The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope

Little Hope is a slight improvement over Man of Medan. It’s still not scary at all, but at least it's less annoying than the first game. This time around, Supermassive wrote a better story, used decent camera angles, and purged awkward jokes (dumb "screamers" are still in there, though).

It could use a few quality-of-life bonuses that Until Dawn also needed, like being able to skip cutscenes if you’ve seen them already and an actual run button, but it’s a fun mystery wrapped around a solid horror B-movie. One of the cool things about a game as a narrative, as opposed to anything else, is that it’s got a lot of room to cram extra stuff in there, and Little Hope takes full advantage to really pack itself fat with lore.cSeriously, I’d pay for DLC that changed the ending. I’m on that team. I’d probably still recommend Little Hope to horror and adventure-game fans, particularly since it only costs $30, but the last five minutes tips over the entire apple cart.

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is a stronger second offering in the standalone horror game series. A more engaging story and interesting setting help overcome the shortcomings in gameplay.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is a notable improvement over Man of Medan, thanks to its vastly superior plot that manages to keep you hooked and interested in the characters as you try to keep them alive. Still, the over-reliance on quick-time events shows us that Supermassive still has more fine-tuning to do when it comes to The Dark Pictures Anthology if they want it to be a true masterpiece of horror. With any luck, next year’s House of Ashes will be even better and give us an even truer successor to Until Dawn’s crown.

Little Hope doesn't deliver the tightly written, well-paced scares of Until Dawn, but it's a much better, more focused experience than Man of Medan. If you can overlook so ridiculous writing and a few technical shortcomings, it's a spooky adventure that's work a look.

Little Hope renewed my faith in the Dark Pictures Anthology but is held back a bit simply from the lack of quality of life features.

I wouldn't necessarily call this high-art or a gaming masterpiece, as it's rich with horror movie cliches and light on actual gameplay. But if you liked Until Dawn or Man Of Medan, then you're sure to enjoy this. Just make sure you have those fingers ready to go because some of these QTEs can be deadly.

Little Hope delivers solid scares and weaves a clever tale that, unfortunately, collapses in on itself.

The second entry into The Dark Pictures Anthology is an improvement over the first. As much as we enjoyed Man of Medan, Little Hope ups the ante in just about every way. Its story is more engaging, it packs in some truly spine-tingling moments, its cinematography is greatly improved, and it looks and performs beautifully. It’s just a shame a duff ending – no matter what the outcome of your playthrough – leaves you feeling unfulfilled as the credits roll.

I was sure Little Hope will improve significantly upon the first installment in The Dark Pictures series, but the developers opted for the bare minimum. The story is more interesting, the ending is more surprising, and the character cast is better. There are also some technical improvements. Little Hope is decent, but still fails to provide things I expect from a good horror game, like more engaging gameplay, interesting plot twists (Until Dawn!), and a real sense of terror. [13/2020, p.38]