The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Review

“For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind. HOSEA 8:7.

Every Choice has a Consequence, some decisions Saves Lives, others lead to Death. Choose Wisely”

The story begins in Akkad, Mesopotamia in the year 2231 BC, you then jump forward to the year 2003 and Akkad is now situated in Central Iraq. Allied forces are investigating what they believe to be a hidden chemical weapons storage facility underground. While investigating the area, the troops come under attack from Iraqi soldiers, the ground gives way swallowing the troops into a network of tunnels and caverns. What they find is far more interesting and most are more dangerous than what they thought they’d find. You have to try and find a way out of this ancient underground Sumerian temple and reach the safety of the surface.

When starting up the game you will have the choice to play the game in either DirectX 12 or not; I played using DirectX 12. Once the game starts up you find yourself at the main menu screen, from here you can either choose to play solo or with others. I went the solo route as my mummy wasn’t around to hold my hand when things got scary.

Selecting to play solo then allowed me to choose the game’s difficulty from three options: Forgiving (where surviving is to be expected), Challenging (surviving may be a bit harder and will test your skills) and the final choice is Lethal (this mode will really test you and you’re more than likely going to perish).

You will take control of different characters as the game progresses, going back and forth with them depending on how the story is unfolding. To begin with you take control of Nick; after falling into the tunnel, your mission is to regroup with your team and find Jason. Making your way through the darkness with only your torch for light you finally exit into what looks like some underground temple complex. Nick gets a quick look at something while in the dark tunnels but is unsure of exactly what it is, while going forward he finally exits the tunnels and finds Jason.

It’s from here that the story starts to unfold, the choices you make will have a consequence later on, affecting you and the other characters you interact with. These decisions can be the difference between life and death, whether that’s yours or your comrades’. You’ll have to make those big decisions yourself but be quick as you only have a small amount of time to decide. There are usually three choices: Say Nothing, Reassuring - I'm Fine and Uneasy - I Saw Something, are the first options that Nick has to choose from after finding Jason. You have decisions to make with all the characters that you meet throughout the game. These decisions will have a bearing on how each character behaves towards you (current character for whom you have control). You will have to complete objectives in order to move forward as you try to reach safety.

Every now and then you will have a quick time action to perform.  This could be calming your heartbeat by selecting the corresponding button shown on screen at pacific times, other actions such as running away, overcoming obstacles or you’ll have to aim and shoot when under attack, and at other times you will have to decide whether to run away and leave a teammate or to help them.

I did have some problems. One was with the quick time action, where the watch icon (which would go down as time passed) stayed on my screen when it should have disappeared after my having performed the action; it was quite annoying stuck bang in the middle of my screen. I had to drop back to the main menu and reload my game; luckily, I didn’t lose anything in the process and the problem was sorted. I also had a similar problem with the in-game cursor being stuck in the top right corner.

While we’re on about problems, I did also have some graphical artefacts appear now and then, they weren’t there all the time, but they did stand out as lines and small blocks. I noticed these not too far into the game, although I didn’t notice them later on in the game. However, I have been playing a pre-release press version of the game, so I expect there to be a couple of teething problems here and there.

Walking about can sometimes be a pain, as you can stop or have other characters who are following you get into a position where they halt your movement. Then trying to continue walking can take a few seconds before you actually start to move again; it’s like someone is holding on to your ankles and being dragged around then they suddenly let go and you have full movement again.

Scattered around the place you will find tablets and other items which you can collect. The tablets when found and examined will reveal a premonition of someone or something that could happen in the future. Finding and examining any items you find can reveal something about what has happened to previous folks who have ventured down into the temple in the past. Some will unlock as secrets and along with your tablets will be displayed in your Collections on the main menu screen.

In the settings there’s options for Graphics  (Quality, Resolution, Screen Mode, V-Sync, AA Quality, SSAO, Texture Quality, Shadows, Depth of Field, Variable Rate Shading and Limit Framerate to 30 FPS), Display (Brightness, HDR and HDR Settings), Audio & Language (Audio Preset, Master, Music, Dialogue and Sound Effects Volume Sliders, Side Bars, Subtitles, Text Language - English, French, Russian, German, Spanish, Neutral Spanish, Arabic, Italian, Portugues, Korean and Chinese - and Audio Language - English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian).

The graphics are awesome, and I liked the story, however, I didn’t find it really scary, which was good as my mummy wasn’t around to keep me safe. This doesn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the game because I did. I did finish the game in a little over 6 hours, taking my time, and there are multiple endings to the game depending on the choices you make throughout the game.

Review written by Piston Smashed™ for Zeepond.com

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes Steam Store Page