It started back in 2015 with the release of Supermassive Games' horror adventure game Until Dawn. This operated almost as an interactive movie with you playing the role of a group of teens trying to survive against a demented killer in a remote mountain campground. This was followed up by a series of smaller bit size games of the same type, presented as if they are part of an anthology. The first of these was the entertaining The Dark Pictures: Men of Medan that took place on a supposedly haunted ship. Currently there are three entries released, with the fourth of final one arriving within the year. Third game in the series is The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope, which has a ghost town as its setting.
One dark night a bus carrying four students and their professor is diverted from the main road due to it being closed. They are directed to take a route that will carry them through a remote town known as Little Hope. While heading towards the place however, the bus driver spots a little girl standing in the middle of the road, and it is while he tries to avoid hitting her that the bus crashes. The passengers awaken to find themselves all bruised and battered, but otherwise ok, the bus driver however has vanished without a trace. They agree to head to the nearby town in hopes of getting some help, and soon find they have no choice, as the thick fog that surrounds the place seems to be channeling them there. It is once they arrive at what turns out to be a ghost town that their troubles really begin. They somehow get caught in a time travel link between modern day and the 1600's and discover a series of witch trials occurring there that feature people who spookily resemble them. Haunted by demonic versions of the victims of these witch trials back in modern day, the group head deeper into the forgotten town, hoping to find a way to escape, convinced it all links to a mysterious little girl.
I haven't played Man of Medan since the first quarter of 2021 but I don't remember it being half as boring as the first fifty percent of Little Hope is. I get that there needs to be some build up to the horror to come, but my initial two hours of this roughly four hour game had me as one of the five protagonists walking incredibly slowly down long misty and mostly featureless roads. At least the characters here were ones I didn't begrudge spending time with. Each of the protagonists you roughly spend the same amount playing as. Like before this is a slow paced adventure game that has you funneled through the story. At set points control switches around between the group and there is the usual shenanigans of characters getting split up every so often. Some sort of face scanning technology is used so that the characters resemble the actors who play them. You have Will Poulter (Midsomer, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch) as the amnesiac Andrew, Caitlyn Sponheimer (The Boys TV show) and Kyle Bailey as Taylor and Daniel who are in a secret relationship, Ellen David as mature student Angela, and Alex Ivanovici (X-Men: Days of Future Past, 300) as the professor, John. Interestingly enough they also play a few other roles, appearing both as the inhabitants of the Little Hope village in the 1600's, as well as playing members of a family who die in tragic circumstances in the 1970's (which takes place as a prologue).
The first half to me felt like Silent Hill if the town contained no monsters. The setting is certainly atmospheric, and in addition to forest trails and long roads you also explore a variety of derelict and abandoned buildings, such as a museum dedicated to the old community and a factory. Along the way you learn just why the town is now deserted, as well as encounter the strange acting Vince (Kevin Hanchard - Suicide Squad) at set points, whose bizarre behaviour did make him feel like he had stepped right out of the Silent Hill franchise. With these types of games Supermassive always seems to be able to trick the player, with a typical reveal that everything that had happened, hadn't exactly been as it at first appears. With demons, time travel flashbacks, and the supernatural fog I just couldn't see how this could be the case this time around. It was wanting to know exactly what was going on that led me through the dull first half of Little Hope. Coming out the other side leads into a much more exciting and action packed second half. The constant flashbacks to the towns past soon sees the various modern day protagonists doppelgängers getting tried and executed, this results in a variety of familiar looking demons appearing in modern day who persecute their modern counterparts. The demons represent their method of execution, so you have some twisted sights chasing you, such as a figure with metal railings jammed throughout their body, and a floating demon with a rope tied around their broken neck.
The second half is full of moments where the characters are being chased, and these scenes are thrilling. To avoid capture there are a variety of quick time events that play out in which you have to press a button, or line up a sight within the span of a time limit. For whatever reason these QTEs seemed far easier than previous games. I only messed up one or two of these, they are always signposted that one is coming up. I did love how fast paced some of these sequences became, especially when multiple characters are being involved. You will be doing the QTE button presses for one character, then the camera will dynamically sweep out and settle on another character for a bit before moving on. Some cool directing in those parts. I was impressed with how the story is all brought together, a twist that while not too original, was still something that surprised me, managing to re-contextualise the whole game up to that point.
By the time the credits role I had managed to only lose one member of my team, admittedly I'm not sure how exactly I could have prevented their death, but my highest success rate yet. There are many different ways the game can play out, for me it seems I was lucky to accidentally miss a key item that could have drastically changed the ending I would have received (I ended up with the 'good' ending). Little Hope struggles however due to a very slow opening few hours, and while things really improved in the later side of the game, I could never completely forget just how boring that first section was. With better pacing this could have been something truly good, the story is interesting and the characters all likeable, but that slow, slow opening few hours really left a sour taste that never went away.
SCORE:
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