The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan

While there are a few notable flaws, Man of Medan encapsulates the thrills and scares of the horror genre while offering numerous branching choices for the narrative. It's the perfect way to set the tone for the rest of The Dark Pictures Anthology series.

Supermassive’s back in full swing. In spite of a predictable plot and setting, I eventually grew somewhat tired of, I loved every aspect of Man of Medan. It’s a killer debut to a series I’m now eagerly anticipating. It has the spooks, fun cast, and unforgiving consequences I grew to love in Until Dawn. Horror fans rejoice, as Man of Medan’s a phenomenal introduction to a promising new interactive anthology series.

Quotation forthcoming.

For this first episode in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive Games has fulfilled its mission — to provide us with a game that effectively reproduces horror movie tropes. The quality of the graphics and sound is undeniable, even it sometimes looks more like an interactive film than a game, and it gives little freedom. It achieves its goals by effectively and intelligently managing to frighten us — it's just a shame that the QTEs sometimes make us angry.

Man of Medan tells a familiar story in a fascinating way, and even moreso with a partner.

Despite completely original story, Man of Medan feels more like an Until Dawn expansion pack than game of its own. It also is noticeably shorter and less varied, although still fun to play. [Issue#240, p.32]

Man of Medan is the first entry in what should be a series of horror games based on urban legends in the Dark Pictures Anthology. It combines all the classic elements from choice and consequence adventures and puts them into an uneasy environment, where nobody of the main characters is safe. It has flaws in the terms of camera and exploration features, but it can be a very solid beginning to something new in the horror gaming genre.

While predictably light on actual gameplay, Supermassive’s kick-off to their Dark Pictures Anthology is a welcome return to form that ticks all the right boxes for a scarily good time. Whether alone or with friends, raise the sails and weigh anchor aboard Man of Medan’s ghost ship if you dare.

A ghost ship, an unpredictable script and non-linear gameplay. This interactive horror will show you that fear can be an art.

I want to say what type of game it is, but Man of Medan doesn’t fit into a particular genre. At its core, it’s a cinematic experience, but that doesn’t explain much. I could say that it’s a horror adventure game, and I would be a little bit closer to the truth. The alternative is that The Dark Pictures Anthology is part of a new genre, for which we don’t have a proper name yet, even if it’s not exactly the first one in the series. With that said, I can only recommend The Dark Pictures Anthology, despite the control problems. The way the games makes people feel when playing is worth it, even if you’re always talking with the characters, trying to keep them on a straight path through the levels. And the best part is that Man of Medan has so many choices that I can go back, and play something completely different.

Man of Medan is a promising start to the Dark Pictures Anthology. I'd be happy to play more of these b-horror movie simulators, full of pretty people desperately trying to survive.

Man of Medan is a strong start to The Dark Pictures series, and more ambitious than it may first seem on the surface - while a single-player run-through took us 5 hours, the game is about trying that story again in different ways. However, if you don’t like the idea of replaying a story-based game, then you may be left unsatisfied with just a single playthrough - as you certainly won’t have all the answers. Nevertheless, a fun and deeply scary game - and the multiplayer needs to be experienced.

The great horror atmosphere has created constant tension with me.

For the most part, it was a compelling experience. What made it even more interesting, was knowing that the plot behind the Man of Medan is inspired by a real ship that went missing sometime in the 1940's although a specific date is hard to pin down. It may not be a game for everyone, but for fans of Supermassive's previous work it is definitely worth a look.

Man of Medan is a worthy follow-up to Until Dawn. It hits a lot of the same notes, and it's clear the developers understood the group appeal of watching-slash-playing a cheesy horror film with friends. There are still some weak points, but Man of Medan shows a willingness to learn from the previous game's mistakes and leaves us curious to see the next part of the anthology.

Man of Medan doesn’t tell the most unique story, and indeed you’ll probably unravel it long before the characters do. It’s unique in the telling though, and often that’s what counts more.

It's not easy to keep everyone alive in Man of Medan, and you won't necessarily want to, especially in 2-player co-op.

The second playthrough is better than the first — by then you already know that the story is not scary at all, the dialogue is stale and characters are boring. But still, there is some fun to be had by choosing different options and trying to help the ones you failed to save before.

A good candidate for the title of killer of the evening. For more, unfortunately, Urang Medan did not have enough traction.

While Man of Medan isn’t the greatest game you’ll play this year, it does a good enough job of setting the Dark Pictures Anthology series out to sea. Unfortunately, the unevenly paced story, the out-of-tone voice lines, and the stiff animations make for a subpar experience that we will hopefully see improved in later iterations of the series.

But despite having the same solid mechanics as its big brother, Man of Medan starts the anthology off on a thoroughly “meh” note, thanks its unimpressive, poorly-constructed story.