The second game in “The Dark Pictures Anthology” by Supermassive Games was released Friday, October 30. Following their most popular games, “Until Dawn” in 2015 and “Man of Medan” in 2019, these games adhere to a similar structure involving player choice, quick-time events, and special features.

Titled “A Little Hope,” the game starts with a group making a detour on a transit bus shortly before crashing in a town by the same name. From there, the group must spend the night trying to find their way back to the bus driver in a seemingly deserted town. 

However, as the story unfolds, a lot of weird things begin to happen.

The graphics of this game exceeded my expectations. The sheer detail of every character and setting, the contrast of the lights and shadows, and the clarity of the entire picture all came together to create an immersive experience.. 

Multiple times throughout my experience, however, I had to restart my game either due to the game freezing or the background getting replaced by a void. Although it did not affect the course of the game, it took away from the immersive factors that the picture implemented.

Also improved in this game, the reliability of quick-time and special features. In “Until Dawn,” the feature where players had to hold their controller still throughout many intense moments in the game often did not work. This, in some cases, resulted in the death of some players’ favorite characters. In the first game of the Anthology Series, “Man of Medan,” however, Supermassive did away with this feature. Instead, players had to follow a rhythm modeled after a heartbeat. Although “A Little Hope” kept this feature, it eliminated all the problems players had with it, as well as adding another layer of difficulty by changing the button players had to press halfway through.

The story itself, honestly, fell flat at the end. A plot twist occurs mere minutes before the game ends, changing the way players looked at the story as a whole. In addition to this, it also presents a lot of holes in the story and questions without an answer. Although a positive experience, the ending was filled with disappointment.

Supermassive has already announced upcoming games in the series. With 5 more games to follow “A Little Hope”, the next one planning to come out in 2021, hopefully the company can find the correct balance between good gameplay and a cohesive story.