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The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is a 2021 interactive drama and survival horror video game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the third instalment in The Dark Pictures Anthology, after Man of Medan (2019) and Little Hope (2020). Continuing the series' premise, the game features a cast of five playable protagonists and a multilinear narrative influenced by player choices. Its decision-making scenes can significantly alter the trajectory of the plot and change the relationships between the main characters; some can lead to the permanent death of the protagonists.
Staple mechanics of The Dark Pictures Anthology, such as quick time events (QTEs) and "pictures", collectable items that allow players to see visions of possible future events, appear again in House of Ashes. The game also introduces new features, including a more interactive camera system and three difficulty levels to manage QTEs. Jason Graves, a long-time collaborator with Supermassive Games, returned to compose the game's soundtrack, having created music for the earlier games in the series.
House of Ashes takes heavy inspiration from the book At the Mountains of Madness and the films Predator and The Descent. Set during the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the plot follows five characters—four Americans working for the US Armed Forces and one Iraqi Republican Guard—who fall into a subterranean Akkadian temple after an Iraqi ambush. They must find a way out of the ancient structure and cooperate to outmatch the vampiric creatures that infest the area. Ashley Tisdale was marketed as the game's leading actress, marking the third time Supermassive Games cast a high-profile actor to portray a character for the series.
The game was released for PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Windows, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on 22 October 2021. Its sequel, The Devil in Me, was released on 18 November 2022, serving as the final game in the anthology's first season. House of Ashes garnered mixed reviews from critics—some wrote it was a "step in the right direction" for The Dark Pictures Anthology, and others took issue with the gameplay's technical issues. Praise often focused on the multiplayer modes, the choice-and-consequence system, and the story and characters, all of which critics felt improved in quality compared to similar other games by Supermassive. Recurrent criticisms were about several bugs and glitches with the textures and animation, as well as the visual design of the monsters.
Gameplay
House of Ashes is an interactive drama and survival horror game[1] developed on Unreal Engine 4[2] that is presented from a third-person perspective, and is set during the 2003 invasion of Iraq.[3] Players take control of five protagonists who are enlisted in the armed forces of their respective countries; the characters fall and become trapped in an underground Mesopotamian temple, where bat-like monsters awaken to hunt the characters.[4] A core element of the gameplay involves the management of relationships between the characters, and their allies and enemies. Players can choose to be courageous and ensure the creatures do not kill anybody, or to continue alone and be concerned with their own personal safety.[4][5] Facing a common foe, the Iraqi and American characters must decide whether they should ignore their differences and become allies to survive the attacks. Characters often quote the proverb "the enemy of my enemy is my friend", which is one of the story's recurring themes.[4][6]
House of Ashes introduces two gameplay features that are a departure from those of Man of Medan and Little Hope, previous entries in The Dark Pictures Anthology. The camera is no longer fully fixed and has been replaced with a controllable, 360-degree one.[7] House of Ashes is the first game in the series to feature difficulty levels, such as "Forgiving", "Challenging" and "Lethal", which affect the game's quick time events (QTEs).[1] To further adjust difficulty, players can choose which buttons to press for specific types of QTEs,[1] and can customise the speed at which these prompts appear.[8] The remainder of the features are consistent with those of the other two instalments. The game's developers at Supermassive Games said players will immediately understand House of Ashes' mechanics if they have played either Man of Medan or Little Hope.[3][5]
A screenshot of one of House of Ashes' gameplay mechanics. The scene is set in a dark underground cave. On the right side of the image is Rachel, holding a grappling rope and standing on a cliff ledge. Separated by a wide gap, her ill companion Clarice is on the other side of the chasm, which is on the left side of the image. Two circular buttons are presented on the screen; the first button, which reads "HELP", is by the left side of the chasm, and the second button, which says "ABANDON", is by the right side.