Review of The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan

What I love about horror movie games is when every decision has a consequence. And The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan has a lot of serious consequences. Unlike Supermassive Games —s major horror hit Until Dawn, this first installment of a new anthology —s a serious and thoughtful horror game that starts out a little too slow but maintains a nice sense of dread in the second half of the game. But let’s talk about everything in order.

A sensible system of choices and consequences makes a second or even third five-hour playthrough of the game appealing, especially in a cooperative game where everyone controls the same character and independently makes decisions that could ruin each other’s lives.

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan

game plot.

There are plenty of laughs to be found in The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, even in a story that takes itself quite seriously. Whereas Until Dawn was like a teen survival flick from the 80s and 90s, Man of Medan aims for mature psychological horror in the vein of Event Horizon or In the Mouth of Madness, for better and worse. At the center of the game — a company of young divers who find themselves aboard a mysterious World War II cargo ship. The plot does a good job of building up tension thanks to its dark atmosphere and regular unexpected twists, but it lacks the character of its predecessor. For a game with such a fun concept, I could have used a little more humor.

A game with such a fun concept, I could have used a little more humor.

It doesn’t help that The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan starts off at a slow pace, either. Ostensibly to introduce us to character interaction and mechanics, but if this were a movie, I would have left as early as the first half. Thankfully, the second half was worth the wait. Although it did make me wonder why Supermassive didn’t start the real horror it’s so good at much sooner.

Supermassive.

The realism of Man of Medan was reflected in a weaker cast of characters. Supermassive has moved away from the cartoonish stereotypes of Until Dawn and towards a gang more firmly grounded in reality, and with a couple of exceptions — Sean Ashmore’s jovial Conrad and Chris Sandiford’s nervous Brad — they are almost unremarkable. But that never mattered in a game where half the fun is watching them get killed, because even the boring looking characters are full of blood and guts on the inside!”

And that’s the only thing that matters in a game where half the fun is watching them get killed, because even the boring looking characters are full of blood and guts on the inside!

And they will die, and repeatedly. The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is set on a derelict World War II cargo ship, where a host of creepy creatures and a few aggressive humans are waiting to send the characters to hell with a bullet, knife, or jagged jaw. These nasty creatures (unlike the wendigos in Until Dawn, for example) don’t seem to have a unifying theme, other than that they scream a lot but are unnerving. The brutality is also impressive. I saw five deaths in two playthroughs of the game, but each one was short, sharp, and shocking. You can see that the developers had fun coming up with these unusual scenarios.

So far, the developers have had a lot of fun coming up with these unusual scenarios.

I can’t say that such ingenuity was reflected in the ship itself, which consists of a series of boring and uninteresting corridors. Fixed camera angles make controlling characters through doorways awkward, which was a little annoying when I got lost — which happened often, because all the corridors look the same. There’s one fun sequence where Supermassive plays with this sense of labyrinthine disorientation, and I wish there were more instances like this where you could cheat expectations.

Supermassive plays with this sense of labyrinthine disorientation.

A little bit about gameplay and the implications of player choice

Of course, the real skeleton of The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan — is shaping the fate of the characters through the decisions they make. This includes building or destroying relationships through dialog, exploring to find items important to the plot, and making your own decisions on the fly that change character traits. In the first case, the consequences are obvious: if you are kind to the character, it will be reflected in actions — for example, he will save in a difficult situation, and if he hates — he will not. The implications of constantly changing «character traits» are a bit more vague. I couldn’t figure out whether the sudden transformation into «determined» or «cowardly» meant anything at the plot level.

And I couldn’t figure out whether the sudden transformation into «determined» or «cowardly» meant anything at the plot level.

The consequences in The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, however, depended directly on the player’s actions, whether they were minor —like finding a knife to fight off a monster or running away from it without a knife— or major —like trying to escape in a speedboat and possibly getting shot in the head. Again, much of the fun of this type of game comes from replaying to push and work on its developments, and I was happy to save some characters on the second playthrough that I lost on the first.

And I was happy to save some characters on the second playthrough that I had lost on the first.

And I was happy to save some characters on the second playthrough.

Sometimes these deaths seemed unfair, as fast-paced action events play a big part in The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. While they do create a sense of panic when you’re trying to escape a monster with a perfectly timed circle or triangle press, it’s still hard not to take offense when you lose a character. In the dialog sections, you can take your time, take your time to think and make good decisions, but all of that can be lost if you don’t press a button at the right moment. I guess it’s a metaphor for life.

So I guess it’s a metaphor for life.

If you want to go through The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan again, I highly recommend playing with a friend online. The game’s five-hour story is nice to revisit when you’re controlling one character in a group and experiencing it from different perspectives, and the co-op mode has moments I didn’t see in the single-player game. The question is, will you play together to save everyone, or will one of you do your best to make the worst possible decision? I had fun playing Man of Medan this way, and was delighted by the unexpected decisions.

I’ve had a lot of fun playing Man of Medan this way.

What’s the bottom line?

The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan doesn’t have the same charm as Until Dawn, but it’s nonetheless a nerve-wracking horror adventure whose consequences depend directly on the action. If you can get through the game’s slow start twice, playing it with a partner will be a lot of fun, as you’ll both be able to explore the game’s many branching storylines.