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. PenetratorGod
    Sep 1, 2023
    7
    I liked it a bit more than the previous two games in the series. Gameplay and story were more interesting and more engrossing.
  2. Davidnotavailab
    Jul 1, 2023
    6
    this is by far the best one in the anthology, characters have more potenital, except jason who can be a totally lost cause, salim is funny and entartaining, there are so many more outcomes and different scenes. The deaths are much more brutal. The characters can stay annoying and nick doesnt even have a character arc in the game so he can go suck his mum but, it was ok. The pacing of thethis is by far the best one in the anthology, characters have more potenital, except jason who can be a totally lost cause, salim is funny and entartaining, there are so many more outcomes and different scenes. The deaths are much more brutal. The characters can stay annoying and nick doesnt even have a character arc in the game so he can go suck his mum but, it was ok. The pacing of the story is pretty solid… Expand
  3. Pmstz
    Feb 3, 2023
    6
    Average/ok game
    +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
  4. WHITESIXOMAR
    Jan 18, 2023
    8
    House of Ashes proves that the Dark Pictures Anthology is on solid footing after a flawed second entry. By focusing on a USMC & CIA joint task force deployed in Iraq, we get a refreshing cast of characters, and thanks to its controlled rhythm, its claustrophobic atmosphere, and its improved plot, it far surpasses its predecessors despite its many flaws and shortcomings. Loved theHouse of Ashes proves that the Dark Pictures Anthology is on solid footing after a flawed second entry. By focusing on a USMC & CIA joint task force deployed in Iraq, we get a refreshing cast of characters, and thanks to its controlled rhythm, its claustrophobic atmosphere, and its improved plot, it far surpasses its predecessors despite its many flaws and shortcomings. Loved the underground Sumerian temple setting!! It’s so wildly different in tone and theme that it feels complete apart from all supermassive games. These changes, and the developer’s maturation in storytelling, makes House of Ashes the series’ strongest entry.… Expand
  5. Joe2539
    Jan 3, 2023
    10
    Very Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good Good
  6. Sai37
    Dec 25, 2022
    6
    For fans of movie games, for one evening it is quite ok, but nothing beyond.
  7. martinpt
    Dec 4, 2022
    8
    Graphic 9/10
    Music and sounds 10/10
    Story 9/10
    Gameplay 8/10
    The game performance much better than Little hope better configurated !
  8. watchm824
    Nov 17, 2022
    7
    Before playing this part, I read a review somewhere that this is the worst part of the series. I disagree. I liked it as much as the previous episodes. And maybe more. The plot is stupid, but it is interesting and fun to play.
  9. bluecheese666
    Oct 22, 2022
    8
    favorite game in the anthology, interesting
    ...............................
  10. Top1saraya_
    Oct 16, 2022
    6
    ---------------------
    / My score - 6 /
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  11. rob2victory
    Oct 14, 2022
    0
    I'd review the game but the publisher stole it from me.

    Screw Flanders. Screw Flanders. Screw Flanders.
  12. vova22379
    Aug 28, 2022
    1
    ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
  13. george_bondo
    Jul 24, 2022
    8
    this game is just perfect with that beautiful music , characters and atmosphere
  14. LionN
    May 8, 2022
    6
    Неплохая игра в жанре интерактивного хорор кино, но определенно хуже прошлых частей в плане запугивания и сюжета как такового.
  15. Musoridzze
    Mar 25, 2022
    8
    Замечательное интерактивное кино, с каждым новым эпизодом антологии качество возрастает. В наше время, когда quantic dream пилит игру про звездные войны, рассчитывая выпустить ее в 2027, на поприще разработчиков интерактивного кино у нас остаются только supermassive games, dontnod и полуживая, находящаяся непонятно на каком свете Telltale. Не густо. И из этих трёх студий лучше всегоЗамечательное интерактивное кино, с каждым новым эпизодом антологии качество возрастает. В наше время, когда quantic dream пилит игру про звездные войны, рассчитывая выпустить ее в 2027, на поприще разработчиков интерактивного кино у нас остаются только supermassive games, dontnod и полуживая, находящаяся непонятно на каком свете Telltale. Не густо. И из этих трёх студий лучше всего старается и развивается именно supermassive games.

    Все игры этой студии полюбились мне именно за высокую вариативность - игра постоянно держит тебя в тонусе, ведь хочется, чтобы до финала дожили все. Лично мне в House of Ashes из 5 персонажей с вариативной судьбой удалось спасти 4.

    Поговорим о сюжете. В этот раз у нас есть не 2, а 3 стороны конфликта, ведь заключённые в пещерах военные принадлежат не к одному общему лагерю - среди них есть и иракские, и американские солдаты, которые должны как-то коммуницировать в условиях общей опасности. Сам сюжет не имеет каких-то неожиданных твистов и протекает достаточно предсказуемо, но, опять же, за ним всё равно интересно наблюдать, ведь у вас в руках судьбы почти всех персонажей. Сами персонажи зачастую обладают харизмой, что еще больше подстёгивает к их спасению.

    Из минусов могу отметить плохую русскую озвучку (проблема всех эпизодов dark pictures), местами чересчур мыльные текстуры (играл на ультра пресете графики) и кривые лицевые анимации у некоторых персонажей в определенные моменты (в основном у негра). Озвучку агрессивно рекомендую сразу ставить на английскую, и играть с субтитрами. Могу порекомендовать поставить (или хотя бы попробовать) лок на 30 FPS (я не сумасшедший), т.к. лично я просто не могу воспринимать кино (а это, по сути, кино, а не игра) в 30+ fps. Также игру стоит ставить на SSD, потому что у меня периодически игра уходила на 1-2 секунды в экран загрузки прямо в гуще событий, связываю это с установкой игры на HDD. В целом все эти проблемы можно решить, если, ну, скажем так, тупо навалить бабла ребятам..

    Очень жду Devil In me и The Quarry, даже обходным путем попытаюсь занести денег разрабам.    … Expand
  16. 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.
  17. WellEvil
    Feb 3, 2022
    8
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. Great game with a huge focus on story, characters, and world-building. I don't remember the last time when the story absorbed me so much. Yes, there are a few bugs here are there, but nothing game-breaking. Usually minor visual glitches.… Expand
  18. Daniel2009
    Jan 8, 2022
    10
    Awesome game dude I love it so much its really amazing and it's really cool well done wow great experience
  19. NoSaved
    Dec 31, 2021
    0
    100 reais numa droga de 6 horas? Pago 100 reais para no mínimo 20 horas de jogo
  20. GustavoFaria
    Nov 22, 2021
    10
    SuperMassive games are as always a great experience. Please never stop producing.
  21. philzlz
    Nov 17, 2021
    9
    This review contains spoilers, click expand to view. House of Ashes is for me the best out of all released The Dark Pictures Anthology games. It is long enough not to get boring, does not play with the “It’s all in my head” trope of the previous games and generally kept me on the edge of my seat. While some animations and voice acting are a bit wonky (Ashley Tisdale especially), I thought some scenes looked stunning and I am finally excited to see the future games after the two first disappointments.… Expand
  22. LironesAlviento
    Nov 14, 2021
    8
    Creo que es el mejor de la Antología, por detrás de Until Dawn pero el mejor de los tres de Dark Pictures Anthology.
  23. Bezizvestnyi
    Nov 13, 2021
    0
    Игра абсолютное дерьмище, из-за неиграбельных таймингов QTE, никому не советую этот высер игровой индустрии.
  24. Kit_zip
    Nov 13, 2021
    10
    Игра вполне шикарна, минусы конечно есть, но плюсов намного больше.
  25. Thejodjeremie
    Nov 7, 2021
    8
    I just finished playing this episode a second time and it was awesome. Another great episode in this series of games and I cant wait for the next one.
  26. M-Reviews
    Nov 7, 2021
    5
    "The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes" is indeed a game full of horrors - unfortunately, you may just not find it where you´d really expect it. Mostly uninteresting characters and a boring story without any notable scares make the third entry in the series the weakest to date. It´s really hard to imagine how the franchise is attempting to survive another five years of sequels when"The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes" is indeed a game full of horrors - unfortunately, you may just not find it where you´d really expect it. Mostly uninteresting characters and a boring story without any notable scares make the third entry in the series the weakest to date. It´s really hard to imagine how the franchise is attempting to survive another five years of sequels when it´s already suffering from a complete lack of new ideas right now.… Expand
  27. 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
  28. Ray6701
    Nov 7, 2021
    10
    Incredibly amazing and great graphics and cool experience just oh my god bro amazing
  29. JavaSquirt
    Nov 7, 2021
    10
    бодрое, интересное, интерактивное кинцо с приятным графеном. Только морды персонажей немного странные.
  30. Calebc131
    Nov 6, 2021
    8
    Fun game for what it is. A lot like Until Dawn so if you're into that kind of game you'll enjoy it. Like a fun summer horror movie, nothing too scary just enough to keep you on your toes when you turn corners. I think it would have been much more fun considering the setting of it being military if you could actually control your gun and fire at the enemies, instead of pre-rendered video.Fun game for what it is. A lot like Until Dawn so if you're into that kind of game you'll enjoy it. Like a fun summer horror movie, nothing too scary just enough to keep you on your toes when you turn corners. I think it would have been much more fun considering the setting of it being military if you could actually control your gun and fire at the enemies, instead of pre-rendered video. But like I said for what it is it's a fun movie-game horror hybrid thing. Worth what they're asking for it, $30.… Expand
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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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