Supermassive Games continues to build out their Dark Pictures Anthology with the latest entry, House of Ashes, taking players into a cave-dwelling nightmare with plenty of terrifying twists and turns.
For anyone that’s played most of Supermassive’s previous works, House of Ashes follows the same choose your own adventure storytelling formula they’re known for and it’s kind of amazing how it hasn’t become tiresome yet. There are definitely some minor issues here and there that stem from some slight changes. The quick time prompts now don’t have color to them to help denote which button players are supposed to press so there’s precious time being unnecessarily wasted just trying to decipher what button is being shown. Certain sections also have an unseen/unclear time limit that hinders players ability to find clues or collectibles. Other than a few gripes though, House of Ashes almost feels like a return to form for Supermassive’s storytelling and fixes some of the issues many have had in past Dark Pictures entries.
Man of Medan and Little Hope’s endings left something to be desired mainly because of how they tried to rip the rug out from under players. The games basically had small decisions littered through that influenced your entire party’s fate rather than each individual character sometimes leading to your entire party being wiped out in the final moments for no clear reason. House of Ashes thankfully isn’t like that and has decisions that affect the fates of singular characters and their relationships with each other. That sense of intensity and impact with each decision is felt more than ever in House of Ashes and there are some unexpected outcomes and consequences of decisions that are very satisfying. It’s a back-to-basics approach that makes House of Ashes feel like a true Until Dawn successor while also bringing some of the upgraded mechanics, including the suspense-inducing pulse minigame and unlockable traits. Just because House of Ashes is a familiar Supermassive horror experience, doesn’t mean that it doesn’t have its own unique identity.
Although Little Hope heavily leaned on the Salem Witch Trials to create a story with some Crucible vibes, House of Ashes’ story feels incredibly original and fresh for how it brings fans into the Iraq War. The story follows a group of American soldiers fighting against Iraqi soldiers after they head to a remote village in search of supposed nuclear weapons of Saddam Hussein. However, after a major firefight sends both factions tumbling into an ancient underground temple with a cursed past where enemies are forced to become allies as a terrifying force hunts them down. In a post-911 world, it’s pretty remarkable that a story like House of Ashes exists. A story set at the height of the Iraq war where American and Iraqi soldiers come and fight together would probably stand no chance of even being greenlit ten years ago. However, House of Ashes comes at an interesting time when America is sort of facing an identity crisis in its politics and social standing.
The conversations between dedicated American soldier Jason (voiced by Paul Zinno) and Iraqi Soldier Salim (voiced by Nick E. Tarabay) have some of the most interesting dialogue dissecting perspectives during the Iraq War. Jason’s anger being fueled from 9/11 excellently embodies the unbridled hate that spewed throughout the Iraq War and caused damaging representations of the Middle East to persist throughout American media. These views are greatly challenged in how Jason develops a relationship with Salim and the way he opens up about his troubled views stemming from 9/11 and how his hatred towards the Iraqis has caused him to make grave mistakes. Jason and Salim’s dynamic is easily one of the strongest narrative arcs within House of Ashes and fleshes out generally unspoken perspectives on 9/11 and the Iraq War in unique ways. However, it’s unfortunate that it doesn’t continue with the rest of the characters and relationships.
Outside of the whole Jason and Salim dynamic, the rest of the character relationships just fall in line with typical storylines – especially for horror movies. There’s a love triangle storyline between Rachel (voiced by Ashley Tisdale), her ex-husband and team commander Eric (Alex Gravenstein), and her new squeeze Nick (voiced by Moe Jeudy-Lamour) and some issues with insubordination between Jason and Eric and some people viewing Rachel as the “bitch in charge.” These storylines still manage to be engaging through the choices you’re able to make and other non-playable characters help add other elements to create interesting waves in the military mentality of the group, but House of Ashes misses the opportunity to make something more out of them. None of them really play a strong role in dissecting the Iraq War and it’s a total missed opportunity to create a wider perspective on how war influences perspectives and hate. Also, it would’ve been nice too to see that sense of unbridled hatred be dissected more in Salim’s issues with his commanding officer Dar (voiced by Nabeel El Khafif) to get a fuller scope of the effects of the Iraq War on everyone involved.
Regardless of its missed opportunities, House of Ashes ends up telling one of the best Dark Pictures stories yet. First and foremost, even after seeing him for a third time, The Curator (voiced by Pip Torrens) is still an absolute treat and remains a great through-line character for the series with his foreboding narration between big chapters. The way that non-playable characters are utilized is excellent as they have unexpected moments that will undoubtedly shock players and add more depth to the choices within the story. Unfortunately, some characters add a distracting element to their personas as Supermassive reuses character face models from previous Dark Pictures titles. Clarice (voiced by Clare McConnell) and Joey (voiced by Sammy Azero) are visual copies of Taylor and David, respectively, from Little Hope while Jason and Nick have visual twins in Man of Medan. Perhaps this is just a side-effect of Dark Pictures games coming out yearly, but it’s a distraction that doesn’t go unnoticed and gives House of Ashes an unnecessarily cheap feel to it.
House of Ashes conceals the best parts of its story excellently though making for a very creepy feel throughout that leads to a wildly memorable finale. For the most part, House of Ashes appears to be a monster-filled horror story akin to The Descent or The Ruins that takes place within an underground Sumerian temple. All the information players will uncover about past expeditions and the history of this temple will lead you to believe that you’re set to fix an ancient curse that’s caused these horrifying bat creatures to spawn. For a while, it seems like there’s no way this story is going to deviate from its designated path, but then in the final act, there’s a reveal about the bat creatures that’s absolutely mind-blowing. House of Ashes goes from being akin to The Descent to something more like the ending of The Thing and it’s such a crazy turn that you can’t help but respect it. It gives more interesting depth to its amazingly designed creatures and puts a different spin on the story you think you are unfolding. Supermassive hasn’t been all that successful in pulling the rug out from fans with big twists, but House of Ashes’ big turn is a horror delight and creates a thrilling and fun finale that fans will thoroughly enjoy.
Supermassive can’t always capitalize on House of Ashes’ story potential and gets a little lazy with some of its mechanics and design, but still manages to raise the bar with its strong scares and ambitious storytelling for future entries to follow – especially its season finale game The Devil in Me. Like previous Dark Pictures games, the end of House of Ashes teases the next game which is set to be a serial killer focused horror story titled The Devil in Me that gives off Saw vibes with its very artsy sounding serial killer. Now, I’ve watched the teaser a dozen times to find its celebrity guest, who I assume will play the game’s central killer, but I’m pretty stumped since the voice is too indistinguishable. Supermassive clearly has something special in store for The Devil in Me and will hopefully deliver an unforgettable follow-up to its strongest entry yet in House of Ashes.
