The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes officially debuts on October 22, 2021 but we have had the opportunity to delve into the bowels of this new chapter: discover with ours preview all the secrets that lie underground. Below, to begin with, we bring you the official trailer of the title.
Our preview of The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes – darkness lurks underground
House of Ashes is the third of eight episodes in the Dark Pictures Anthology series. At the beginning of our adventure we find ourselves in Iraq, In the 2003. In the shadow of the mountains Zagros a military unit has a firefight with Iraqi forces. The result of this battle is one seismic shock which causes both sides to fall into the buried ruins of a Sumerian temple.
Communications are completely disrupted and the protagonists are trapped in a terrifying underworld. In order to escape, they will have to explore it carefully and thoroughly. I am not however aware that something of ancient e evil he woke up and found new prey to hunt. This evil creature will chase the characters without giving them respite: will they survive?
For this new chapter the developer Supermassive Games listened to the feedback of the players and made some interesting ones game gameplay changes, as the review of the camera system and the introduction of various levels of difficulty. Like the previous titles, however, it seems that this chapter is also based on a system of choices that will influence the events of the game.
Compared to previous titles, House of Ashes has one own identity and it differs greatly from them. The game’s plot is inspired by the story of Naram-Sin, a Cursed Mesopotamian king from the gods. Game director Will Doyle described House of Ashes as a “horror exploration” game and it is exactly one of the most interesting elements of the title.
Especially in the early part of the game, the atmosphere is a lot tesa it is characterized by various stages of exploration which allow us to take a closer look at the surrounding environment. To make it even more anxious and tense, Supermassive Games gave us tight spaces e claustrophobic. By paying attention, you will also be able to find the first ones collectibles, manufactured goods and useful information to better understand what is happening.
In particular, the artifacts are fundamental as they will be used by the player for the future choices he will have to make.
The first part of House of Ashes focuses on slowness, on the voltage and on being disarmed, in a sense. All we have to do is explore the surrounding environment and try, in some way, to survive. During our exploration we also begin to approach for the first time with the characters who will accompany us in this nightmare.
There will be several dialogues that allow us to bond in more or less positive way with them.
Graphics and sound: an intense atmosphere
In similar titles the sound sector e graphic they are essential to make the atmosphere even more realistic and immersive. The sound sector in House of Ashes, at least in this initial part, seems to us good and succeeds in rendering, together with the graphic sector, the atmosphere viva e intense.
Supermassive Games featured the title with melodies and sound effects able to increase, in the long run, the tension and the feeling of “closed”.
Instead the general graphics of the title, which we tested on PC, it seemed great: the team used it to their advantage shadows and lights, which helped us to better immerse ourselves in the environment. Also the characterization of the characters is a lot realistic. The only problem is with the dubbing: sometimes the audio and the movement of the characters’ lips they don’t cooperate.
This breaks the harmony a bit but we are sure that Supermassive Games will be able to solve this small problem. For now the graphics and sound have met our expectations and we are curious to see how they will behave later on.
In conclusion
Our gaming experience with House of Ashes has allowed us to get an overall picture of the title but we still need to try the full experience to to be able to give a solid judgment. However, the title has all the credentials to be a interesting and captivating chapter.
At least in the initial part, it offers us the right balance between exploration, voltage ed action, which slowly prepare us for what we will encounter later. Unfortunately, the part of the game we tried was quite short, as we mentioned earlier, and we don’t know how much our choices can influence the game or how relevant they are.
We therefore hope that in this chapter they will play a fundamental role: in this case, we are curious to find out where they will take us. As a beginning, however, we can consider ourselves satisfied and we are confident that House of Ashes will offer us a lot. We can’t wait to discover the entire title and, in particular, the multiplayer mode.
To conclude, we remind you that Bandai Namco Entertainment has unveiled that the title will be officially available on PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X and Series S on October 22, 2021. For more information you can consult the official website.