Synopsis:
Trapped and isolated in the abandoned town of Little Hope, four college students and their teacher must escape the nightmarish apparitions that relentlessly pursue them through an impenetrable fog.

Publisher: Bandai Namco
Reviewed on: PS4 (Pro unit)
Also available for: Xbox One, PC

Cast: Will Poulter, Alex Ivanovici, Kyle Bailey, Caitlyn Sponheimer, Ellen David, Kevin Hanchard, Pip Torrens

Developer: Supermassive Games
Game Director: Nik Bowen
Screenplay: Dario Poloni

Last year’s Man of Medan introduced us to Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures anthology. It was a shorter, more contained interactive movie than Until Dawn and proved most fun with others. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope sees small refinements that tighten the experience, but it’s the drastic change in setting and tone that most differentiates it from Man of Medan. Unfortunately, I found the cast to be a step down in quality.

A group of students — Andrew (Will Poulter), Daniel (Kyle Bailey), Taylor (Caitlyn Sponheimer), Angela (Ellen David) — and their teacher, John (Alex Ivanovici), are stranded outside the town of Little Hope after their bus crashes. The driver is missing, and an impenetrable fog pushes them toward town with no option but to move forward in search of the driver — or any help at all. The roads are long and empty, but things turn creepy as they find symbols carved into trees, ominous warnings, and a doll sitting silently in a circle of rocks. A strange girl drags them between their own time and the era of the witch trials, and they begin piecing together the town’s dark past and how it may connect to them.

The game is set primarily in modern day, but there’s also a family in a 1970 prologue, and you’ll constantly jump to 1690s Little Hope as you witness events leading to many deaths ruled by the court in the name of the church.

Little Hope is heavily inspired by Silent Hill as well as movies and games covering the Salem witch trials. Beyond the Blair Witch–style drawings and dolls, the game leans harder into the supernatural than its predecessor. Several demonic monsters stalk you throughout, pushing the feel toward survival horror — though gameplay still mixes quick-time events and dialogue choices. One monster trails the group with giant chains dragging it down; another darts rapidly across the ground; a third has metal rods driven through its body and looks straight out of a Silent Hill project. Each creature fixates on a specific character, as if they’re the sins of that person’s past. They’re genuinely terrifying designs and, while there are too many jump scares, even the telegraphed ones still got me. I’ll leave what these monsters represent for you to discover — it may take several playthroughs.

Will Poulter is this entry’s marquee face, akin to Shawn Ashmore in Man of Medan. He’s great, and he’s more integral to the story than Ashmore’s character — whom I managed to kill in the first hour last time. Andrew is an everyman; you can play him super sweet or a bit bitter, and that versatility makes him the most endearing member of the group — the one you most want to see survive the night. The rest of the cast isn’t as strong; overall, Man of Medan had better developed, and more fun, personalities. Some basic horror tropes remain — Daniel as the jock stand-in and Taylor as his on-again, off-again girlfriend — while the flashback characters are the most interesting.

For better or worse, the game doesn’t assume you played Man of Medan, which leads to similar pacing issues. The first hour is a bit of a slog, filled with middling jump scares while it introduces its five protagonists and the controls. The Curator, played by Pip Torrens, again narrates your tale, and my complaint from last time about his intermissions killing momentum still stands. The tank-y movement has been cleaned up, and QTEs are less punishing than in Man of Medan, making for a better overall feel.

You can still kill characters quite early if you push it, and the deaths I triggered were beautifully grotesque. The game now clearly communicates when a different outcome was possible: just before the killing blow, the camera zooms into the monster’s eye and shows a lock icon plus the traits/emotions that would have unlocked an alternate resolution.

Compared to Man of Medan’s submarine exploration, Little Hope can feel repetitive — by nature of the story, your cast keeps getting lost in the dense fog, trudging down similar pathways and roads for hours. The witch-trial flashbacks are the strongest sections; I only wish we’d spent more time there.

With any anthology, some entries will click more than others. Although the tighter mechanics mean Little Hope plays better, it isn’t as scary, and its cast pales in comparison to Man of Medan’s. That said, The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is still an enjoyable 4–5-hour ride with secrets, alternate scenes, and grisly deaths to chase. Even more than its predecessor, it’s best with friends — either Movie Night mode (pass-the-controller) or online co-op — to help entertain each other and elevate the duller characters.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope code provided for review.