- RTX 3060 = 2560 x 1440 to 60 FPS in ULTRA
- Completed in about 6 hours
- Tested on PC with DualSense controller...
- ...in local multiplayer with my wife and two friends
- Two dead! Of which one at the last QTE of the game, which generated a « TABARNAK! » of the person concerned
The Dark Pictures is a anthology of which you are the hero based on the model of Crypt Tales, the second degree less. It now includes three episodes: the mediocre Man of Medan, the nullissim Little Hope and House of Ashes. The series has been falling from Charybde to Scylla for a few years, and I must say that I was quite circumspect when pressing START. Does the fire cover under the ashes with this new opus?
phantom destruction weapons
Until Dawn in 2015 was a wonderful surprise for lovers of slashers. This interactive horror film actually enjoyed a rock-like history with mastered staging, as well as environments with artistic paws and licked framing. The fantastic rail shooter Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, which would deserve an article by itself, then proposed in 2016 a spin-off original in a ghost train in virtual reality. Then the next year, it's Hidden Agenda who delighted us. The latter offered a unique experience by making us play adventure with our smartphones, through an app. Notice that I failed to quote The PatientTitle VR minor which I will politely describe as « fairrotting » but who had the merit of extending the universe of Supermassive Games, all their productions taking place within the same world.
House of Ashes We are in command of a group of Marines deployed in Iraq, in search of these weapons of mass destruction that have been « justified » the invasion of the country in 2003, then ruled by an iron hand by the late Saddam Hussein. This historical context gives a little bit of body to the plot, even if it is regretted that the narrative never really captures this thorny subject. One positive finding, however, is that House of Ashes modestly tries to make a statement about the horror of the war, its chemenic purpose and the occupied/occupied relationship. Indeed our little company of G.I. Joe / Jane will soon meet Salim, an Iraqi soldier caught between fires and forced to fight, drawn between his family imperatives, his patriotic duty and his moral values. Salim (who is fully doubled in Arabic when he speaks with his Iraqi peers) is by far the best idea that writers have had both his presence and the philosophical stakes he embodies bring a subtlety, certainly shy, but welcome to the story.
Don't expect the message to tear you or hurt your head because of its complexity. It's still a B-series like « Bebeast ». We sail in the known waters of the AA general public but it is undeniable that this shade of gray makes a crazy good and gratifies the protagonists of a semblance of relief, freeing them a bit of their manicene psyches. Just with this positive point, we're already at the antipodes of the infamous Little Hope and his stupid puppets with fried whiting eyes all more insipid than each other.
In the graphic register, artistic direction is a success. The cursed temple evokes The Descent, creatures have one side Predator crossed wendigo and the team also claims the influence of Mountains of madness Lovecraft, whose reading I highly recommend. A chic melting pot in short, all the more so House of Ashes makes an effort to vary its colour palette and light sources, often admirably. The Unreal Engine engine is doing wonders again, especially in the dark, the rare outdoor passages doing a little work. The game takes place at 80% between four walls, we will not keep rigor out of measure.
Let us also note that the feeling of valley of strange appears less present than in previous productions, although it always happens regularly to see a fleeting bovine look between two frankly credible facial expressions. The scenario is followed without displeasure, despite a few lengths here, the fault of a progression structure that is beginning to seriously accuse its age. Report also twist that I hadn't seen coming, that revives the machine and interest during the part, and of which I won't say anything more. Bravo for that.
Press X to scratch your nose
I mentioned briefly above the smell of naphthalin released by the gameplay And, to tell the truth, we could totally talk about d'ankylosis so much we sail in known terrain. The player alternates again the kinetics punctuated by QTE with fureting phases. These usually boil down to picking up three highlighted documents in a room or quickly crossing a dusty crypt before a new scene begins.
First upbuilding observation: apart from the front buttons, triggers are never used, so that already very poor interactions are reduced to their strictest minimum. Why not offer more choices? Only a QTE requires pressing a key at the right time according to the sound and visual model an electrocardiogram. Is it really too much to ask to imagine more mini-games of this type to actually introduce a little variety?
So expect to lean exclusively on the cross, triangle, round or square, for as long as you have decided to experience the adventure with a DualShock/Sense. If you're in school instead Padular Microsoft, know that the settings allow you to display the corresponding icons. Finally a new mode of difficulty makes its entry into the series. It only reduces or lengthens the response time allocated to realize the QTEs but it is a good initiative, especially when you play with someone who is little introduced to video games, and who has to revise the location of the buttons from time to time (my dear wife I do not aim at you !).
Let's go back to the gameplay. Who can be responsible for this ridiculous concept that requires maintaining R2 to capture objects? This bias gives rise to laughable clashes where our character in pain twists his hand in every direction to perform trivial actions like reading the back of a letter or opening a purse. It's like in Octodad Hey! And if you unhappily release your pressure, well, the bitch REPOSE the damn object!
This aberration, which one guesses motivated under cover of immersion, was found as soon as Heavy Rain. Remember! The work of Quantic Dream, one of the emancipators of the genre, started in the home of a couple while the introduction directed us to put the table. Easy? Do you misunderstand... You had to move your worn joystick with delicacy when you put the plates on the tablecloth, or you would break the silverware and undergo the inquisitorial looks of your virtual spouse, dressed in the kitchen sink.
Never will I forget the absurdity of this scene and the confusion of the hero, ruining all the dishes until his half explodes with rage in front of her disembodied husband! Hey, I'm laughing just thinking about it. QTE mechanics have their limits. You can find Here an illustration of this gag by a person more adroit than me, and who managed not to cast the faiences of Aunt Gertrude as vulgar frisbees. The sacrificing return of movements remains no less hilarious.
A house that needs renovations
The own pattern of Supermassive Games titles has aged and the verdict is without appeal: it is time to abandon these phases « exploration » and which only have the effect of breaking the rhythm. The addition of a 360 degree camera in this opus does not change the case. A fully kinematic narrative should be proposed but with more branching and more diverse QTEs. It is in my view the only way – radical, it is true – to disassociate ourselves from this pattern of progression which artificially prolongs the lifespan and ends inexorably inducing lengths. In hindsight, this is clearly the example of Hidden Agenda that the studio should adopt in the future to change the formula in the right direction, a real interactive film that assumes itself as such.
Despite these grievances, House of Ashes is an effective entertainment that will amuse you with the time of a big evening, preferably with friends and locals for more conviviality (up to five players with a single controller). You can otherwise play alone or online (online limited to two human beings). If the experience boasts its rejoicing, it is however possible to doubt that your motivation will be sufficient to re-employ in the Gulf. The next episode of anthology will be entitled The Devil in Me and will close season 1. We expect a challenge from Supermassive Games following this final season But only the future will tell us!
I had clearly preferred Until Dawn which was supported by Sony (a good surprise given the difficulties of production since it was a project at the base on PS3 at PS Move...) , and we see it when we have less budget it is immediately more complicated...
Adored Until Dawn even though I only did it once. Atmosphere in tussle despite a few small gaps. A light years from the games that followed. Sony's support was probably not foreign. Let's hope the show gets back on track.
Supermassive Games devs should read MaG and follow my advice at the end of the test:-p
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