Tech Review: The Dark Pictures Anthology – Man of Medan for PS4

Decisions, decisions. We face them on a daily basis. Only our decisions aren’t the kind of ones that consign our friend to having his head bashed in with a sledgehammer.

There are high stakes in this adventure, from the crafty devils who bought us 2014 horror Until Dawn. After a creepy prologue on a WWII vessel, we meet a bunch of American twenty-somethings, chartering a boat in the South Pacific for a spot of deep sea diving. Things go skew-whiff when they get trapped on a ghost boat, with nothing but your idle decisions to keep them breathing. Players face a series of branching conversation responses, actions, and quick time events that shape the fate of the story and characters.

It’s only four hours long, but there’s plenty of replayability in the multi-strand narrative. A two-player online co-op mode lets you control different characters, playing alternate parts of the same story.

Like Until Dawn, you can’t fault the production values. There’s slick character animations, the odd wet-your-pants scare, and not-shabby acting. Until Dawn starred Rami Malek, aka Freddie Mercury, and this game includes Shawn Ashmore (X-Men) among the cast.

Indeed, it’s well-acted throughout, even if the plot occasionally feels dredged from the ABC of horror writing.

7/10