In 2002, the premiere of the film entitled Ghost Ship took place . If I remember correctly, it told the story of a group of researchers who studied submarine wrecks. The unfortunates go out to sea, they hit the ship, and then the words “let’s split up” are heard. How it ends can be easily guessed. Despite my young age at the time, I was not deeply shocked by this title, and with each subsequent screening, The Ghost Ship seemed to me more and more miserable. It was neither particularly scary nor interesting, which made me distance myself from this type of production and all maritime topics in general. The movies and games outlined around this theme were not particularly close to me, so the premiere of The Dark Pictures: Man of Medanshe surprised me a bit. It was also caused by the fact that Until Dawn , a previous title from Supermassive Games, was also a stranger to me. Somehow, these walking-and-clicking paraphernalia just did not appeal to me. But now I know it was a mistake and I will definitely catch up whenever the opportunity presents itself.
Deep waters
The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is the first part of the Supermassive Games anthology of games planned by the developers. Each of them will present a different, but equally chilling story – or so the creators claim. Man of Medan tells about the adventures of a group of friends who are looking for interesting wrecks in the waters – or rather under the waters – that surround French Polynesia. So we meet Alex, Brad, Julia, Conrad and Fliss, who, as it turns out later, did not have the chance to enjoy the charms of rest for too long. Shortly after the first dive, when two of them manage to get a card with mysterious coordinates, a group of friends falls victim to pirates. Those, in turn, intrigued by the promise of a treasure, decide to take the group hostage and go in the direction outlined on the piece of paper found. During this time, we have the opportunity to make various kinds of decisions, which sooner or later affect the further shape of the game. Interestingly, even seemingly trivial actions can have serious repercussions, which are able to influence the survival of one of the hostages. While things get pretty tense at the outset, it’s still nothing special compared to what awaits our heroes in the near future, once they land on a ghost ship.
The ship itself is – as you can guess – ghastly, which we have the opportunity to find out when our protégés manage to escape from the trap. The spectra appearing “from the top” can really disturb you, the more so as they usually appear as if at the edge of the field of view, so sometimes I wondered twice if I really saw something. The use of this type of treatment works on the imagination, which, combined with the atmosphere on board the ship, means that we do not cease to be vigilant even for a moment. It gets even more interesting when one of the heroes suddenly gets lost around the corner and the rest panic. Skillfully building tension in the early stages of the game is definitely one of its strengths. When our pupils finally get lost and everyone will go their own way, only then it gets really scary. The problem, however, is that the mechanisms used by the developers scare you only the first time. When we see the same shadow coming out of the wall again, it is not so breathtaking anymore. Nevertheless, with each event of this type, you have to be very careful that one of our protégés does not suffer in the fight, and you do not have to try very hard to ensure that any of the heroes ends up dead somewhere in the dark corners of the ship. All you have to do is confuse the buttons at the wrong moment or fail to react in time, and one of the group members will fall dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves are not that scary anymore. that the mechanisms used by the developers scare you only the first time. When we see the same shadow coming out of the wall again, it is not so breathtaking anymore. Nevertheless, with each event of this type, you have to be very careful that one of our protégés does not suffer in the fight, and you do not have to try very hard to ensure that any of the heroes ends up dead somewhere in the dark corners of the ship. It is enough if we mistake the buttons at the wrong moment or if we fail to react in time, and one of the group members will fall dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves are not that scary anymore. that the mechanisms used by the developers scare you only the first time. When we see the same shadow coming out of the wall again, it is not so breathtaking anymore. Nevertheless, with each event of this type, you have to be very careful that one of our protégés does not suffer in the fight, and you do not have to try very hard to ensure that any of the heroes ends up dead somewhere in the dark corners of the ship. It is enough if we mistake the buttons at the wrong moment or if we fail to react in time, and one of the group members will fall dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves aren’t that scary anymore. Nevertheless, with each event of this type, you have to be very careful that one of our protégés does not suffer in the fight, and you do not have to try very hard to ensure that any of the heroes ends up dead somewhere in the dark corners of the ship. All you have to do is confuse the buttons at the wrong moment or fail to react in time, and one of the group members will fall dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves are not that scary anymore. Nevertheless, with each event of this type, you have to be very careful that one of our protégés does not suffer in the fight, and you do not have to try very hard to ensure that any of the heroes ends up dead somewhere in the dark corners of the ship. It is enough if we mistake the buttons at the wrong moment or if we fail to react in time, and one of the group members will fall dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves are not that scary anymore. and one of the members of the group will be dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves are not that scary anymore. and one of the group members will be dead. While later in the game it is easier – literally – to lose your head, the events themselves aren’t that scary anymore.
Two in one
The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan has one more ace up its sleeve, namely building a narrative. In fact, all the adventures on and around the ship are part of the story we create together with a mysterious helper who calls himself the “Curator” and looks like an archetypal English lord. This character is a kind of commentator, summarizing our actions at the end of each major stage of the game. We briefly move to his Victorian office, where we get a brief comment and, if we so wish, a hint. It is worth using his tips, which, although quite vague, can later find application in an unexpected moment. Similar to the bogeymen at the beginning of the game, the Curator sometimes it appears at moments that will determine the fate of one of the heroes. Therefore, it is worth being vigilant and making decisions carefully. This overarching instance is also expected to appear in subsequent episodes of The Dark Pictures anthology . I admit that this is an extremely intriguing concept that made me really look forward to the next chapters.
It’s just hallucinations
The game’s visual and sound setting is at a high level. The ghost ship looks really atmospheric – you can see that the designers have worked hard on it. Individual rooms and corridors are shrouded in darkness, which is gently illuminated by the remains of lighting powered by a still working generator. The atmosphere is turned up by the rotting bodies of the original crew of the ship and the ubiquitous light fog that causes hallucinations and is responsible for all this mess, but gives the impression of being a bit plastic. The character models look fine and the animations are flawless. The only thing I could complain about here is the camera work, and thus the character movement mechanics, but it is quite a common problem in this type of productions. The soundtrack deserves praise:
We would like to thank Cenega for making a copy of the game available for review (PS4).
