The spooky month is upon us all and as such, game companies are going all in. “The Dark Picture Anthology: House of Ashes” is an interactive video game that has combined the topics of horror, drama, and survival into something terrifyingly beautiful.
The game begins with an introduction, saying that five characters, making up a military unit, are trapped in an underground Mesopotamian temple during the 2003 Iraq War, while also being stalked and hunted by Pazuzu, a mesopotamian demon, roaming within the temple after being awoken from the madness above. The five characters include CIA officer Rachel King, U.S. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Eric King, USMC Force Recon First Lieutenant Jason Kolchek, Sergeant Nick Kay, and Iraqi Army Lieutenant Salim Othman.
“The Dark Picture Anthology” series are, in practicality, tell-tale games taken into new heights, on the account that the player has to make very difficult choices, with consequences good or bad, and a multiversal tree of endings that is dictated by the player. An example of one of these hard decisions is that the player may have to give a life to save another, meaning the player may have to kill off one of the five characters to save another one of them. Another example is that, once any of the five complete the action, it will influence how all the characters will see each other and themselves.
The location of this game is set in Central Iraq, deep within Akkad, the central capital of the Akkadian Empire.The music of the entire game was made to dwell on the key element of fear by using chords and notes that, once people hear it, make them react and commit actions on ingrained instinct, much like Jaw’s signature theme and steadily increasing coord can make an audience react like a mama marlot when it’s baby is threatened.
As of now, there is no known downloadable content for the game, but may be released later on. The game itself is compatible with multiple gaming systems,with names revolving around the lines of Xbox 1, Xbox X/S, Playstation 4 and 5, and Windows, going at $29.99.