The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope Review

I’m reviewing The Dark Pictures: Little Hope today. I like my decisions to come with consequences. Little Hope begins with a flashback to the 1970s and a brief introduction to a troubled family of six. Dad is a heavy drinker. The older sister feels isolated and depressed. And, in a hint at the spiritual warfare that will dominate much of Little Hope’s second half, the younger sister has been held back repeatedly after church to speak with the reverend. These glowing embers of drama soon blaze up into a literal raging fire when the younger sister leaves her doll on the stovetop. In the ensuing blaze, every member of the family meets their grisly demise, save Will Poulter’s Anthony, who helplessly watches on.

A meaningful choice-and-consequence system makes a second or even third playthrough alluring. Particularly when playing online co-op, where you each control one character and independently make decisions with the potential to fuck everything up.

When I played, I did a co-op run with a fellow streamer. She played the first character and i played as the second character choice. It is centered around a cast of young diving wannabes who end up stranded on a mysterious WW2 freighter, it does a great job of building tension with its grim atmosphere and regular sudden shocks. I never play until dawn before this. it was recommended to me by my stream friend, Handsomejesse.

focus soon shifts to another group–a professor, John, and four students, Andrew, Angela, Taylor, and Daniel–who are attempting to regain their bearings after a bus crash leaves them stranded in the woods. The bus driver responsible for the crash is missing, and the field-tripping group finds themselves surrounded by a mysterious fog that sends anyone who ventures into it back in the direction they came. Each member of this group is a dead ringer for a member of the family from the game’s opening. And, as the group ventures into the abandoned town of Little Hope, they begin to have visions of earlier doppelgangers, former inhabitants of the town caught up in the lethal paranoia of 17th-century witch trials.

The background is really cool. Fixed camera angles mean directing characters through doorways is awkward. I made comments of this when playing through it on Twitch. Which became a little irritating when I was lost. There was this sense of labyrinthian disorientation. Straightforward repercussions: if you are kind to a character, you will see that reflected in their actions – they’ll save you in a bind, for example – and they won’t if they absolutely hate you. These deaths did feel odd because quick-time events play a big part.

If you like this review and want to see more, you can click here.  My snapchat is Cara_lynn97. Twitter and Instagram are the same. I stream on twitch multiple days a week! Be sure to follow me to see the live playthroughs of games and anything else I might do and post online.