The British from Supermassive Games burst into the virtual horror market with a hit, along with Until Dawn . An intriguing story, clear inspiration from Hollywood classics and unusual gameplay in recent years saturated with walking simulators, ensured their production the applause of both players and reviewers, which could not be obtained again in the case of Man of Medan . What has failed? History first of all. Fortunately, Little Hope looks much better in this respect.
You would have to go further
The plot begins quite standard – we have a group of students and their professor who, as a result of an accident, end up in a foggy, abandoned town (associations with Silent Hill are very appropriate here). The basic task of finding help becomes complicated quickly when our protagonists begin to experience disturbing visions. What is worse, it soon turns out that it does not end with the dreams themselves. Something is clearly destined for the lives of the heroes, and they themselves seem to be connected with the place marked by a tragic history more than they could have imagined, and not necessarily in one timeline. Will they find out the truth and manage to get out of the nightmare? It depends only on us.
As interesting as the above sounds, the start of a new adventure in anthology is rather poor. The characters seem to be as stereotypical and devoid of depth as in Man of Medan , and the scenario unfolds painfully slowly, while we wander the corridors in search of collectibles and places that will unlock new plot sequences. Unlike the original Little Hopecopes with keeping story twists a secret so well that during the game we wonder what might happen in the next few turns. Surprisingly, as we discover more pieces of the puzzle, our pupils gain human faces and we can sympathize with them, and the pace begins to increase noticeably. So the farther into the nightmare, the more attractive it becomes. And it is a well-thought-out story that is the main driving force behind production. This is important because nothing has changed in The Dark Pictures in terms of gameplay mechanics .
Have I been there before?
Our primary task is lazy strolls through abandoned locations, discovering invitingly sparkling fictional secrets and occasional QTE sequences in scenes decorated with cinematic camera invasions. The system of interactions between the characters has not changed either – virtually every dialogue gives us the opportunity to choose two variants of behavior that will bring various consequences in an undefined future. This is nothing more than a good old slogan: “this character will remember it” and although it is not as well implemented as in the magnum opus of this type of games, Life is Strange 2, in a few cases we will find it quite painfully.
Some harsh words can be thrown at the jumpscare , which, like Man of Medan, appear here in extra amounts. Enough has been written about how weak this means of expression is and how easy it is to become immune to it, and here, in addition, many of them – at least in my case – completely missed the target. However, the question of what works for us in horror movies remains individual. If the horror popping out from behind the corner to the accompaniment of sound cacophony makes you cringe in fear, I recommend that you get a pack of diapers before your adventure in Little Hope . In this respect, the developers from Supermassive Games still definitely do not take prisoners.
Déjà vu can also be experienced by looking at the technical issues of production. The sound design is at a good level, the voice actors with Will Poulter are also decent, and the graphics are basically the same level as in Man of Medan . So nothing new, although thanks to this last point the game is also stable on weaker computers. The only more serious bug I encountered during the game was with the cursor blocked during dialogue options, with the mouse and keyboard control variant. A plus for the creators for the fact that we can use the pad or switch to point’n’click mode in this case . While an oversight is annoying, it does not prevent the fun.
It is also worth mentioning that, just like the original Little Hope, it gives us the opportunity to play with friends, whether through the “couch” mode, consisting in choosing your character and giving yourself a controller or online. In the latter case, however, we will not find the so-called Friend’s pass , i.e. a mode that allows someone who has not purchased a copy of the game to play.
Scarecrows
In view of the above, can we really speak of a production that has made a step forward in relation to Man of Medan ? Well it depends. On the one hand, we are dealing here with an almost identical game thrown into the new realities of the plot, on the other hand, it is the scenario that makes the greatest progress in Little Hope . If, however, the determinant of a decent horror movie is an interesting story for you, and the repetition of the gameplay mechanics is something you can swallow, the new Supermassive Games deserves a chance. A few hours of thrill for a relatively small price is finally something we wish for from Halloween pop culture every year.
We would like to thank Cenega for making a copy of the game available for review
