{"id":71516,"date":"2020-12-23T19:00:49","date_gmt":"2020-12-23T19:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/18.134.249.59\/?p=71516"},"modified":"2020-12-21T08:33:47","modified_gmt":"2020-12-21T08:33:47","slug":"the-dark-pictures-anthology-little-hope-is-a-well-told-tale-about-facing-your-own-demons","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bigbossbattle.com\/the-dark-pictures-anthology-little-hope-is-a-well-told-tale-about-facing-your-own-demons\/","title":{"rendered":"The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope is a well-told tale about facing your own demons"},"content":{"rendered":"
As the second \u2014 of at least three, but maybe more \u2014 games that make up The Dark Pictures Anthology<\/i>, Little Hope<\/i> faces the tough task of addressing the challenges levelled at the first, whilst also living in the shadow of developer Supermassive Games\u2019 magnum-opus, Until Dark<\/i>.\u00a0<\/strong><\/h5>\n

Whilst not perfect, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>does this by continuing along the same lines as the previous iteration; <\/span>Man of Medan<\/span><\/i><\/a>, a game that I enjoyed thanks to its interesting mix of horrors both terrestrial and supernatural. <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>gets into the action much faster than <\/span>Man of Medan<\/span><\/i> did, with the supernatural influence that recurs throughout the game having a profound effect on a certain group during a playable prologue.<\/span><\/p>\n

This sequence, depicting a 1970\u2019s household in the grip of depression and abuse, potentially both from alcohol in the home and due to the influence of a preacher over one of the family members \u2014 though this is never confirmed \u2014 serves as a reminder of how these games work. Like the previous Supermassive horror games, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>is a mixture of very slow, freeform exploration, decision based dialogue and quicktime event (QTE) based action scenes.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

Whilst each of these mechanics\u00a0 is demonstrated briefly through the eyes of a single character during the prologue, there\u2019s little you can do to affect the outcome \u2014 the game always contrives to more or less the same end. Flash forward to the present day, and we hop into the shoes of a small crew of students and a single professor, heading home following a field trip \u2014 forced to detour through the titular town of Little Hope, you\u2019ve probably already guessed that they run into a few problems.<\/span><\/p>\n

Indeed, following a serious bus crash that leaves everyone with minor cuts and bruises and the bus driver missing, we set out to explore the town in order to find help, which, of course, is a lot more difficult than it should be. Exploration is slow and ponderous, with each character driven by the light on their own mobile phone.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

There is an option to \u201cmove faster\u201d but this amounts to nothing more than a fast walk. In some ways, this slow pace is helpful, because it ensures that players don\u2019t miss the glinting of useful or interesting items. As in previous Supermassive games, some of these give premonitions of future demise, whilst others \u2014 like guns or knives \u2014 can change your options later in the game. The rest just serve to increase your immersion into the town lore.<\/span><\/p>\n

And actually, the lore is just as strong here as it was in <\/span>Man of Medan<\/span><\/i>, which for me was as far-fetched as it was believable \u2014 no mean feat to achieve. <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>shines a light on the late seventeenth century and explores some of the paranoia that European \u2014 specifically English \u2014 settlers felt towards witchcraft. It turns out that before Little Hope fell to modern-day depression (as shown during the prologue) it was already a sad and haunted town, thanks largely to a cluster of probably unjustified murders, committed in the name of Christ and under the guise of witch trials.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

As the game goes on, our team of five characters \u2014 each of them different, most of them not your average hero and all of them white (which does have a very loose basis in the story, you\u2019ll learn) \u2014 find out more and more about the original accusations, trials and subsequent accusations. Without giving away any spoilers, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>uses a very intriguing time-bending concept to draw a line from the seventeenth century, the 1970\u2019s and the present day and I found this compelling to say the least.<\/span><\/p>\n

The more we learn about the past, the more it begins to haunt us \u2014 with terrifying, ghoulish enemies appearing more frequently as the game ramps up. Real or imagined, these threats can end the story for any one of your characters at any time, and the decisions you make can affect how each scene plays out. In particular, there are a number of \u201cheartbeat\u201d and QTE sequences where the penalty for failure is quite obviously deadly, or at least extremely perilous.<\/span><\/p>\n

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Despite the increasing threat level, I completed both of my playthroughs without a single death, and whilst that doesn\u2019t mean that I got every sequence perfectly right, it does mean that I found <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>easier by far than <\/span>Until Dawn<\/span><\/i>, and by a smidgen easier than <\/span>Man of Medan<\/span><\/i> (one death.) Take from that what you will, I guess, but be aware that terror is slightly reduced when you realise that you\u2019ll almost certainly make it through whatever encounter you\u2019re in.<\/span><\/p>\n

On the note about terror, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>does it well. There are a number of frankly quite cheap jump scares throughout the game, but the slow pace, the overall extreme darkness and the speed and execution of these scares makes for a chilling experience. I never leaped out of my skin, but fully immersed with the lights off, I certainly jumped more than just a couple of times \u2014 and even had the occasional spine-tingling moment.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Little<\/p>\n

The actual QTE sequences where the threats manifest themselves are well done and often jump between characters during an almost relay-style race to escape an approaching enemy. These sequences look great, and the enemies are ugly enough to run from \u2014 but as with any QTE sequence, you\u2019ll need to keep an eye out for the buttons you need to press, which does mean you\u2019ll lose some of the terror that might have been cast by what was on screen.<\/span><\/p>\n

When <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>reached its climax, I felt that it was a fitting and well timed end. The final confrontation is just lengthy enough, and with multiple characters in danger, we put everything we\u2019ve learned about the gameplay and <\/span>about the journey we\u2019ve been on<\/span><\/i> to best effect. In evading the demons during this last scene, our group finally achieves salvation \u2014 and the ending is one that I had partly, but not fully guessed, that I found to be absolutely on the money.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

When reviewing a game like <\/span>Little Hope, <\/span><\/i>it\u2019s often difficult to decide whether you are critiquing the game, the story, or both. As a game, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>is visually and aurally impressive, doing everything right in terms of presentation, whilst offering only the slowest, simplest of actual inputs from the player. As a story, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>is a dark, creepy and occasionally disturbing look into human histories and behaviours.<\/span><\/p>\n

Bringing the game and the story together, <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>is a success overall that\u2019s worth your time. The only real downside to <\/span>Little Hope<\/span><\/i> is that more so than any other Supermassive Games product, I felt my agency was limited. I could make decisions, but when I replayed and made the opposite choice, little changed. This might be because the ending to the story is unusually tight and well scripted, or perhaps it\u2019s simply because the broader the choice, the more game content needs to be made behind it, but either way it\u2019s a shame. That should not detract from the fact that <\/span>Little Hope <\/span><\/i>is a worthy addition to the collection of any fan of the horror genre.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Little Hope is out on PS4<\/a>, Xbox One<\/a>, and PC.<\/em>
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