The Dark Pictures: Little Hope – Review

The idea of ​​an anthological horror series within a medium as complex as that of the videogame can turn out to be a project as ambitious as it is complex. However, after the praise they received for Until Dawn, the guys from Supermassive Games rolled up their sleeves and got to work on a new saga called The Dark Pictures. This new IP seeks to consistently carry out an exciting starting point, an introductory construct with an almost encyclopedic feel. A huge library is a theater for the various events, and an austere and mocking Curator takes care of keeping the reins of the fourth wall.

This is undoubtedly a commendable opening, so after the perfectible but promising Man of Medan, Supermassive Games has dragged Little Hope players. This abandoned town also gives its name to this second chapter saga. Being an interactive film, a cinematic experience to live in the first person, talking about Little Hope and its narrative developments means proceeding on a minefield full of spoilers, and here no one wants to blow up.

Remaining deliberately vague, suffice it to say that the story centers on four unfortunate students and their fearful teacher, forced to look for a remnant of civilization after a bus accident and the mysterious disappearance of the driver. Thus, the five poor souls find themselves stuck in the vicinity of an old city, wrapped in a thick fog that forces them to proceed in one direction. Soon, disturbing apparitions of the past will begin to haunt the protagonists, intertwining their fate with that of the ancient inhabitants of the abandoned town, in a terrifying and frightening crescendo.

Flashes from the past.

Little Hope, just like its predecessor, is a third-person horror adventure, where acting rehearsals and camera virtuosity try to create a scary and engaging cinematic experience. To this end, the developers have scissored every videogame ambition, focusing on a superfine performance capture and working on many variables of the story. The possibility of exploring the environments manages to give excellent satisfaction, given many collectibles present, including books, documents, or “omens of death” (postcards that show a quick insight into one of the characters). Don’t expect, however, multiple scenarios to be sifted through. From this perspective, with its invisible walls and locked doors, the game can be obtusely claustrophobic because they are no longer useful in narrative terms.

Even the QTEs in the occurrence of the most important moments have been lightened through an icon that announces their arrival, and reaction times required much more lenient. The game manages to capture; the past abuses and the folklore that embraces witchcraft always have their charm, but the adventure still lacks narrative rhythm and homogeneity, often childish exchanges between them. This writing is sometimes naive and a decisional value that sometimes “breaks “internal logic, especially those related to the protagonists’ personality.

It is not a question of great blunders or trademark errors. However, The Dark Pictures Little Hope, with all its pretentious temporal monstrosities and the mocking butterfly effect, fails to make its mark, escaping the player’s mind faster than the protagonists from various dangers.

If there is one element that does not lend itself to criticism, it is the technical one. Excluding some unnatural movements of the neck or certain looks in the most daring close-ups, the general aesthetic touches on photorealism. The trick lies in the few elements that the graphics engine has to process, swallowed by the low light, and drowned in the haze. Overall, this is a decent achievement, but cinema and video game’s optimal fusion is still a distant spectrum.

Verdict

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is a decent step up from the first chapter. The implementation of more responsive controls and greater leniency in the area of ​​QTE makes the experience more correct and enjoyable, even if, in the end, the game structure remains essentially the same. Despite the story wallowing in some cliche, the tension remains high and involvement, thanks to the superb technical sector. Unfortunately, some narrative choice’s naivety, the introspective lack of almost all the characters, and the reduced longevity do not let the title fly beyond the discreet peaks. Indeed, The Dark Pictures: Little Hope does not betray the expectations of those who expect a couple of nights in horror sauce, but it does not go further.