The Devil in Me closes the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology horror anthology. Is it worth it to "watch" the season and whether the developers Friv2Online took into account the mistakes from previous episodes - we tell in the review.
For the fourth issue of The Dark Pictures Anthology, the authors chose the real story of G.G. Holmes, the first American serial killer who operated in the 19th century and killed up to 250 people in his "Murder Castle" - a labyrinth hotel, the layout of which allowed victims to be trapped, tortured and tortured.
The plot of The Devil in Me is based on a film crew that produces documentaries about various maniacs. Such a "Criminal Russia" in the American way. The company barely keeps afloat and does not please the audience with super-cool content, but now it has a chance to get an exclusive: a certain fan of G.G. Holmes invites the heroes to a mansion on a lonely island, which exactly recreates the famous hotel. It would seem that what could go wrong?
You probably already guessed that absolutely everything will go wrong. The owner of the building quickly sails to the mainland, a silent killer appears from somewhere, and the hotel begins to transform, forcing visitors to rush about its corridors like guinea pigs. Not everyone will survive. Although, perhaps, on the contrary, every member of the team will survive. Everything depends on your actions. The Devil in Me gives you the opportunity to make decisions that will affect the fate of the characters.
At the same time, not all actions seem logical in the context of the survival of heroes. For example, in one of the scenes, the girl hears the voice of her friend from the radio, which recommends that she urgently hide in the closet. At the same time, the player knows that she is now in a completely different place and cannot know what is happening to the heroine. Trusting the voice (which, for example, can be modeled by the killer to drive her into a trap), the girl still hides in the closet, and... it turns out to be the right decision!
And there are many such pianos from the bushes. Characters blindly poke into player-controlled corners and cover long distances until the story focuses on them. Maniac is comically slow, but seems to be everywhere at the same time. You might even think that there are several killers - but no, there is only one psycho here, he just has the magic of scenario teleportation. Closer to the end, you begin to understand which scenes are potentially dangerous for the characters, and in which they will definitely survive, so you can afford to relax. Not the best feature for horror, which should keep you in suspense.
With each new part of the anthology, Supermassive Games corrects the mistakes of the previous parts. The Devil in Me became more dynamic and faster, and also tried to go beyond interactive cinema. There's a run button here to help you explore more actively (although the naughty camera still tries to interfere with normal navigation) and puzzles have been added.
The latter are reminiscent of the games in the Resident Evil series : you have to move cabinets, look for keys to locked doors and use items unique to each of the characters. So, the director Charlie has a business card with which he opens locked boxes, and the illuminator Jesse has a multimeter that allows you to conjure over electrical panels.
At the same time, items are not used as often as we would like, and their presence is felt more like a gimmick than a gameplay mechanic. That is, no one except Charlie meets boxes that need to be unlocked, and Jesse's multimeter is useless, because the sequence of actions for starting electricity is indicated right on the panel. Perhaps, the need to stick to one particular character with a flashlight would make the gameplay even more poignant, however, each of the heroes has a light source in one form or another, whether it be a lighter, an illuminated mirror or a flashlight.
The inventory becomes unnecessary, which serves only as a reminder of the items that the heroes have. There is no need to do any additional manipulations, such as careful study or combining objects.
Therefore, The Devil in Me falls short of moving into the adventure league, remaining an interactive movie with a little bit of puzzles added, light enough not to distract the player from the plot.
However, speaking of the cinematic component, there is also something to scold the game for. Some characters are very superficial, and the attempt to make the figure of the killer as mysterious as possible causes laughter. On the other hand, the authors did a good job of realizing that intricate tangle of relationships within the team, where there are creative conflicts, undercover intrigues, and unhappy love. You can even try to reunite a couple who broke off their romantic relationship shortly before the start of the story. Now, if there were better facial animations, then most of the cut-scenes could be watched with pleasure.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me deceives expectations. At first it seems that we are in for an adventure with tests in the spirit of the Saw, but in reality everything is much simpler. The new game mechanics and puzzles do not add depth, and only stretch the passage time, in addition to the episodes that you will spend wandering through open spaces and labyrinths without any benefit. Yes, and the horror in general is not to say that there is a lot: perhaps this is the least terrible part of the anthology. But there are a lot of voice acting bugs: characters often switch from Russian to English; thankfully, this doesn't happen during story cutscenes.
Summing up, the season finale turned out to be sluggish. Although, the previous episodes are also not ideal, and the best interactive movie from Supermassive Games is still Until Dawn, released in 2015. However, if you liked past issues of The Dark Pictures Anthology, then the new one will definitely hook you. Well, the authors of the anthology do not plan to stop there: the second season in 2023 will open the space horror Directive 8020.