House of Ashes » Vortex

The episodic horror series The Dark Pictures Anthology from the British studio Supermassive Games (Until Dawn) returns with a third independent work. At the House of Ashes, we travel to Iraq in 2003 with a group of soldiers searching for chemical weapons, but instead wake up ancient evil and enemy troops on both sides will eventually have to unite against a common enemy.

Five manageable figures are trapped in an ancient temple. Their relationships, actions, decisions and answers can decide who survives and who dies. The story branches off and can reach different ends. However, the title is already giving up the classic fixed camera. The authors entice us to an interesting, albeit perhaps a bit recombined story, decent acting performances, attractive and original set-up and, above all, the opportunity to enjoy this game in singles, couch multiplayer and online. House of Ashes is a story horror that you will enjoy more with friends than yourself.

But in the future, developers should decide whether they still want to present their series as a game, and then add to the meaningful interactivity, or rather give up banal playable passages in favor of even greater cinematicity. For horror, the House of Ashes isn’t really scary at all, the characters don’t always have nice facial expressions, and in the future the authors should also break down all sorts of technical mistakes, whether it’s delayed reactions to actions or imperfections in facial animations. Nevertheless, due to its unconventional nature, it is an act worthy of attention. It’s a really good interactive spectacle, but unfortunately not a very good game.

You can find more details in our video review above.