Set across three unique time periods, Little Hope has easily the most intricate plot of any game Supermassive has released, intertwining three distinct time periods. For the most part, you control five present-day college students or professors whose bus crashes in the town of Little Hope, a town haunted by its past, specifically the late seventeenth century during its witch trials akin to those in Salem and the 1970’s during which a family was killed in a house fire. The present-day cohort realizes that they are trapped within Little Hope for the night and attempt to find their way out by traversing the city. Not far in, they realize that the time periods are even more directly linked. The present-day people are intermittently pulled back into the time of the witch trials to reveal that each of them has a so-called double. These doubles look the same – understandably, as they are played by the same actors – and are generally moral equals.

"Little Hope is the quintessential example of a game you will like if you enjoy the series, but it never outdoes the highest highs that Supermassive has hit in its past games."

To explain in more detail would spoil much of what makes the story interesting, but it’s certainly not the type of plot that will make full sense immediately. Even the Curator, the eerie man who interrupts every little while to give you an update on your progress and serves as the sole link among the anthology, confirms how confused you should be just a couple hours in. It’s only evident that the group is in danger; not until much later is it explained why or how the events are linked. In this way, the game increasingly builds tension over the course of its 4-hour runtime, as its mystery runs deeper, but it also feels too slow at the beginning for its fast-paced final hour. With such a twisted plot, it takes a long time to set up before it pays off, and it doesn’t quite stick the landing. There are stretches where very little happens, but it all speeds together with the final few scenes. Luckily, if you’ve been able to keep most or all characters alive, the ending is satisfying enough to make you understand the smaller moments, and everything makes sense in a way that feels understandable without ever being completely obvious.

Making up for the slow plot development in the first act is Little Hope’s survival-horror aspects, specifically its tension building and outright jump scares. While Little Hope is atmospherically more similar to Until Dawn with its abandoned town setting, its tension level is much more similar to Man of Medan and never reaches the heights of Until Dawn because it never quite matches its stakes. Part of this comes as a natural consequence of releasing a handful of games following a similar formula. Knowing the ways in which characters can die makes it a lot less frightening to encounter such a circumstance, and because Little Hope doesn’t stray from its predecessors, I could usually deduce when a character was actually in danger of death and when it was a fake out, especially early on. Because the stakes hinge on character deaths, having a good idea of when those deaths can occur makes potential scares less impactful.

That’s not to say, however, that Little Hope is devoid of scares. On the contrary, the town of Little Hope is dark and dreary and filled with unsettling beings and suspicious buildings, and the jump scares caught me off guard more often than not. While the game does fall back on many of the same jumps a few times, it’s never too many to make them lose their impact altogether. These are especially more noticeable as the game gets further along. When the stakes do become more tangible, every floor creak, unexplained noise, and camera shift leaves you a little anxious, and when there is actual danger, it usually packs a hard punch. While I didn’t find Little Hope’s version of enemies as frightening as Until Dawn’s wendigos, I came to appreciate them more because of the explanations behind them.

"While Little Hope is atmospherically more similar to Until Dawn with its abandoned town setting, its tension level is much more similar to Man of Medan and never reaches the heights of Until Dawn because it never quite matches its stakes."

On a character level, each of the five present-day leads are as diverse as Supermassive has created thus far. Played by some recognizable faces, they still follow high-level archetypes, but they’re all noticeably deeper than characters in previous games. Daniel, for instance, has traits of a college tough guy, but reveals his softer side later on. John, a college professor, puts on a façade of leadership and arrogance only to find more pressing internal issues. Each of the five has these types of internal dichotomies, and they’re all explored, some more so than others. The writing can be a little clunky, especially when it has to accommodate for your particular scenario, but it’s strong enough to convey character growth. Actions and dialogue choices have tangible impacts on relationships and character statuses, and they have legitimate consequences on late-game decisions and outcomes depending on which way you’ve played each character.

As has become the staple of this genre, Little Hope features ample opportunities for choosing your own path, and no two playthroughs will be exactly alike. Any character can live or die, and different choices beget different outcomes in the plot. Regarding character deaths, there are the usual deaths that come as a result of failed quick time events, but there are more that result directly from individual decisions, which is an appreciated addition that makes it more about the choices you make than about your button-pressing skills.

Other decisions run the gamut from dialogue choices to deciding between running and hiding from a monster or deciding between which of two people to help in an emergency. There seemed to be as many choices as ever in dialogue, and it actually feels like each choice has an impact on the story, rather than having just a handful of clear branching points like in past games. Some choices are obvious when they’re being made, such as those regarding who takes a certain path and who carries a weapon, but others are much more subtle, only understandable in impact when the consequences hit. While I would’ve liked to see a little more freedom in a few specific spots and there are some clear points where the game forces some circumstances to allow the plot to progress, there’s more replayability here than in Man of Medan, and I’m intrigued to continue trying to see every outcome.

"As has become the staple of this genre, Little Hope features ample opportunities for choosing your own path, and no two playthroughs will be exactly alike. Any character can live or die, and different choices beget different outcomes in the plot."

While the decision-making takes up the majority of the gameplay, the rest is almost identical to that of Little Hope’s predecessors. Between cutscenes, you explore designated areas to find everything from details about the town itself to pictures that give premonitions for potential future events. The most action-packed moments are those that involve the quick time events. Failing these is usually what leads to a character’s death, though it commonly takes multiple consecutive failures to get there. A couple of tweaks don’t separate this in any capacity from past games, though, as the actual experience of playing Little Hope is very similar to that of Man of Medan and Until Dawn.

I came out of my time with Little Hope further understanding what Supermassive Games is trying to do with its The Dark Pictures anthology. These games aren’t sequels, nor are they trying to build on each other from either a story or gameplay perspective. Like anthologies in literature or film, you don’t need to play the entire series to grasp what it’s going for, and if you don’t like the mechanics of one game, you won’t like them for any entry. However, as part of the anthology, Little Hope is another successful survival-horror experience. It’s clear that the formula for these games is starting to settle, and, while that may diminish some of the impact of future games’ reveals and scares, there are many things that work about it. Add onto that the interesting yet convoluted time-twisting plot and Little Hope is a positive experience for anyone who likes the genre. There’s a clear path that Supermassive Games is paving with Little Hope, but this entry is effectively scary and satisfyingly differentiated to be a worthwhile standalone experience.

This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

We’re in that time of the year where major game releases are going to be coming in thick and fast. There were a few of those last week, some of which managed to break into the top 10 in the latest weekly UK boxed video game sales charts, in spite of numbers that were less than stellar (via GamesIndustry).

The biggest new release was Watch Dogs: Legion, which debuted in second place in the charts. Physical launch sales are down 54% from Watch Dogs 2, though with digital sales having grown in that time and next-gen versions of the game also due out soon, the open world title will likely end up enjoying stronger sales overall. FIFA 21 still clings on to the top spot, unsurprisingly, as it did last week, and the two weeks before that.

Pikmin 3 Deluxe also debuted in the top 10, coming in at No. 7, and actually enjoying stronger launch boxed sales than the Wii U original- 16.5% more, to be precise. Then there’s The Dark Pictures: Little Hope, Supermassive and Bandai Namco’s second game in their horror adventure anthology series. It debuts at No. 9, with sales being 47% lower than the physical launch sales of last year’s Man of Medan.

You can check out the full top 10 for the week ending October 31 below.

1. FIFA 21
2. Watch Dogs: Legion
3. Animal Crossing: New Horizons
4. Mario Kart 8 Deluxe
5. Minecraft (Switch)
6. Super Mario 3D All-Stars
7. Pikmin 3 Deluxe
8. Ring Fit Adventure
9. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
10. Minecraft Dungeons

Soon, The Dark Pictures will be returning with Little Hope, the second game in a planned series of eight, and deliver a similar choice-driven horror experience, but with a completely new story, setting, and characters. There’s quite a bit Supermassive have already revealed about their upcoming game, and ahead of its launch at the end of this month, we’re going to talk about five crucial details that you should know about it.

So without further ado, let’s get started.

PREMISE

Supermassive Games have said on a few occasions now that with each new game in The Dark Pictures Anthology, they plan to explore a different style and subgenre of horror. With Little Hope, they’re going for horror driven by greed, fanaticism, and paranoia, in a story that takes inspiration from many sources, including The Blair Witch Project, It Follows, Season of the Watch, and even the Silent Hill games.

So what exactly is the game’s premise? Framed once again within an interview style conversation with the enigmatic Curator, Little Hope follows a group of college students and their professor who become stranded in the town of Little Hope, New England, after a bus crash, unable to leave because of a strange fog that’s trapping them inside (hence the Silent Hill inspiration, one would image).

The group of students and their professor soon discover that the town has some terrible hidden secrets, when they witness the execution of group of settlers from the past who look exactly like them. It falls to the group to uncover the town’s terrifying past, discover their connection to it, root out evil, and hopefully, make it out alive.

MORE STORY DETAILS

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope puts a lot of emphasis on uncovering the mysteries of the past in its story, and it’s clear that there will be plenty connecting the events of the past and the present. Learning exactly what those connections are is going to be an important element of the story, so it makes sense that we will also be witnessing events in the past of the town of Little Hope.

This time, interestingly enough, also has a history of witch trials, and the story will be focusing on a particular time in the 17th century, during the time of witch burnings. Meanwhile, at the same time we’ll also be learning about a family that lived in the town in the 1970s. Players will be uncovering all of these pieces as they look to piece the story together.

Clearly, there’s a lot of interesting strands to follow here- our only hope is that it all comes together well in a cohesive manner, to tell a story that brings the past and present together in convincing fashion. With a story that has as much going on, good pacing is always crucial (but never a given), so we’re hoping for the best here.

CHARACTERS AND ACTORS

As we’ve discussed, Little Hope will focus on a group of four college students and their professor- but who exactly are these characters? Like Until Dawn and Man of Medan, Little Hope will make use of an ensemble cast of several characters, many of whom – also in true Supermassive fashion – will be played by some very well-known faces.

The four college students are Taylor (played by Caitlyn Sponheimer), Angela (played by Ellen David), Daniel (played by Kyle Bailey), and Andrew. Andrew is a character many players will recognize- since he’s being played by Will Poulter, who’s appeared in films such as The Maze Runner, Midsommer, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, and more. Meanwhile, the professor is being played by Alex Ivanovici (whom some horror fans will probably know as the voice of Rick Trager from Outlast).

Finally, as we mentioned earlier, The Curator, played by Pip Torrens, will be returning as well. The Dark Pictures is going tell several stories that are not connected to each other and have different settings, plots, and characters, but The Curator is the one character that’s it all together. We don’t know yet if we’ll be learning more about his motivations (or if he even has motivations) in Little Hope, but we sure hope we do.

MULTIPLAYER

One of the most highly praised things in Man of Medan was its multiplayer gameplay, which itself was inspired by the popularity of Until Dawn as a makeshift couch co-op game. Little Hope will be following in those footsteps as well, and it’s going with the “if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it” philosophy.

The two multiplayer modes from Man of Medan will both be featured in Little Hope. In the Shared Story mode, two players play the story together through online co-op. Then Movie Night, which sees five players each selecting their character that they stick with throughout the story, with the game occasionally prompting for the controller to be handed off to the next character.

Both modes were quite well implemented in Man of Medan, Movie Night especially, so hopefully, Little Night will deliver a solid multiplayer experience as well.

IMPROVEMENTS

Man of Medan wasn’t a perfect game, and there were a number of things that were criticized when the game launched. Supermassive Games have, of course, internalized much of that feedback, and they will be introducing some improvements in Little Hope in response to that feedback.

Speaking to Game Informer, the developer talked about quite a few of these. For instance, players will have greater ranges of walking speed, the camera will no longer always be fixed (though the game will take control in some sections), and animations and transitions have also been made smoother so that characters look better when they’re moving.

QTEs are also being tweaked in response to feedback for Man of Medan. They will not be as abrupt as they were in the 2019 title, and the game will try to strike a better balance between QTE-driven interactive sequences and letting players make big branching decisions.

The Dark Pictures Anthology is one of the most interesting projects of the last few years. The first game, Man of Medan, released last year and while it had a few issues, it was a solid first step in the experiment. The second title, Little Hope, is set to come this year and today we got a very detailed breakdown of various aspects of the game.

In a video posted via the official Twitter, CEO of Supermassive Games Pete Samuels talked about the game, first citing its general plot and many influences. While it does share some actors from the first game, the cast of characters are a totally new batch. The story will follow a group of students and their professor after their bus crashes and they find themselves trapped in an abandoned New England town, trapped by a seemingly supernatural fog. While it will mostly take place in modern day, the story will at times go back to the 17th century as the dark secrets of the town’s past are unraveled. Samuels cites a lot of influences, such as The Witch, The Blair Witch, The Exorcist and, keeping to video games, Silent Hill.

As far as the technical side, Samuels says they’ve taken a lot of feedback from issues people had with Man of Medan. They’ve implemented more free form camera options, as well as clearer prompts for interacting with the environment and QTEs. You can see those highlighted in clips from the game. It will also include the variety of multiplayer party modes from the first title.

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is slated to launch this summer for PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC. You can see the reveal trailer through here.

There’s more than meets the eye in #LittleHope. Dive deeper into the creation process of the game with @SuperMGames’ Pete Samuels and learn more about the gruesome inspiration behind the second installment in #TheDarkPictures Anthology. pic.twitter.com/IRy7bVJQs8

— The Dark Pictures (@TheDarkPictures) May 5, 2020

Supermassive Games have been teasing The Dark Pictures: Little Hope, the second instalment in their anthology of horror adventure titles, for a while now, having first teased it last year, following a brief glimpse a couple of months ago. Now, they have finally unveiled the game in full with a full-fledged reveal trailer.

The trailer introduces the game’s setting- the town of Little Hope, which is very appropriately named, if the background info revealed in the trailer is anything to go by. With a dark history of violence, witch burnings, and more, an old evil has awoken in Little Hope once again, and the central group of characters finds itself caught up in the midst of it all. Check out the trailer below.

Currently, The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is slated for a Summer 2020 launch for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Though no specific release date has yet been officially confirmed, a retailer listing about a month ago suggested that the game would be out in June. Read more on that through here.

One of the most interesting projects to come around over the last few years has been Super Massive Games and Bandai Namco’s episodic The Dark Pictures Anthology. Conceived as multiple, smaller titles that explore different subgenres of horror with branching choice systems, there’s a lot of potential here. The first title in the franchise, Man of Medan, was a solid effort, and we’re gearing up for the second with Little Hope. It could also be coming pretty soon.

German retailer Saturn could have potentially leaked the release date. They’ve since scrubbed their site of the date, but users on Reddit saw it before they did, listing a release date of June 15th of this year. Man of Medan launched last August, so that would put Little Hope as releasing just under a year later, and it matches with the game’s earlier stated Summer release window.

Outside a small tease within Man of Medan, we haven’t seen much of the game, but we do know it’ll feature 4 college students and their teacher trapped in the mysterious town of Little Hope. Hopefully (no pun intended), we will see something soon.

August of 2019 saw Supermassive Games and Bandai Namco kicking off their anthology of horror adventure games, The Dark Pictures, with Man of Medan, with the promise of many more to come on a regular basis. The second instalment, Little Hope, was teased in Man of Medan itself, and now it’s been officially confirmed to be releasing this Summer.

Bandai Namco have released a video, which starts off by highlight the critical reception of Man of Medan, then showing streamers’ reactions to the game, before offering up an interesting teaser of the game itself. The publisher has also provided a short synopsis of the game’s setting and premise.

“Trapped and isolated in the abandoned town of LITTLE HOPE,  4 college students and their professor must escape the nightmarish visions that relentlessly pursue them through an impenetrable fog,” the synopsis reads. “As they journey through the town looking for a means of escape, they must understand the meaning of these events, the root of the evil, and how it is directly connected to them.”

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope will be releasing this Summer for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC. Several other instalments in the anthology are also planned and already being worked on, with Supermassive hoping to release two of them in any given 12 month-period.

RESIDENT EVIL 3

Everyone’s confidence in both, Capcom and Resident Evil is sky high right now, and for very good reason. Given how good Resident Evil 2 was, the prospect of a similar remake of Resident Evil 3 sounds incredibly exciting, and from all that we’ve seen of it, there’s every reason to suspect that it will live up to expectations.

Cyberpunk 2077

CD Projekt RED’s next big title eschews the medieval fantasy and third person action of The Witcher for a first person sci-fi romp in Night City. Developed on REDengine 4, Cyberpunk 2077 boasts screen space reflections, dynamic lighting effects, global illumination and realistic textures. The detail of the world adds further to its fidelity, and that’s without ray-tracing thrown in. Cyberpunk 2077 is out on April 16^th for Xbox One, PS4 and PC with a release later for Google Stadia.