The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan

 PlayStation 4
User Score
5.8

Mixed or average reviews- based on 516 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 139 out of 516
  2. Mixed: 233 out of 516
  3. Negative: 144 out of 516
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  1. Reed618
    Aug 31, 2019
    5
    The characters are all pretty annoying and every event just feels way too random. I lost one character because I thought I only needed to press the square button.. turned out I need to press it rapidly.
    Lost two others because I made the wrong dialogue choice... it just didn't feel like I had any control over what was happening which is the point to some extent... but this just felt    The characters are all pretty annoying and every event just feels way too random. I lost one character because I thought I only needed to press the square button.. turned out I need to press it rapidly.
    Lost two others because I made the wrong dialogue choice... it just didn't feel like I had any control over what was happening which is the point to some extent... but this just felt poorly designed.
    The game is also not scary. A large portion of it is set outside of the ghost ship and the reason for the appearance of monsters and ghouls is explained so clearly that it kind of just ruins it.
    There are no massive shocking revelations to be found that chill you... just jump scares and not even that many of them. It's probably better with friends for a laugh but avoid it if you want a scary single player experience.    … Expand
  2. GrumpyReviewer
    Sep 4, 2019
    5
    Pretty mediocre game that does not live to the hype, I'm afraid. I absolutely love 'Until Dawn' and 'Rush of Blood' is, by far, the best VR game in my honest opinion.

    The sound, graphics and overall direction, in 'Man of Medan', is absolutely fantastic. The game has atmosphere, the characters look real (though they can be very annoying). The thing is... the game is not scary. Like AT    Pretty mediocre game that does not live to the hype, I'm afraid. I absolutely love 'Until Dawn' and 'Rush of Blood' is, by far, the best VR game in my honest opinion.

    The sound, graphics and overall direction, in 'Man of Medan', is absolutely fantastic. The game has atmosphere, the characters look real (though they can be very annoying).

    The thing is... the game is not scary. Like AT ALL. Besides a few jump scares, here and there, the game is basically about exploring some corridors while looking for collectibles, making dialogue decisions and pressing the right buttons during QTEs.

    I thought there was going to be a big twist or that the game would get scary eventually. Never happened. It's fun, sure, but gets dull really quick.

    Hope they know what they are doing and that we'll be able to appreciate 'Man of Medan' once the whole anthology has been delivered (if they finish it, that is).    … Expand
  3. bersi84
    Aug 31, 2019
    5
    Long story short: Man of Medan cannot live up to its expectations being a decent followup to its predecessor Until Dawn. Read on for more details on why this is a 5/10 to me.

    Man of Medan tries to followup the footsteps of Until Dawn which was quite successful in creating tension in combination with slapstick comedy and decent QTEs. Man of Medan takes the Ghostship myth and tries to    Long story short: Man of Medan cannot live up to its expectations being a decent followup to its predecessor Until Dawn. Read on for more details on why this is a 5/10 to me.

    Man of Medan tries to followup the footsteps of Until Dawn which was quite successful in creating tension in combination with slapstick comedy and decent QTEs. Man of Medan takes the Ghostship myth and tries to combine it with the known mix of character relationships, QTEs and discovery mixed together with dense atmosphere to create a horror-esque blockbuster... and fails miserably in most regards.

    Graphics // Sounds // Engine:
    The game engine provides a decent graphic quality that suffers overall in oddly placed loading sequences, some texture pop-ins and a some dull movement set both on the character models itself and especially the facial mimics. The picture quality is still decent and the sound placement creates a fitting atmopshere. Overall this is a mediocre mix on the goods and bads but more to the good side in my opinion.

    Controls // QTE // Choices that matter:
    The controls are straightforward, so are the QTEs. World indicators show what items are actually interactable and let me tell you this: there is not much to interact with (subnote: that is actually worth interacting with). Some events are dispersed throughout the game and decide mostly on which characters will die or live together with relationship developments between them. The subline here is: there is not much to do and the design choices are so bad that most decisions dont even matter. The QTEs decide on life or death but dialogues dont change much, e.g. you decide to be extra careful yet get caught anyways. Rinse and repeat.

    Final thoughts and game length:
    Man of Medan creates a nice atmosphere, the presentation is decent and also the voice acting is not bad. Sadly where it matters the game falls apart completely: there is not much to do, loading sequences break the immersion, choices dont matter and sometimes the dialogue placement is so bad that it does not fit any emotional setting. Also I would like to see more horror then simply placed jumpscares. Together with the price tag and a game length of possibly 3 to 6hrs I really cannot recommend Man of Medan, although it might be worth a grab on a decent sale.

    As Man of Medan is the first piece of an anthology set we can only hope that the progress of the next -already announced- anthology piece can be improved until its release in 2020. After all we all love horror and would like more of these scarcely developed games.    … Expand
  4. inmh
    Aug 31, 2019
    7
    Pros:
    -Beautiful graphics
    -Lots of good jumpscares/generally eerie atmosphere -Excellent replay value -Great acting -The STAY CALM! segments were a nice translation from Until Dawn's DON'T MOVE! segments. -The price reflects the length of the game (iirc it was like $29.99 USD) Cons: -Not happy that you HAVE to play co-op to get certain collectibles (and therefore, their    Pros:
    -Beautiful graphics
    -Lots of good jumpscares/generally eerie atmosphere
    -Excellent replay value
    -Great acting
    -The STAY CALM! segments were a nice translation from Until Dawn's DON'T MOVE! segments.
    -The price reflects the length of the game (iirc it was like $29.99 USD)

    Cons:
    -Not happy that you HAVE to play co-op to get certain collectibles (and therefore, their trophies). I thought going into this that co-op was going to be an added feature, not something you HAD to do if you wanted to get, like, half the trophies for the game. I expect that with stuff like Far Cry and RDR2, but not narrative-heavy games like this.

    -Game starts very slowly. Takes a while to get to the scary stuff; Until Dawn did much better at injecting that tension before we actually hit anything genuinely scary.

    -Characters were not as well-developed as they were in Until Dawn; which is a shame, because Until Dawn had some genuinely unique and fun characters.

    -Maybe it was the length of the game, or maybe it was because they just give too many hints in-game, but it's not difficult to figure out the reason behind why everything is happening. I wish they could have made it more ambiguous until the end as to what the REAL explanation for everything was. Fell a little flat for me as a result.

    -ETA: Due to the way they structure the post-game chapter selection, if you decide to pick a chapter to replay, you get two options: Overwrite your save, or create a new one. And if you accidentally hit "Overwrite", guess what? You've now LOST your ability to choose the chapters you replay, because you've just lost the post-game save. So you get to replay the game and finish it again before you can replay another chapter. I'm tempted to lower my rating because that is BULL.

    Overall not a bad game. But when they release Little Hope, I seriously hope they reduce the amount of necessity that goes into co-op to get basic completion trophies.    … Expand
  5. NicoPerciani
    Sep 2, 2019
    5
    Thats the definition of a half-assed game. Everything it needed was there, if polish and attention were given. Quite disappointing actually, given that Until Dawn was a really nice game.
  6. Akschnhiro
    Sep 1, 2019
    5
    Overall not worth the money. Finished the first playthrough in about 4 hours, the characters are not likeable, the controls feel wonky.
    You can see some Until Dawn vibes, but most of the times the game forces jump scares.
    If the Game is 10 bucks or less, give it a go.
  7. Beast979
    Sep 3, 2019
    7
    overall was fun and I enjoyed the coop aspect....The only problem was the game was too short.
  8. JimmieReview
    Sep 1, 2019
    7
    A decent follow up to Until Dawn. The story is interesting enough, good mix of building up tension, fights/escaping and some nice dialogs. Graphics are real good, as expected and so is voice acting. It does fall a bit bellow what I had hoped for because the game is just to short. I would have preferred more of just about everything, deeper characters, more environments to explore, a longerA decent follow up to Until Dawn. The story is interesting enough, good mix of building up tension, fights/escaping and some nice dialogs. Graphics are real good, as expected and so is voice acting. It does fall a bit bellow what I had hoped for because the game is just to short. I would have preferred more of just about everything, deeper characters, more environments to explore, a longer story, more dialogs. What is here is good, but its a much shorter story than until dawn. It is of course much cheaper too, but I would have preferred a more expensive version that was fully fleshed out… Expand
  9. HeavyMetalSloth
    Jan 3, 2020
    6
    After playing Until Dawn a couple years ago I was impressed with what Supermassive Games had to offer. So when Man of Medan released I knew I had to get it. After playing and finishing it in solo mode I was disappointed in the story and also how the game abruptly came to an end. This game is meant for co-op as it makes it more enjoyable because I found myself bored towards the end. UntilAfter playing Until Dawn a couple years ago I was impressed with what Supermassive Games had to offer. So when Man of Medan released I knew I had to get it. After playing and finishing it in solo mode I was disappointed in the story and also how the game abruptly came to an end. This game is meant for co-op as it makes it more enjoyable because I found myself bored towards the end. Until Dawn was a way better game than this and I think I replayed UD once or twice, but the chances of me replaying this game is slim to none.… Expand
  10. Skollie
    Dec 8, 2020
    6
    Playing this game after Until Dawn really dampers the experience. Until Dawn was infinitely better than this, but the main reason for me is the characters.

    The characters in Man Of Medan are very unlikable and I don't know who the hell decided that the actor playing Alex was a good actor. He's expressionless and his lines are delivered in a way that feels like he just wanted to get this    Playing this game after Until Dawn really dampers the experience. Until Dawn was infinitely better than this, but the main reason for me is the characters.

    The characters in Man Of Medan are very unlikable and I don't know who the hell decided that the actor playing Alex was a good actor. He's expressionless and his lines are delivered in a way that feels like he just wanted to get this over with and go home.

    The game did have some really good jump scares, which I appreciate and the graphics are really good as well. I just hope the studio find better actors for these roles in future games as I can't invest anything in these bland characters.    … Expand
  11. DavidHoltzer
    Jul 24, 2021
    5
    This game is pretty mediocre. The story is kinda dumb, very predictable and way too short, the characters are one dimensional, there is not really any character development and the voice acting isn't great either. The only good part is the variety of endings, that's it.
  12. BiggieZeke
    Aug 15, 2022
    5
    Good
    * Interactive storytelling
    * Pretty good visuals

    Bad
    * Clunky tank controls
    * Short game
    * Story itself is bland
    * Characters are bland
    * Besides a few jump scares, nothing scary in general
    * Just like Until Dawn, feels like “Traits and Relationships” doesn’t really change anything within the story
    * Wouldn’t play this game for more than $20. Luckily it was free
  13. Jackthegamer
    Sep 15, 2022
    6
    Step back in comparison to Until Dawn. Boring characters and it's pacing isn't great either
  14. mrbrightside39
    Sep 1, 2019
    6
    An overall positive experience throughout but nothing special. It lacks the depth Until Dawn had in both narrative and gameplay. The controls have been simplified down to a few buttons and most the time you'll be walking at a snails pace through the same narrow corridors. It's disappointing to see supermassivegames take away the butterfly system present in until dawn. It makes theAn overall positive experience throughout but nothing special. It lacks the depth Until Dawn had in both narrative and gameplay. The controls have been simplified down to a few buttons and most the time you'll be walking at a snails pace through the same narrow corridors. It's disappointing to see supermassivegames take away the butterfly system present in until dawn. It makes the decisions that are presented to you in this game seem less consequential. The story also ends abruptly with a few disjointed scenes each ending in cliffhangers. It's not all bad though. The graphics, acting, and directing are all top-notch compared to its contemporaries like Life is Strange. It's an enjoyable ride for the most part and I'd recommend it if you enjoy these type of games. I'm curious enough to see where the second one goes aswell.… Expand
  15. DeftDegree
    Aug 31, 2019
    6
    With very mediocre voice acting, weird editing and transitions, poor sound design, and a lack of character development, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan fails to live up to its amazing predecessor, Until Dawn. However, it’s engaging but slightly predictable story and gameplay kept this game afloat and kept me playing through to the end.
  16. lucasbutcher
    Dec 4, 2019
    6
    é um jogo gostosinho de se jogar, but, é meio incompetente, recomendo, porem tentem pegar na promoção, usado, ou de graça em algum lugar :)
  17. alexandrumna
    Jul 12, 2020
    5
    I have to say that I honestly expected a lot more from this game. Character development sucks, graphics are underwhelming and the controls are sluggish. Maybe they can improve on the next title, like try to make the game scary but cut the annoying jumpscares. You don't get scared by them because at this point, being so many, you already expect them. The most annoying thing about this gameI have to say that I honestly expected a lot more from this game. Character development sucks, graphics are underwhelming and the controls are sluggish. Maybe they can improve on the next title, like try to make the game scary but cut the annoying jumpscares. You don't get scared by them because at this point, being so many, you already expect them. The most annoying thing about this game is that you don't feel like your choices matter. If you make a mistake, character dies. No adding it to the plot like Until Dawn did or whatsoever. Oh and don't get me started on those annoying pulse QTEs. A very mediocre game overall.… Expand
  18. AndiGravity
    Aug 30, 2020
    5
    This is another game I wish I could like much more than I do.

    The premise seems fairly solid, if predictable, but the execution is so lacking, it ruins the experience. There are two primary issues when it comes to this game: 1) The controls are not consistent. I don't mean they're poorly programmed. I mean they're downright inconsistent. You can be faced with the same type of    This is another game I wish I could like much more than I do.

    The premise seems fairly solid, if predictable, but the execution is so lacking, it ruins the experience.

    There are two primary issues when it comes to this game:

    1) The controls are not consistent. I don't mean they're poorly programmed. I mean they're downright inconsistent. You can be faced with the same type of situation three different times, and the game will require you to use three entirely different control schemes to get through it. I'm sure the devs thought that was a novel concept, and it is... but it's a novel concept much in the same way getting in your car and finding out the manufacturer has programmed in multiple, random ways to steer the vehicle, and that today you'll be using the steering wheel, whereas tomorrow you'll be using the pedals to steer left and right and the handbrake to control acceleration, while the day after, you're going to have to control your car by rhythmically opening and closing your glove compartment.

    It's not good game design because it is in no way intuitive and requires the game to constantly break your immersion by prompting your every action, rather than doing what most games do, and explaining how to control your character in certain situations throughout the game so you consistently know how to manipulate the environment around you and can immerse yourself in the experience of the game. This brings me to the second problem this game has.

    2) You only get one chance to do anything. That's it. One. If you aren't able to get the game to do what you want because for some reason the devs decided the way you should maneuver through this particular series of events is through a rhythm event that psych! Just kidding! We're going to go ahead and abort that halfway through and then tell you to choose between two different things that will, nope! It's a quick-time event, and... quick, consult your moral compass to... another quick time event, quick time event, quick time ev... oh, too bad! You didn't get through the whole sequence!

    You want to go back and take a second crack at it? That's fine. Start the game again from scratch. That's the only way you're allowed to do it. If you make a single, solitary mistake you want to correct, the only way to go back and correct it is to start the game over from the beginning. And you can't skip anything. Not a single moment. You can't skip tutorials. You can't skip cutscenes you've already seen. You have to go through all of it from the beginning, at exactly the same relentlessly unedited pace. Every. Single. Last. Time.

    Otherwise, you're stuck with whatever screw-up happened for the rest of the game, and it's possible to screw this game up very early on so that it's simply not winnable. The game won't tell you it can't be won. It'll let you go on until the end of the game, and then spring it on you there that something you did way back at the beginning completely screwed you for the rest of the game.

    "But... but... that's how real life works!"

    Yeah, and you know what you don't see me doing in real life? Diving wrecks without properly logging my route, taking appropriate safety precautions, and keeping the authorities apprised of my actions. Taunting Somali pirates. Running around in an abandoned ship filled with hallucinogenic nerve gas.

    Know why? Because one mistake, and I'm stuck living with the consequences forever-- or even worse, not living with them-- because that's how *real life* works.

    The reason I'm playing a game isn't so I can be restricted to the rules of how life works; it's so I can enjoy figuring out how to solve the game, complete with some sort of method of correcting the occasional mistake in order to keep the action flowing so I don't have to stop, go all the way back to the beginning, and suffer the mind-numbing tedium of having to watch every tutorial and every cutscene and make every dialogue choice again, and so on, and so forth, and furthermore, etc.

    Honestly, I picked this game up because I saw an ad for Little Hope which looked amazing, and then found out it was the second game in an anthology, so I bought Man of Medan to catch up, and my experience so far has convinced me not only to stop playing Man of Medan, but to cancel my pre-order for Little Hope. I hope that's the goal the devs were aiming for, because I really can't fathom how they thought Man of Medan would be enjoyable as the experience they programmed it to be.    … Expand
  19. 14r33c
    Nov 28, 2020
    7
    Graphics [7]
    Gameplay [7]
    Narrative [7]
    Entertainment [8]
    Sound [8]

    [+] Environment and sound effects.
    [-] There are a lot of expected moments; characters could be better; not to scary.

    7 (Good) ▮▮▮▮▮▮▮▯▯▯
  20. DangerDave1409
    Nov 3, 2022
    7
    Not as perfect as "Until Dawn" but still amazing. Played it two times and can only recommend it. Graphics are bad, but I didnt expect something else. German synchro is **** too
  21. MahdIGH
    Aug 30, 2019
    7
    Some times high graphics and showing details is not enough to make a good game. Yes, things have changed. Maybe some years ago when a company made a high-detailed game, we would appreciate them but now not only should it be high-detailed, but also the game should have a good story. Supermassive changed sth after until dawn. They changed the way of storytelling and making horrifying jumpSome times high graphics and showing details is not enough to make a good game. Yes, things have changed. Maybe some years ago when a company made a high-detailed game, we would appreciate them but now not only should it be high-detailed, but also the game should have a good story. Supermassive changed sth after until dawn. They changed the way of storytelling and making horrifying jump scares. But now we are experiencing Man of Medan. An anthology game. I've never seen an anthology game before, but we should see how were Supermassive successful in performing that. Man of Medan is a good start for The dark pictures and people can buy the next part of the Dark Pictures with confidence. Maybe one of the most important point in horror movies and games is inducing the sense of fear. Players should never know when will they be scared or how. For example, Silent Hill is one of the most successful horror games because it changed the meaning of horror. I don't expect the creators to invent sth new but at least I want sth scary from them. Sth that I would dream when I fall asleep, but they couldn’t scare me like past horror games even Until Dawn.
    Maybe you heard sth about butterfly effect or sth like this. They perform this mechanism as well as until dawn. Every decision can change the way of story-telling or even death of a character.
    In every horror movies or games or even story-based games, the quality of the voices, sounds of the environment or even the sound of the wind is so important. Besides, these games should have great graphics and Supermassive was successful in it but we can see some frame drops and a few technical problems and sometimes the problems can prevent from experiencing a scary scene. One of the weaknesses of Until Dawn was the story. Its ending was predictable and Man of Medan is too. We can't see any surprises after act 3 and it's a very bad weakness for a story-based game.
    Some times the position of the camera can make you feel like watching a horror movie but sometimes It really bothers you because in some places it's difficult to control the characters well.
    The design of the jump scares is really really really good. The game is based on jump scares just like until dawn but they performed it better than until dawn. It's that scary that you will shout for seconds.
    Maybe the game will be a bit boring for some player because players should just press buttons, read notes and books, watch cutscenes, interact with some items and make some decisions, but the combination of all of these make a good adventure game. It doesn't mean that you can press buttons comfortably without thinking. Pressing buttons is one of the most intelligent parts of the game. You may ask why. In some adventure games, players will be bored so they will lose an important decision or even a cutscene. But in Man of Medan every scene attracts you.
    The delusion of making decisions. In some games like telltale's games, you should make some decisions but they really don't change the ending or the way of storytelling and they just change some details in the story. But now I can see that Man of Medan is different if you press a wrong button, you will see a different story with a different ending.
    The story was finished where it had to because if the creators had continued the story, they would have finished the story badly
    Man of Medan is 30 dollar game with 5 to 6 hours gameplay and it has good
    Co-op. In some cases like the graphic and the design of the jump scares, the game is better than Until Dawn but in the way of storytelling and characterizations the game is a bit weaker.
    Overall, Man of Medan is a game for horror games fan and even adventure games fan and they can experience a good game but they shouldn't expect that they will certainly be scared.    … Expand
  22. abekdd
    Aug 30, 2019
    7
    The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan tiene una apuesta muy clara: la rejugabilidad. Desde esa premisa, el título de Supermassive Games ofrece una aventura de terror que, si bien no pasa de ser la típica que hemos presenciado en mil películas de serie B, puede llegar a dejarte con un sabor amargo dependiendo del devenir de alguno de los personajes. Con fallos puntuales que pueden serThe Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan tiene una apuesta muy clara: la rejugabilidad. Desde esa premisa, el título de Supermassive Games ofrece una aventura de terror que, si bien no pasa de ser la típica que hemos presenciado en mil películas de serie B, puede llegar a dejarte con un sabor amargo dependiendo del devenir de alguno de los personajes. Con fallos puntuales que pueden ser corregidos, como los tirones de FPS o el problema de optimización y carga de las texturas, Man of Medan es un interesante primer paso de cara a un compendio mayor. Y, de momento, resulta difícil otorgarle mayor nota cuando los errores pueden fastidiar la experiencia.… Expand
  23. VTL
    Sep 24, 2019
    6
    Juego correcto... corto la verdad, pero rejugable y a precio reduicido. Lo recomiendo juegar con colegas. La historia... bueno, podria ser mejor... Juego bien pero sin duda a ese precio 25-30 € max.
  24. mathieuP
    Jun 26, 2020
    5
    Tres beau visuellement mais pas très bien optimisé du coup ça rame un peut sur console.
    Histoire correcte bien qu'un peut clichée
  25. drlowdon
    Dec 24, 2022
    6
    A group of divers discover a sunken WWII plane in the South Pacific, and soon find themselves facing dangers from local fisherman as well as other more supernatural entities.

    Man of Medan is largely a narrative lead game with player interaction involving making decisions for the characters and the odd QTE. Unfortunately failing the QTEs (which can appear suddenly and easily catch you    A group of divers discover a sunken WWII plane in the South Pacific, and soon find themselves facing dangers from local fisherman as well as other more supernatural entities.

    Man of Medan is largely a narrative lead game with player interaction involving making decisions for the characters and the odd QTE. Unfortunately failing the QTEs (which can appear suddenly and easily catch you out) seems to have more of an impact on what happens than any of the decisions you make, and along with a cast of mostly unlikeable characters, it doesn’t make for a particularly satisfying experience even when played co-op.    … Expand
  26. sityoazzdown
    Jul 5, 2022
    6
    A little bit better than little hope, but so far the first two games of the anthology has some of the most monotonous gameplay, even for a interactive game. It does have a better story, decisions, and characters, but still falls flat in terms of horror and the interactive genre. Not bad if you want to snag it on sale , though.
  27. Kinokee
    Mar 16, 2020
    5
    The story reveals itself before it's half over and the rest of the game loses any sense of horror or tension. There's laggy custscenes in multiplayer. Button prompts don't disappear when you look at items so you have giant x's on your screen. There are giant loading disc symbols that pop in over the whole screen when the game is loading. It's too easy to know what choices to make to notThe story reveals itself before it's half over and the rest of the game loses any sense of horror or tension. There's laggy custscenes in multiplayer. Button prompts don't disappear when you look at items so you have giant x's on your screen. There are giant loading disc symbols that pop in over the whole screen when the game is loading. It's too easy to know what choices to make to not kill anyone and the game shoves the plot twist down your throat a third of the way in so you lose any sort of tension the games first quarter built up. The controls are also clunky and very stiff to move the characters around. Feels rigid like an older PS2 game at some points. Also the QTEs are all laggy which may result in you routing differently which also sucks for a game that's so built on your own choice and path. But now you're stuck going one route or with someone dead because the game can't handle its own quick time events.

    The best thing this game has going for it is the new multiplayer system but I didn't get credit for any of the collectibles I picked up at one point which is total **** for a game that has 50 of those damn things scattered around.    … Expand
  28. ammilner
    Mar 11, 2020
    7
    “Man of Medan” certainly leaves quite the impression for what is to come from the rest of "The Dark Pictures Anthology" (the good parts and the not so good parts). Overall, it’s a very impressive title considering the price point ($30) and the fact that they’re supposedly going to be releasing a new entry into the Anthology twice a year, with the next game “Little Hope” due to come out in“Man of Medan” certainly leaves quite the impression for what is to come from the rest of "The Dark Pictures Anthology" (the good parts and the not so good parts). Overall, it’s a very impressive title considering the price point ($30) and the fact that they’re supposedly going to be releasing a new entry into the Anthology twice a year, with the next game “Little Hope” due to come out in the Spring-ish of 2020, though for anybody who follows gaming and the consistency of developers being inconsistent with their release dates that probably means the Summer or Fall of 2020 more realistically.

    The biggest strength that “Man of Medan” has going for it is that you can actually play it with other people. Multiple characters have been a thing in the past with choice-based games like “Heavy Rain” and “Until Dawn” but this is the first one I’ve really seen (aside the soft-boiled attempt in “Beyond: Two Souls”) to actually bring friends into the mix. For my first play through, I played with a buddy and each of us controlled 3 of the games 6 characters (though it’s really 5 and I got the short end of the stick but I’m not trying to give away too much info here) and it was exactly the kind of experience that I’ve always wanted from a game like this. It’s like having a scary movie night but we were actually engaged instead of just texting on our phones while off-and-on paying attention to “The Cave” (it’s a terrible movie what can I say). Bonus, the multiplayer mode is even called movie night!

    Being able to play through “Man of Medan” with a friend is obviously the intended experience and it’s certainly my recommendation as well. Having to deal with the anxiety that your friend could get both their characters, and even your characters, killed off added a ton to the tension of the game and, because the narrative is meant to be played in one sitting (running only 3-4 hours at most), there wasn’t any room for things to become stagnant. “Man of Medan” is a pretty straight forward horror title, it has it’s fair share of jump scares (some work but a lot fall short too) and the cast is relatively one-dimensional but where “Man of Medan” falls short it makes up for it in replay-ability, variance, and vision.

    If you’ve ever played a choice-based game before, you probably know all too well that the first play through is great and your choices really feel like they matter but the moment you go back for a second time, it becomes pretty easy to see that, while the game might’ve tried to look like there were a lot of options, there’s usually only a few main modules that change outcomes and the rest becomes circumstantial. "Man of Medan" is one of the few games that actually does have more variance after more than one run and while it still does adhere to some choice-based runarounds every now and then, it’s a pretty varied experience. For example, after beating it with my friend and coming away with 4 out of 6 characters alive, I went back in to save everyone and instead, beat it solo with only 3 out of 6 alive. Even though I thought I knew all of the beats, just the act of saving a character that I lost early on in my previous play-through threw enough of the things that I had already experienced on a different path that led me to actually do worse my second time around and that's something very rare to find in replaying anything.

    “Man of Medan” certainly isn’t my game of the year, and it lacks some polish and uniqueness that could’ve made it stand out as more than just a lower priced game to play with your friends on a Friday night but it accomplishes what it set out to do.    … Expand
  29. Voodoo123
    Sep 9, 2019
    5
    Short, interesting but ultimately flawed by its anemic approach to drama/horror/adventure/gameplay design... The controls are illogical when compared to the better examples out there like a telltale or Quantic dream game. There are frustrating moments where I missed one button press that kills a character on more than one ocassion(played on standard settings). Playing through man of medanShort, interesting but ultimately flawed by its anemic approach to drama/horror/adventure/gameplay design... The controls are illogical when compared to the better examples out there like a telltale or Quantic dream game. There are frustrating moments where I missed one button press that kills a character on more than one ocassion(played on standard settings). Playing through man of medan it disappointed me to realise that until dawn really was just a one hit wonder from supermassive games! Still for any fan of the genre, MOM is worth picking up second hand at a low price to amuse for the 4 hours or so of gameplay.… Expand
  30. Aeolian
    Apr 5, 2020
    7
    It's not as good as Until Dawn, but it still offers a chilling experience. The dialog sometimes feels a bit off, character reactions are not quite what you would expect, but it still delivers a twisted story line with moments that will have you scratching your head. Sound design was good, graphically, kind of low budged compared to their previous title, characters, not so memorable. It wasIt's not as good as Until Dawn, but it still offers a chilling experience. The dialog sometimes feels a bit off, character reactions are not quite what you would expect, but it still delivers a twisted story line with moments that will have you scratching your head. Sound design was good, graphically, kind of low budged compared to their previous title, characters, not so memorable. It was a good play. I'm looking forward to the next title.… Expand
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Awards & Rankings

30
#30 Most Discussed PS4 Game of 2019

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
69

Mixed or average reviews - based on 70 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 29 out of 70
  2. Mixed: 38 out of 70
  3. Negative: 3 out of 70
  1. Carole Quintaine
    Jan 29, 2020
    75
    Even though Man of Medan is far less inspired than its studio predecessor Until Dawn, it offers an enjoyable horrific atmosphere, with good ideas and well thought out sequences. Unfortunately we would have appreciated more surprises and an extended lifespan, which would have given us the time to be really afraid. Everything is going too fast and we have the feeling that the story is sloppy. Too bad because this first chapter of The Dark Pictures has a good potential, but all it does is just scratch the surface.
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  2. CD-Action
    Oct 25, 2019
    60
    Supermassive’s newest work is a step back from Until Dawn on every level – including visual design which, though solid, ends up monotonous in comparison. [12/2019, p.58]
  3. Gaming Nexus
    Oct 11, 2019
    70
    Man of Medan starts out well enough but just falls apart towards the end leading up to a pretty anti-climatic ending thanks to a twist that was given away at the very beginning of the story. It's not terrible but it's not nearly as good as Until Dawn. Still, as a fan of Until Dawn, I still enjoyed the story for what it was but I didn't really have a desire to go back and play through it again after finishing it the first time.
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