Check it out: in May 2019, Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn, showed new gameplay of The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, its new horror game. The video came out in partnership with Game Informer magazine, and the launch was planned for the Northern Hemisphere summer on PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC, published by Bandai Namco.
The promise was truly cinematic horror, in the interactive-movie style that made Until Dawn a darling. The story: four college students and the boat’s captain go out to dive in the South Pacific looking for a sunken World War II airplane, but pirates take over the vessel and the group ends up trapped on a ghost ship. The inspiration came from the urban legend of the SS Ourang Medan, a famous ghost ship of the southern seas, and from films like The Shining and Ghost Ship. In the cast, the highlight was Shawn Ashmore, sold as the game’s lead actor, in the role of Conrad.
The trick was the format. Man of Medan would be the first chapter of The Dark Pictures Anthology, a horror anthology in which each game has its own story and ending, but all share the same mood. Tying everything together is the Curator, a character who breaks the fourth wall to comment on the player’s choices. And for those who like playing with friends, there were two multiplayer modes: Shared Story, online co-op for two people, and Movie Night, in which up to five people pass the controller around on the same couch.
What came next
Man of Medan came out on August 30, 2019 and received mixed reviews: praise for the co-op multiplayer and the branching narrative, complaints about technical problems, the controls and the direction of the plot. The teaser for the second game, Little Hope, appeared at the end of Man of Medan, and it was released on October 30, 2020. Man of Medan got PS5 and Xbox Series X|S versions in September 2022 and a Nintendo Switch version in May 2023.
Where to buy
Source: Game Informer.
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