Supermassive Games, developer of the PS4-exclusive horror adventure game Until Dawn, revealed two multiplayer modes for its upcoming Man of Medan. Man of Medan is the studio's first true horror follow-up to Until Dawn, besides the phone-controlled crime thriller Hidden Agenda, an Until Dawn prequel and an Until Dawn PSVR spinoff.
Man of Medan is the first game in Supermassive Games' new anthology series, The Dark Pictures Anthology. Each game in this series will follow different characters and a different story, unrelated to Until Dawn's and Hidden Agenda's and playing off of different classic horror movie themes and settings. The Man of Medan announcement was made back in 2018, and the game follows a group of American divers searching for a WWII shipwreck. As expected, the trip takes a spooky turn, and things get supernatural. According to Supermassive Games, Man of Medan will have more branching story paths than any of the studio's previous games, leading to lots of replay value. Man of Medan is published by Bandai Namco and will be released on Xbox One, PS4 and PC on August 30.
Supermassive Games' Pete Samuels, director and executive producer of The Dark Pictures Anthology, detailed the multiplayer modes in a PlayStation Blog post. The first, called Shared Story mode, allows two players to play together online. Players in this mode will experience different scenes, affecting each other with their respective choices. The second mode, Movie Night, allows up to five players to play together in couch co-op via one controller. Each player enters their name and chooses a character, and the game will prompt players to pass the controller to the relevant player when that player's assigned character is being controlled.
Samuels noted that the team was inspired to create these multiplayer modes because of Until Dawn's streaming popularity (according to Samuels, the game has around 1 billion views on YouTube) and because of feedback from players who enjoyed playing the game with their friends locally. This led Supermassive Games to create not just Man of Medan but the entire The Dark Pictures Anthology with co-op in mind, meaning these modes are planned to appear in future games in the anthology, as well.
Man of Medan looks like a solid iteration on the things that made Until Dawn special. It seems Supermassive Games is really leaning into the idea of creating playable horror movies with The Dark Pictures Anthology, and these multiplayer features could help capitalize on the already fun experience of watching a scary movie with friends. Movie Mode, in particular, is interesting given its ability to allow a whole group of people to interact with and experience a game like Man of Medan together.
Source: PlayStation Blog