With The Dark Pictures Anthology game series, developer Supermassive has set out to create a horror anthology within the videogame format, and Man of Medan served as a perfect “season premiere.” Players who experienced Man of Medan had access to a short documentary on the history of horror anthologies, touching on early works, like the short story collections of Edgar Allan Poe, through TV series like The Twilight Zone and Tales From The Crypt. The goal of Supermassive Games, to make a videogame series than can stand alongside these notable book, radio, and television horror anthologies, is ambitious. Like any good pilot episode, Man of Medan offered horror game fans good reason to be excited for the full eight-game “season” of Dark Pictures.
[Warning: Spoilers for Man of Medan below]
While the game was far from flawless, Man of Medan did hold up as a proof of concept, validating that shorter, budget-friendly horror games can provide a worthwhile experience. The length of Man of Medan was closer to that of an actual horror movie, at four to five hours, as opposed to the eight-to-ten-hour playtime of Until Dawn, Supermassive’s earlier horror hit, which felt more like a miniseries. Until Dawn’s story was somewhat sprawling, shifting from a masked human killer to investigation of an abandoned mine and a sanitorium, and finally introducing the supernatural threat of wendigos. Man of Medan still featured twists, but its story was more focused, arguably providing a more authentic horror movie experience based on its scope.
Supermassive included both psychological elements as well as supernatural horror in Until Dawn, but with Man of Medan, the developer chose a more grounded approach. While some apparent supernatural elements are teased, its story ultimately hinged on the threat of modern-day pirates, and the lingering effects of a chemical weapon test performed on a military vessel. Many anthology series save their strongest episodes for later in the season, with the premiere essentially educating viewers on the format and tone to expect. In this, Man of Medan succeeded, informing players that the series would continue Until Dawn’s tradition of including a genre-appropriate level of character depth, a focus on psychological horror, as well as more visceral scares. Like Until Dawn, player choice can lead to a high body count, or an ending where most of the protagonists survive the events, as well.
Man Of Medan Introduced The Curator As A Series Framing Device
The framing device of The Dark Pictures Anthology is one of the key elements established in its first game. Each game is a story, shared between the player and The Curator, a character played by actor Pip Torrens. The Curator serves a similar role to the psychiatrist Alan Hall in the early segments of Until Dawn, interrogating the player’s motives and choices, both in how they change the story, and how they reflect on the player themselves. Unlike Hall, the Curator is less overtly hostile, and more neutral in tone, shifting his presence closer to the moralizing voice of Rod Serling in The Twilight Zone than the macabre mockery of the Crypt Keeper in Tales From The Crypt.
Developing a pilot episode for an anthology series of any kind involves weighing several considerations. If the pilot is by far the strongest episode of the season, every episode thereafter might seem lacking when compared to the first. If it is too weak to sell the audience on the concept, they are unlikely to return to see where the series goes. With Man of Medan, Supermassive struck an appropriate balance, as they introduced the new format, and provided a focused horror narrative that condensed the Until Dawn experience into a shorter format. It showed that this approach has merit, and hinted that the best is yet to come. The series’ second episode, Little Hope, shows the versatility of the format, as it pays homage to very different horror influences from Man of Medan. For horror game fans who were sold on The Dark Pictures Anthology from its first episode, House of Ashes, the third episode, is one to be on the lookout for, as well as the five other future episodes of the planned eight-part series.