[Preview] The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes, Ancient Mythology Flavor Horror!

The Dark Pictures anthology series from Supermassive Games has finally entered its final game, and tonight they have officially shown first gameplay presentation from the House of Ashes. For those of you who missed the presentation session, just take a look at the full details below:

Incidentally, we were invited to the initial preview session of House of Ashes and got a pretty clear picture, starting from the concept of the story to the gameplay it offers. We need to warn you that the preview session summarized in this article contains SPOILERS, so for those who want to play the game “blind”, maybe you just need to read a few initial introduction points.

Before Entering Preview…

The gameplay presentation session this time was delivered by Will Doyle who is the Game Director of Supermassive Games UK. Normally they would like to hold roadshow sessions to promote this game at various exhibition events, but the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic did not allow them to do so. As usual, they’re trying to come up with new ways to challenge and scare players throughout their Anthology series. The House of Ashes is no exception, where you still have to determine the fate of the five main characters.

The branching story routes with different endings are sure to keep coming back, and House of Ashes also adopts stories inspired by real-world events and legends. For example, Man of Medan takes inspiration from Ourang Medan, while Little Hope focuses on the rituals of the Salem and Andover witches. You can see the teaser trailer for House of Ashes below to get an idea of the story:

As for the theme of the story, The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes this time takes place in Iraq in 2003, where CIA member Rachel King and her troops were on a mission to ambush a biological weapons factory in the Zagros mountains. When they reach the target point, the unit is caught in a disaster that leads them to a cursed Sumerian ruins and seems to awaken an evil figure that haunts the desert land. If you look around, the concept this time seems to involve mystical powers or evil spirits from ancient mythology.

What is The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes?

Of course Doyle doesn’t want to share too many details that lead to spoilers, especially for a game that is quite focused on story content, but at least he provides a clear picture of the setting and synopsis of the story. So the story in House of Ashes will really take players in events that are rooted in the legend of the land of Iraq which had entered the part of Mesopotamia exactly 6000 years ago. A mysterious temple that is the center of the story in this game was built by someone named Naram-Sin who claimed to be the king of the Akkadian Empire in the past.

With his arbitrary title and power, Naram-Sin angered the gods and ended up bringing his kingdom to a tragic end with famine, disease, and war. The temple which was used as a place to calm the curse of the gods had no effect and eventually ended up being buried as the times changed. Until entering the modern era where the events in the House of Ashes occur, the CIA group and three other army characters must face a terrible fate on this cursed land.

The five main characters in this game are CIA members Rachel King and her husband Eric King, Marines Jason Kolchek and Nick Kay, and an Iraqi soldier named Salim Othman. In their struggle to survive, these five characters will be faced with two groups of enemies, namely a group of dangerous Iraqi soldiers and an unknown creature hiding in the dark. The involvement of Salim Othman as the main character is something that is very interesting, because players can collaborate with at least representatives of Iraqi soldiers who seem to have experience in mystical things.

Apart from Othman, each main character has his own personality, experience, and specialization abilities. For example, Rachel has extensive insight into ancient history, which might help her survive in a scenario involving an evil spirit from the past.

In the development of House of Ashes, Supermassive Games has taken inspiration from films such as Aliens, Predator and The Descend. There is also additional inspiration from the work of HP Lovecraft, especially from the novel At the Mountains of Madness. Maybe some of you who are familiar with Lovecraft’s work can observe the similarities between this game and The Descend, so for those of you who haven’t read the rest of the story, it might be a very interesting experience.

Entering the preview session, House of Ashes is described as a horror-themed exploration game, where players must control several main characters in their quest to solve mysteries and survive by relying on their best abilities. In a story that presents themes of loyalty, responsibility, trust, and confidence to face unknown dangers, every main character in this game will be faced with many important decisions to make. Whether it’s to survive alone or set aside disputes and work together to increase the safety factor.

The source of the danger feels real, and Doyle explains that the game’s monsters are some of the most complex creatures they’ve ever created. He said that they were “very real and threatening”, moreover there would be a lair filled with these monsters that players would later encounter. In addition to taking gameplay settings in places such as cave passages and other narrow passages, throughout the game there will be several places with a wider playing space to be explored. Although such a large place can provide some relief, it can make players feel clearly exposed and make them seem to lose their defense from the many mysterious creatures that lurk behind the darkness.

What about the Gameplay Mechanism?

The main gameplay mechanism in House of Ashes does not experience much difference compared to other The Dark Pictures series. But one of the biggest differences brought by this series is the point of view that no longer uses Fixed Camera, so now players can control the gameplay angle freely to make exploration feel more immersive. This is a change that we really like, because all the horror games from the previous Supermassive Games always carry an identical gameplay perspective and start to feel repetitive.

The whole gameplay portion focuses on the exploration side, and to make your adventure easier there is a special button to use a flashlight that can illuminate dark places in ancient ruins and terrible caves. Using a flashlight will make your character slower, so don’t always use it all the time because there will definitely be moments where you have to be able to move faster, especially when faced with lurking danger.

The presence of the next generation console also makes the development team set aside time to create an upgraded version that takes advantage of the performance of the PS5 and Xbox Series. In addition, this game will still be divided into four main modes, namely Shared Story, Movie Night, and Single Player (Main Theatrical Cut and Curator’s Cut from additional pre-order bonuses).

For those who don’t mind a little spoiler, our media partners happened to have recorded the first 17 minutes of House of Ashes gameplay which you can check out below:

Well, that’s our brief summary of the preview session of The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes. For those of you who are interested, this game is planned to be released this year on PS4, PS5, Xbox One, Xbox Series and PC. Meanwhile, the two previous series, The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan and The Dark Pictures: Little Hope, are already available on the same platform.

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The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes

Publisher: Bandai Namco

Developer: Supermassive Games

TB release date

Console, PS4, PS5, PC, Xbox One, Xbox Series

Present as the third game in the anthology series The Dark Pictures by Supermassive Games, House of Ashes is a horror game that puts players in the gruesome events of ancient legends on the Iraqi mainland. In this game, you will play as five main characters who have to face a terrible fate that forces them to survive.