Can You Tell the Difference Between These Two Pictures Scary

"	Each game in the Dark Pictures series is a complete and original story in its own right.	"

The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of narrative, choice-based horror games developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. While the games are all standalone, they are all in the same universe and linked through The Curator, a character present in each installment.

The complete anthology consists of eight planned games, although more could be added if the series is successful enough. Each game is based on a specific horror genre and contains new characters, settings and unique stories unrelated to the previous installments.

With the announcement of The Devil in Me, it turns out that the anthology will be split into seasons, with 4 games each.

Contents

• 1 Gameplay
• 2 Installments
  • 2.1 Season One
    • 2.1.1 Man of Medan
    • 2.1.2 Little Hope
    • 2.1.3 House of Ashes
    • 2.1.4 The Devil in Me
• 3 Trivia
• 4 References

Gameplay

The Dark Pictures Anthology is the successor of Until Dawn and has the same gameplay mechanics.

The Dark Pictures has a strict auto-save system to prevent players from reloading a previous save file to an earlier point in the game if they regret an in-game decision they have made. The only way to change the player's choice is to restart the game from the beginning, starting a new game, or even play chapters individually (available after full playthrough), giving the player the chance to overwrite an old file or create a new one.

The games are designed to be played multiple times , as players cannot see all content with a single playthrough. Also, the games have many different paths and scenarios as well as offering several different endings with different combinations of surviving protagonists. Each game is short and takes about 3 to 6 hours to complete (in Shared Story it can be shorter due to players playing multiple chapters at the same time).

Until Dawn had 10 large chapters with multiple game segments and protagonists. This structure was sometimes problematic, since the player had to replay the entire chapter to replay a certain segment. The Dark Pictures managed to get rid of this problem - the chapters became shorter (5-20 minutes) and usually have one segment and one protagonist per Cut.

There are also Quick Time Events , when a player for a limited time must press a certain button or aim somewhere. However, in The Dark Pictures, besides the usual QTEs, there are QTEs that require the player to mash the button frequently.

However, despite this, the gameplay in the anthology is very different from the title of 2015.

Throughout the games, player will make difficult decisions during ethical or moral dilemmas, such as sacrificing one character to save another. However, while Until Dawn the player had two choices to choose from, the anthology provides three choices - the player can be rational ("Head" choices), emotional ("Heart" choices), or say nothing. The disadvantage is that now the player is given a limited time to make a decision.

The system for Traits and Relationships updating has changed slightly. A character can have a maximum of five traits, but in fact there are many more of them, and during some decisions, new traits appear and replace the old ones. The Relationship status now not only shows the level of relationship between the characters, but also indicates in more detail which action and in which direction changed their level.

The game has a system called Moral Compass or Bearings, which is analogous to the Butterfly Effect. They force the players to make choices, the consequences of which will have a large impact on the game. While Until Dawn had 22 Butterfly Effects, the anthology reduced to 8 Bearings, recording the most important actions of the protagonists.

An important and useful mechanic for the player is the Pictures . There are 13 of them and they are analogous to totems - when they find them, players can see a fragment of the future. Instead of 5 types of totems, 3 types of pictures appeared - black (shows a character's death or a situation where they can die), white (shows good decisions to do or dangerous situation) and gold (shows a scene from the next game in the anthology). There are 50 Secrets in each game - some of them are interconnected, allowing to find out part of the story, and all together completely reveal the picture of what happened. Also an unique feature is the saving progress of all collectibles - this means that they are saved, even if the player restarted and didn't find them in the current playthrough.

The counterpart to "Don't Move" in Until Dawn is Keep Calm! . During these segments, the pulse appears and the player must press the buttons in time with the heartbeat. In different "games", the segments have small additions (two buttons, two segments, etc.). Thanks to the change in this mechanic, the anthology is available on other platforms, besides Playstation, like Xbox and PC.

A difficulty system is introduced in the third installment House of Ashes with each difficulty called Forgiving (Easy), Challenging (Normal), and Lethal (Hard). Difficulty level affects the speed of QTEs. The player can change the difficulty anytime in the options menu even while in a playthrough.

"	You see, a story can change a great deal when told from a... different perspective.	"

The main mechanic that wasn't in Until Dawn is the Game Modes . The player is given the opportunity to play the game in one of 4 modes:

• Theatrical Cut - Allows to play through the game from a main perspective.
• Curator's Cut - Allows to play through the game from an alternate perspective, with new choices, locations and collectibles.
• Shared story - Allows two online players to play a game through the Theatrical and Curator's Cuts.
• Movie Night - Allows 2-5 offline players to complete the game either in Theatrical Cut or Curator's Cut. Each of the players chooses their character and play in turn.

The final feature in the anthology is The Curator - an analogue of Dr. Hill. He is also mysterious, enigmatic and monitors the progress of the player. However, while meetings with Dr. Hill just are regular psychotherapy sessions, decisions in which only affect the titles of chapters and appearing objects, the Curator will summarize the results of each act and can give the player a hint to solve the main secret of the game and save the protagonists. Also, at the end of each game, the Curator makes a reference to the next installment in the anthology.

All games in the anthology are built on the same scheme :

• Prologue - Two characters become false protagonists. At first, they are in a normal situation, but then a threat appears and the false protagonists, trying to escape from it, die. Usually the prologue takes place several years before the events of the main part of the game and a threat is born in it, which the main protagonists will have to face.
• Act 1 - Five protagonists (one of them is always the "odd one out") and several supporting characters are introduced, and their personalities and relationships with each other are revealed. Initially, they are in a normal situation, but then they find themselves in a mysterious and eerie place. As the characters explore locations in search of a way out, they begin to face dangers and eventually separate. Usually at the end of Act 1 one of the protagonists may die.
• Act 2 - After the separation, the protagonists try to find each other and find themselves in unique and memorable situations. All characters are more likely to face a threat and very often can die, but in the end the survivors are reunited again. Usually by the end of Act 2 two protagonists may die.
• Act 3 - After the reunion, the remaining protagonists pay full attention to how they can escape from the location. Also, having found enough evidence, they find out the source of the threat. In the final playable chapter, the protagonists fight the antagonist for the last time. Usually there are always two protagonists surviving at this point so that both players in Shared Story can play.
• Epilogue - One of the endings comes. Its outcome is diverse and depends on the decisions the player made earlier - the protagonists' fate (they survive or die), being in the location (they leave or stay), the way of salvation (on their own or with someone's help).

Installments

Season One

Man of Medan

Man of Medan was released on August 30, 2019 and became the first installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology series. The first game is based on the legend of the ghost ship SS Ourang Medan.

The story of Man of Medan starts off on a dive boat in the South Pacific. With a rumored WWII wreck to find, and plenty of on-deck partying to be had, a group formed by 4 young Americans and their skipper get ready for what should be the trip of a lifetime… but it doesn't go quite to plan.

As the day unfolds, and a storm rolls in, they find themselves trapped on board a "ghost ship". Subjected to unimaginable stress and terror, they must try to find a way to escape the ship and its sinister history.

Little Hope

Little Hope was released on October 30, 2020 and became the second installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology series. The second game is based on the witch trials in Salem and Andover.

Abandoned and all alone, 4 college students and their teacher become stranded in an isolated town miles from anywhere after their bus crashes by accident. Trapped by a mysterious fog in the town of Little Hope, they search desperately for a means of escape whilst visions from the past haunt them from the shadows.

As they progress through the town, they will discover the origin of evil and an uncomfortable truth: that everything that happens is related to them.

House of Ashes

House of Ashes was released on October 22, 2021 and became the third installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology series. The third game is based on the kingdom of Akkad and Sumerian mythology.

Iraq - End of the war. Special Forces, in search of weapons of mass destruction, end up digging up something far more deadly - an ancient Sumerian temple infested with ancient supernatural creatures. To survive this nightmare, and to fight this new threat, the military will have no choice but to forge an alliance with their enemies of yesterday.

In the darkness beneath the Arabian Desert, something evil is awakened, and ancient, unstoppable creatures begin their hunt.

The Devil in Me

The Devil in Me is the planned fourth and final installment of Season One of The Dark Pictures Anthology series. The fourth game will be based on the infamous serial killer Henry Howard Holmes and his "Murder Castle".

A documentary film crew receives a mysterious invite to a replica of the "Murder Castle" of H.H. Holmes, America's first serial killer. They soon discover that they're being watched, and there is much more at stake than their viewing figures…

Step into the anthology's most bloodcurdling story yet, where each of your choices once again determines who lives and who dies. Watch in horror as your unfortunate crew falls prey to a twisted host who is observing their every move.

Trivia

• Every installment brings stories from real world events that happened in the past.
  • Man of Medan explores the legend of the SS Ourang Medan, with other elements inspired by Japanese Unit 731.
  • Little Hope explores the Salem and Andover witch trials.
  • House of Ashes explores the Iraq War and the ancient kingdom of Akkad.
  • The Devil in Me explores America's first serial killer Henry Howard Holmes (H.H. Holmes) and his hotel "Murder Castle".
• The Curator makes hidden appearances during certain segments of the game as he observes the protagonists, though they do not acknowledge his presence. These appearances are warnings to the player about the possible deaths of the protagonists.

  

  "Previously in Man of Medan"

• One of the anthology's plans was to use the typical "Previously in... (Title)" system to introduce every chapter on each installment as Until Dawn did, but since some chapters were very short, they decided to abandon the idea.
• Most of the characters' models are from previous Supermassive's games, such as The Inpatient, Hidden Agenda and Shattered State.
  • Subsequently, some installments reuse characters' models from previous games of the anthology.
• Despite the fact that all games aren't directly related to each other, each of them has references to other installments.
• While in the first two games the intro was a slowly turning skull from the anthology logo, starting with House of Ashes the intro is a series of pictures with moments from the previous and current games.
• The Collector's Edition contains a map that showing the locations where the events of the first 4 games take place:
  • Man of Medan – South Pacific Ocean.
  • Little Hope – Massachusetts, USA.
  • House of Ashes – Zagros Mountains, Iraq.
  • The Devil in Me – Somewhere in Michigan or Wisconsin, USA.
• Each game in The Dark Pictures Anthology appears to focus on specific type of monster or threat that often appears in the horror genre.
  • Man of Medan has ghosts.
  • Little Hope has demons.
  • House of Ashes has vampires and aliens.
  • The Devil in Me will have a serial killer.

References

Can You Tell the Difference Between These Two Pictures Scary

Source: https://thedarkpictures.fandom.com/wiki/The_Dark_Pictures_Anthology

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