The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

 PC
User Score
7.9

Generally favorable reviews- based on 173 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 125 out of 173
  2. Mixed: 31 out of 173
  3. Negative: 17 out of 173

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  1. NoSaved
    Dec 31, 2021
    0
    100 reais numa droga de 6 horas? Pago 100 reais para no mínimo 20 horas de jogo
  2. Nik0t0s
    Oct 26, 2021
    0
    This game, contains no variability. QTE is very easy and gameplay overall is just walking
  3. kadet50874
    Oct 24, 2021
    2
    the problem with this game is that it is not a game. There is no playability, there is no gameplay. It's just a boring movie where you have to sit and watch. You can do nothing more, just press left mouse button when suggested on screen or some other button and that's all. Very very boring. Watching a real movie is way better than this fake video game
  4. Bezizvestnyi
    Nov 13, 2021
    0
    Игра абсолютное дерьмище, из-за неиграбельных таймингов QTE, никому не советую этот высер игровой индустрии.
  5. AllNewSuperfake
    Nov 7, 2021
    4
    You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples. It could also be something much better. Prepare to enter… the Dark Pictures Anthology. For the third time.

    +10 because every game could be a 10 -1 Unresponsive, unintuitive controls (mouse and keyboard). Movement feels    You are entering the vicinity of an area adjacent to a location. The kind of place where there might be a monster, some kind of weird mirror. These are just examples. It could also be something much better. Prepare to enter… the Dark Pictures Anthology. For the third time.

    +10 because every game could be a 10

    -1 Unresponsive, unintuitive controls (mouse and keyboard). Movement feels sticky, the camera is on strike, and the UI is so overdesigned that button prompts, of all things, are confusing. Even if you’ve already done them before. Normally the challenge of QTEs is reacting quickly. Here it is deciphering what the f*ing prompts mean.

    -1 Facial animations, mushy lighting and badly scanned textures make humans the creepiest thing in this game. Again. If this series had any depth I would consider it a rather original analogy, but…

    -1 the game design is still trying to be as "accessible" as possible.

    Like „exploration“ aka looking for sparkling, floating things that scream „CLICK ME“. Those are never a good idea. But if your atmosphere depends on being creepy and dark and desolate, and someone puts christmas ornaments on everything interesting, it's just silly. Yet here it is again, for the third time. Together with

    -0.5 invisible walls, often in front of actual obstacles. This becomes most apparent in the extensive dungeon sections, where it would be so easily avoidable and where you get stuck in literally nothing.

    -0.5 Cutscenes, more precise: Cutscene direction. I already don’t like cutscenes, but they are getting worse everywhere thanks to game developers who think they are movie directors. Whoever sat at the helm of this one really didn't want to make a game, so it’s the kind of cutscenes that actually wouldn't be necessary half of the time, but me, the player, is only in the way of the creative vision, and I’m not standing in my spot.

    More often than not that spot is in another segment of the scenes, sometimes only 5 feet away, but you can’t go back to explore the room where you **** up by… yeah, not dying or making the wrong choice, but just moving.

    -1 If you want to make a movie, make a f*ing movie.

    I could have easily sat down and watch 90 minutes of having yet another unlikeable cast going through tired 90s action movie tropes and stolen ideas from better franchises enriched with melodrama. And I could have gotten drunk or eat popcorn and laugh my abs off. This way I had to hold the controls for more than 6 hours in case you wanted me to move 5 meters or look at a thing or QTE on mouse and keyboard.

    Really: Make an animated movie. Stop making games, you obviously hate them. Everything interactive is just lazy, the choices, the "relationships", the endings. It's obviously only in your way.

    And the movie even had moments where I was borderline interested. How do I know? Because the main antagonist of the series showed up and quickly killed any excitement. The end boss, as I like to think of him...

    -1 … the oh so mysterious, oh so victorian narrator guy, rambling for several unskippable minutes about nothing in particular to test your patience and break your spirit. The man that needs a compass to walk down a straight corridor, for over a minute, and there isn’t any way to speed it up. Remember your first day in game design school when they told you: Unskippable plus non-interactive equals bad, no matter how proud you are of your work? Obviously not.

    Here’s the deal, Supermassive Games: You make your 8 games, and I promise to play each and every one of them. But in the last one I get to kill the narrator. It would certainly be a better twist than the one you have in mind.

    -1 And one more piece of unsolicited advice: Take a scenario that does not require any kind of knowledge or research - not actual historical events. I can suspend my disbelieve when it comes to fiction. But whoever sat at the helm desperately wanted to make his version of „Apocalypse now“ on top of everything else, just without any understanding of the topics involved. Topics like Bush’s war on Iraq, just as a fun backdrop for a story that could have easily played out everywhere else. WTF?!

    I’m a little confused. This is obviously a professional studio. The result is quite terrible, don’t get me wrong. But there are so many things in this game that tell me that actual talent was present.

    +2 Music and audio are pretty ok. Most of the voicework is decent. Little moments in the script where they managed to show, not tell, give me hope. The dialogue options work better, meaning that you get the results you expect - whoever did that this time: You are getting there! It's just never scary, thanks to all the handholding.

    But I still think they have everything in place, and they are obviously working hard. This reeks of huge egos at the top that need to be replaced.

    Well. Try, try again (maybe with a new creative lead).    … Expand
  6. ElTucAno
    Oct 27, 2021
    3
    Better than the 2 previous titles, however, it presents quite serious problems, such as bad textures for fire and explosions, dialogues written without continuity and sensational **** in the ending.
  7. vova22379
    Aug 28, 2022
    1
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  8. rob2victory
    Oct 14, 2022
    0
    I'd review the game but the publisher stole it from me.

    Screw Flanders. Screw Flanders. Screw Flanders.
  9. getaf
    Mar 4, 2022
    0
    The game is full of useless quota characters that have no place if it was sane story. Also, do the developers know that the Akkadians and all the nearby tribes with whom they have ever contacted or fought are Middle Eastern people in appereance, and not sub-Saharan Africans? In addition, there are many graphical bugs and bad facial animations.

Awards & Rankings

51
#51 Most Discussed PC Game of 2021

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
73

Mixed or average reviews - based on 20 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 13 out of 20
  2. Mixed: 5 out of 20
  3. Negative: 2 out of 20
  1. Adventure Gamers
    Dec 6, 2021
    80
    House of Ashes proves that even an annual anthology release that’s so iterative in its gameplay mechanics can still evolve in significant ways. The changes evident here, and perhaps the developer’s maturation in storytelling, result in what may be the series’ strongest entry yet.
    Read full review
  2. Game World Navigator Magazine
    Nov 30, 2021
    78
    Don’t come in expecting a suspenseful horror or a psychological thriller. This time around, Supermassive Games treats us to an action-horror with adrenaline-filled scenes and great camera work. [Issue#256, p.28]
  3. Riot Pixels
    Nov 19, 2021
    72
    A thrilling adventure for a couple of nights. You’ll probably see all of its major plot twists a mile away, but the clash with horrors lurking in an ancient temple is definitely worth your time.
    Read full review
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