In The House of Ashes, you have to be careful of what lives under the shadows … and under your feet
As promised Bandai Namco and SuperMassive Games At the time, the third installment of The Dark Pictures Anthology was already with us. And although the proposition remains the same as in the previous iterations, there are factors that change to provide a similar adventure in mechanics, but subtly different in concept. If you’ve enjoyed the other titles in this series before, I have little to tell you, but if you’re new to these kinds of adventures, be prepared for something special on House of Ashes.
Don’t let your mind fail
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The House of Ashes stays true to its narrative and mechanical style based on the decision making and occasional QTE. Shrouded in an oppressive and oppressive atmosphere, we will have to try to take the best measures so that our group does not die from the uncertain dangers that we will encounter along the way. Be careful, unlike other similar titles (for example, The Walking Dead from TellTale Games), our elections will have an important weight, radically changing the course of the game.
Saddam I’m coming for you
On this occasion, the protagonism will fall on a group of American soldiers searching for chemical weapons in Iraq. Their search for underground warehouses leads them to a cursed site where rituals, sacrifices take place and an entire ancient civilization full of mysteries. Alternating roles between the different marines (in addition to other characters such as Salim, an Iraqi army soldier), we will have to investigate what happened underground 2000 years ago, what creatures are hiding in the dark and most important: resurface alive.
Missing Popcorn at House of Ashes
I have to admit I liked the story of House of Ashes. Maybe part of that charm is that Drink straight from classic 90s movies where a group of warriors face unknown dangers. To make comparisons, if Man of Medan could be the story of college students very much in the style of “I know what you did last summer”, this current opus reminds me of Predator or Alien 2 (saving the distance, obviously ).
It is true that some of the fear is greatly diluted. Here we are not confronted with paranormal phenomena. The monsters that inhabit them are real, we can kill them and we know their origin. It doesn’t mean that there is a tension to try to get the whole group out alive. Whenever there is a QTE, keeping control of the situation is experienced with a certain tension in trying to make sure everything goes well. This factor forces us to be aware of what is happening on the screen at all times, and to make the most appropriate decisions for the good future of the group.
To press or not to press, here is the question
Unlike the decision titles developed by TellTale Games, here is the elections have a very important weight in the plot. So much so that there will be more than 5 different endings depending on our actions taken. I love the fact that while we can complete a QTE, take a photo, or whatever decision, we don’t have to do it right. To give a quick example, in the village at the start of the adventure, everything is arranged in such a way that it prompts us to shoot an Iraqi villager, but as favorable as the QTE seems to pull the trigger, it is maybe not the best decision to make …
Don’t wait any longer and try The man of Medan, your first game still available on the Xbox Game Pass service!
Those coming from previous The Dark Pictures Anthology games will know how to handle House of Ashes. In this direction, the study did not risk implementing a revolutionary mechanism. These are “interactive movies” for general audiences, although somehow some kind of new gameplay is missing. Without going any further, having soldiers with rifles and equipped up to the eyebrows encourages being able to shoot in true Gears of War style, but we didn’t find that, of course.
Movie with the highest frame rate
Graphically House of Ashes shines at an excellent level, as happened with the rest of the previous deliveries. The characters are very detailed, with a multitude of expressions, with a great personality and a background that will even determine the adventure. We will have two different game modes if we like adventure in the X / S series: performance mode or graphics mode. For me, the performance mode definitely wins, as we will have a frame rate of 60 fps and the visual section doesn’t suffer much. It is also worth highlighting the illumination of the title,
As tradition dictates, we will have the famous person on duty who will put his face on a protagonist, and in this case it is the actress Ashley tisdale, who will play Commander Rachel King. From my perspective, despite being striking to put on a familiar face, in this case, he doesn’t shine as much as the rest of the soldiers, and his animations aren’t as good as we saw in the “celebrities” other installments. Besides, the game is translated and dubbed in our language, and although it does not reach the level of quality of the original English version, the work done does not remove anything at all.
Conclusion of The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes
The third horror story from The Dark Pictures Anthology lands on our console without major playable changes, but with a truly gripping story. Managing a group of soldiers in uncharted territory, with creatures that inhabit the shadows under a familiar pretext from the thousand action movies we’ve seen young (but still intriguing) is due to the good execution that led the study.
Fear, what is fear… whatever, we’re not going to kid ourselves. But we will experience tensions as we try to save our group from all the dangers hidden by the ancient civilization that we have come across. A story that in addition to the beasts, the living dead and mysterious rituals, allows us to investigate the personal life of each of the soldiers that we are going to handle. For me, a delivery that beats Little Hope in context, although it no longer offers that wow factor that we received with Man of Medan.
The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes
$ 29.99
Advantages
- Good character design
- Simple but effective story
- Very remarkable lighting and visual system
The inconvenients
- Sometimes it repeats itself too much
- Good dubbing, but sometimes squeaks
- In fact, Ashley Tisdale is the worst characterized
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