The Dark Pictures Anthology has allowed developer Supermassive Games to pop out some truly varied horror games since the series launched with Man of Medan. Although responses have been mixed, fans of Supermassive have nonetheless enjoyed the anthology so far, matching the tone and feel that the developer has become known for. Now, the third entry in the anthology, House of Ashes, is available in time for Halloween.
House of Ashes takes place during the 2003 Iraq War, and revolves around a group of US forces and Iraqi Republican Guard who find themselves stuck in a mysterious Mesopotamian temple. The player controls five of these survivors as they are hunted by ferocious subterranean monsters. As things go on, however, it's clear that there is more than meets the eye, and things become more Lovecraftian in nature.
It's fair to say that House of Ashes isn't the most subtle of horror experiences, but that works very much in its favor. Supermassive found huge success with Until Dawn, which blended slasher movie thrills with Quick Time Events and binary choices, and House of Ashes operates in a similar way, leaving little room for quiet contemplation. This works well for the more combat-heavy cast of characters, although as always the restrictive nature of the gameplay may not gel with those unwilling to play through the equivalent of a survival horror Life Is Strange game.
Supermassive has done a good job of honing its choice-based gameplay system, building each option to ramp up the intensity of the experience. Of course, the wider-reaching impact of player choices is always something of a facade when a game has a story to tell, but the player never gets the chance to peek behind the curtain and see how this illusion is created thanks to its fast pace. House of Ashes makes the player feel like their choices have an impact, even when it may only make a minor change in the story or result in one of sixty unique deaths.
These detours can be fun to find, with various branching paths that eventually meet up on the other side. Some of these choices do lead to the odd moment of idiosyncratic behavior from characters, such as a previously loyal soldier wanting to abandon a comrade, but there's nothing here that particularly breaks the player's immersion. Between these pathways and a variety of other secrets to discover, there's a fair bit of replayability to be found.
House of Ashes isn't a particularly scary horror game, using the template of action-oriented horror like Aliens or Predator while blending in the use of claustrophobia and darkness seen in the likes of The Descent and Pitch Black. Even if it feels a little tame, it's still a well-structured horror narrative, avoiding showing too much of its creatures early on while throwing in some effective jump scares. However, the animation of the human characters might be the scariest part of the whole game, due to some unfortunate jittering glitches here and there.
It could have been interesting to see a horror story with something to say about the Iraq War, but House of Ashes avoids discussing the subject. There are hints of "we're not so different, you and I," while the mission of the US marines in the first place is to try and find some WMDs that don't exist. There are occasional nods to how the characters shouldn’t be in Iraq in the first place, and the impact of this on soldiers who had no choice in the matter, but overall it feels a bit like a missed opportunity.
It's the same with the characters, with three of the five leads stuck in a tiresome love triangle that comes up far too much in the middle of such a horrific situation. Thankfully the other two characters more than make up for this, with the most likeable being Salim, a reluctant Iraqi soldier whose key motivation is to see his son, and who spends most of his time in House of Ashes killing monsters with a repurposed piece of rebar. His time with Jason, a devout US marine, is the most interesting aspect from a character perspective, and where the more interesting subtext comes from.
Overall, House of Ashes is a fun horror romp. There's nothing subtle to be found here and the game is all the better for it, with exciting set pieces and a fast-paced story. It has its issues, both technically and with not really having anything interesting to build into its Iraq War setting, but it's still a hoot to play.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Screen Rant was provided with a PS5 download code for the purposes of this review.