessels though; QTEs soon reveal the dead to be not-sodearly-departed. We quickly tap r to open a stiff door and attempt to evade the soggy, undead threat by matching the on-screen button prompts before time runs out.

Upon seeing the first of unfortunately many corpses, it’s apparent we don’t have a lot of time left on board. Danny tells us, “That guy’s probably still right here with us. I mean, you die on a ship, your ghost stays on the ship.”

Fliss’ day can only get worse.

INTERNAL CONFLICT

At the very least, Fliss isn’t alone with Danny; she has a fellow hostage in the form of Brad. He doesn’t seem to be 100% compos mentis either, but he’s doing a darn sight better than Danny and is the closest we have to an ally. After a close call ourselves, he falls afoul of the same threat and we’ve got a choice to make. Do we follow our head and save ourselves or follow our foolhardy heart and try to save Brad? That’s right, butterflies are out and your internal organs are, uh, ‘in.’ Whatever we pick doesn’t end well for Fliss in this tiny slice of an eventual multi-part anthology, but the beating heart, transplanted from Until Dawn, is unmistakable. We can’t wait to wrap ourselves up in another Supermassive blanket of dread as things get chillier into the new year.

“THAT’S RIGHT, BUTTERFLIES ARE OUT AND YOUR INTERNAL ORGANS ARE, UH, ‘IN.’”

FORMAT PS4 / ETA 2019 / PUB BANDAI NAMCO / DEV SUPERMASSIVE GAMES Deep water is not still, and no course you could plot here is likely to run smooth. Choose wisely between your head and your heart.

Above There are a number of weird and wonderful venues near OPM Towers, but this gig was proving to be pretty dead.