The Devil in Me is the fourth chapter of the series “The Dark Pictures Anthology” started in 2019 with Men of Medan. The Devil in Me is scheduled to be released at the end of November; however, we were able to do one try a beta version and we want to tell you how it went.
The proof we could do was on the steam platform and a beta version. So, some details of what we are going to tell you in this article may not end up in the final game. However, what we had on our hands is a very well finished game for a beta. He never crashed and in controls they responded well. So we are quite confident that Supermassive Games is already very close to a stable version and that the final product will be of good quality.
The story (in and out of the game)
The game is freely inspired by news stories relating to the life of Henry Howard Holmes (HH Holmes) between 1886 and 1896. HH Holmes, historically, is defined the first serial killer in the United States. We liked that in the special content there is also a short documentary about historical facts. However, we point out that, if you are looking for other sources (just wikipedia) you will realize that there is also a large margin of urban legend contributed by the newspapers of the time.
Within the game we find ourselves a manage a TV crew that has to shoot a documentary. The group is invited by an unspecified Mr. Du’Met to a hotel he wants to be the replica of the house of HH Holmes. In that house, which really existed, Holmes is said to have tortured and killed his victims. Obviously, Du’Met will not be seen by the characters and these they will remain alone inside the hotel. As they begin filming, the crew immediately realizes that something is wrong, but leaving will require a lot of courage and determination.
Characters
The characters we are going to use are the typical components of a television crew. Each of them will deal with situations differently according to their abilities and flaws.
In total, we have available five characters. Charlie, the directorwhich can shed light with a lighter. Erin, the sound engineerable to amplify the trace noises. Jamie, electriciancapable of repairing electrical panels and other equipment. Kate, the investigative reporter. And finally Mark, the photographer. The uniqueness of the characters is very well characterized and, we must admit, we liked it a lot during the game. Unfortunately, current character selection is governed by story progression and, from what we have seen, it is not possible to intervene manually.
Finally, we would like to point out, among the characters there are relationships and balances which, if altered, will change the course of events.
Charlie
Gameplay
The Devil in Me, like its predecessors, is designed to be an interactive dramatic story. The predominant elements are therefore exploration and narrative.
Unfortunately, the test of The Devil in Me that we have been able to do is limited to the first chapter; just over an hour of gameplay. So we weren’t able to see everything about the game mechanics. However, we really liked what we were able to see and lays the foundation for a very good game.
Game experience
The Devil in Me usa una third person perspective putting the point of view very close to the character, this contributes to a little increase the sense of anguish because it gives the perception of a reduction in space.
The movement commands are the classic ones third-person games. The interaction with the environment is not complex, although at times we found the key combinations on the gamepad a bit counter-intuitive. However, it took us very little to get used to.
The objects you can interact with they are always very clearly indicated, so you just really need to look around to collect all the clues. Knowing how to use them, however, is a different matter.
The environments are extremely well cared for and navigating the rooms has never given us any problems. The audio sector was also of excellent quality. Playing with a pair of noise canceling headphones contributes greatly to immersion and allows you to enjoy the experience to the full.
Mechanics
The game alternates interactive phases where we have to solve puzzles to kinematics that make history evolve. During the interactive phases the dark setting does its best to keep us on our toes but, to be honest, you get used to it pretty quickly and the cinematics get a much better effect. However, this is not a problem, because the frequency of the latter is quite high and contributes to giving a nice fast pace to history.
Furthermore, during the kinematics we have the possibility to influence the course of the story. Often, in fact, we are asked to tell a character how to react to the situation. React can mean do an action (how to attack or defend) or adopt an attitude (how to express yourself in an aggressive or submissive way). Whichever path we choose, the result, from what we understand, will be one changing the character profile or the relationship between two characters involved in a speech. Our test, unfortunately, was too short to see any tangible effects, but we think this mechanic can have interesting implications.
Evidence of The Devil in Me at a glance
The Devil in Me, subject of this test, we really liked it. The story is freely inspired by real events, and that makes it even more interesting. Unfortunately, we are not yet in a position to say how horror the final result will be. From what we have experienced, however, it will certainly succeed to keep us on our toes throughout the adventure. If you enjoyed the first three adventures in the series we strongly suggest you stay at the window because this chapter too will end up making you passionate.
We will talk about it again for sure, in less than a month, with our review.