The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

About The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

The Devil in Me was made by Supermassive Games, the studio behind Until Dawn and The Quarry, and published by Bandai Namco on 17 November 2022 for PC, PlayStation 4 and 5, and Xbox. It is the fourth standalone story in The Dark Pictures Anthology and the finale of the series' first season.

A group of documentary film makers, in need of an audience, receives a mysterious call inviting them to a modern-day replica of the World's Fair Hotel, the 'Murder Castle' of the 19th-century American killer H.H. Holmes. It looks like the perfect set for their next episode. Soon they find they are being watched and even manipulated, and the hotel turns out to be full of 'killing rooms' where each death is planned in advance.

You play the crew members in turn, choosing what they say and do and reacting when something goes wrong. This entry adds more to do between scenes than the earlier ones: each character has an inventory, there are tool-based puzzles, and you can run, jump and climb. The horror is a human one, a killer who means to be America's deadliest, and the slow understanding that the building itself is the trap. Tests of loyalty ask whether a character will risk their life for someone they care about.

Players were split on it: its Steam reviews are Mixed, below the other games of the anthology. It is the series' most direct slasher story, closer to Until Dawn than to the ghost ship of Man of Medan or the buried creatures of House of Ashes, and it suits players who like horror films about a killer and a group of people and want to decide who makes it out. The Curator's Cut, unlocked after the main story, replays chapters from other characters' points of view with new choices and new deaths.

How to play The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

1. Choose a mode: play alone, share the story online with one friend, or Movie Night for two to five players on one couch, each assigned characters.
2. Walk each crew member through their scenes, exploring the hotel and examining what you find.
3. Use the items in each character's inventory and solve the tool-based puzzles that open the way on.
4. Run, jump and climb where the hotel allows it, and pick dialogue and actions when prompted.
5. React to prompts quickly when danger comes; any character can die, and the story continues without them.

Tips

• Explore every room: the store notes that nothing in the hotel is what it seems.
• Think about loyalty choices before you make them; risking one character for another can cost both.
• Assign characters before a Movie Night so each player owns some of the cast's fates.
• Finish the main story to unlock the Curator's Cut and see chapters from the other characters' side.

Questions