Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six: Quarantine Have Been Delayed Into Ubisoft's Next Fiscal Year
Ubisoft was prepared to have a pretty stacked remainder of its fiscal year with upcoming releases like Assassin's Creed Valhalla, Far Cry 6, and Immortals Fenyx Rising, but we have now learned that not all of these games will be releasing in their originally planned windows.
Announced as part of today's latest earnings release for Ubisoft, the publisher has opted to delay both Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six: Quarantine out of the current fiscal year. This means that neither game will release until April 1, 2021 at the earliest, with March 31, 2022 being the latest date of arrival. Ubisoft said that the reason to push back both games was due to development issues that arose as teams have been working from home in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was also said that these delays will also help strengthen Ubisoft's sales in the long term after a strong first half of the year performance-wise.
"Benefitting from this strong momentum and despite having moved Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six: Quarantine to 2021-22 to leverage their full potential in the context of production challenges caused by COVID-19, our new non-IFRS operating income targets for 2020-21 remain within the boundaries we set back in May. Being able to maximize the long term value of our IPs while at the same time maintaining solid financial targets highlights the increasing recurring nature of our revenues, the strength of our portfolio of franchises, confidence in our holiday season release slate and current supportive industry dynamics," explained Ubisoft's CFO Frédérick Duguet.
Far Cry 6, specifically, was slated to launch on February 18 of 2021 and was one of the first releases on the horizon in 2021 that many were excited for. In the case of Rainbow Six: Quarantine, the new entry in the series was announced all the way back at E3 2019 but since hasn't been shown off whatsoever. Its delay is perhaps less surprising than that of Far Cry 6.
Considering the manner in which Ubisoft's studios are working right now, it's hard to say when either title might end up releasing within the publisher's next fiscal year. Either way, we'll probably start to learn more about both games early in 2021.
The post Far Cry 6 and Rainbow Six: Quarantine Have Been Delayed Into Ubisoft's Next Fiscal Year by Logan Moore appeared first on DualShockers.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands Launches November 23
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands was originally supposed to be out by now. This would have been everyone's first weekend with the popular MMO. Of course, that didn't happen. Activision-Blizzard decided to delay the game to work on polishing up some of the content. At the time, we didn't know exactly when we'd finally get to jump into Shadowlands, but that all changes today. The team announced that players will finally enter the Shadowlands on November 23. Check it out.
Enter the #Shadowlands on November 23. pic.twitter.com/tukjOpODP1
— World of Warcraft (@Warcraft) October 29, 2020
This is great news for anyone wondering what they were going to do with that Cyberpunk 2077-sized hole sitting in their Fall calendar. Now, you have a few weeks to dust off that Hunter and see what World of Warcraft: Shadowlands has on offer. Some of the ideas Blizzard has shown off in the beta seem to be moving the game in the right direction. Hopefully, after this latest round of polish and fine-tuning, they can nail the landing.
Of course, it wouldn't be a new expansion without some pre-launch festivities. Players will have to deal with a new Scourge invasion starting November 10. This pre-expansion event should have plenty to keep you occupied while you wait. Players will also be happy to hear that Shadowlands' first raid Castle Nathria will start to open on December 8. That date also marks the start of Mythic Dungeons and PvP Season 1.
World of Warcraft: Shadowlands launches on November 23 for PC. Be sure to hop in next month to check out the pre-expansion event and get yourself prepped for your journey to the Shadowlands.
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Don't Worry, Assassin's Creed Valhalla Runs at 4K/60fps on Both PS5 and Xbox Series X
Earlier this week, Ubisoft put out a new blog post that detailed how some of its upcoming games would run on next-gen platforms in PS5 and Xbox Series X. Based on some of the wording used in the article originally, some folks assumed that Assassin's Creed Valhalla, specifically on PS5, wouldn't be able to simultaneously run at 4K/60fps on the platform despite the fact that Xbox Series X can hit these specs. Well, it turns out that isn't the case at all.
In the time since first posting the blog, Ubisoft has revised the wording to make clear that the PS5 iteration of Assassin's Creed Valhalla can indeed perform at 4K at 60 frames per second. In a follow-up message sent to us by a PR representative at the publisher, this notion was also made clear once again. "I can confirm that Assassin's Creed Valhalla runs at 4K at 60 fps on PS5 (upscaled 4K)," we were told.
The original discrepancy that started off this whole chain of events largely came about due to Ubisoft saying that AC Valhalla on PS5 can run at 4K and 60fps. Some interpreted this to mean that the game can only do one or the other on PS5, with players being forced to choose to prioritize either the resolution or frame rate, depending on their preference. Fortunately, the game will just natively be able to hit both benchmarks on PS5, ruling out the need for players to be put in any such position.
With this whole situation now cleared up, the larger question at play with Assassin's Creed Valhalla just comes down to the game's quality. Based on a recent hands-on preview we had with the title, it seems to be shaping up quite nicely and meshes together both old and new elements from the longtime series.
We'll see how the final product turns out when Assassin's Creed Valhalla released on November 10 for Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, PS4, and Stadia, before later coming to PS5 on November 12.
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On October 28, Sony revealed the launch commercial for PS5 with an international version and two Japanese versions, and it's not hard to notice that the latter both have way fewer cuts with black people than the international one. The PS5 launch international trailer is 1-minute long, while the Japanese trailer has two versions; a 30-second cut, and a "long" version, but even the long version is conspicuously 10 seconds shorter than the international one. If you watch all three side-by-side, you'll notice most of the cuts missing from both Japanese versions are the ones with black people.
The first scene in the international version is a black little girl watching a space launch on TV, followed by a shot of a black astronaut in training, hinting that it's her grown-up version. Both shots are missing from the Japanese versions. Then, at 00:28 in the normal version, you've got a short cut of again, a black astronaut, this time in zero G. That one is also missing from the Japanese version. That black person in the snow a few seconds later? Gone in the Japanese commercials. The sole shot with a black person left in the Japanese version is the very short cut during the space launch, with the camera trembling. Oh, and that Middle Eastern-looking guy in the desert? Also gone from the Japanese version.
As a black person, it's not like I'm surprised by this turn of events; I just find this situation hilarious. It's quite a fun coincidence that all the shots removed to make the commercials shorter ended up being those with black people. It could be on purpose, it could be a coincidence; it doesn't necessarily surprise me either way. But I haven't laughed that much at a similar case since my first time seeing the Star Wars: The Force Awakens' Chinese poster and its try-hard attempt to hide John Boyega.
In addition, Japan has pretty complex discrimination issues; like, how actual Japanese people are discriminated against because of their surnames. Or the racism towards Koreans, Chinese, Brazilian, Japanese, etc. And then of course, black people. Not every Japanese person thinks this way, obviously, but a lot of Japanese people tend to admire white Caucasian people from the United States and Western Europe, with beauty standards inclining towards pale skin. That's one of the reasons which led to that Nissan commercial, where Naomi Osaka appeared considerably whiter than how she actually looks. With that in mind, it's not so much of a coincidence that there are more white people than black in the PS5 Japanese launch commercials.
At the same time, it's not like Japan is still completely under every racist stereotype. In fact, there are multiple black artists in the Japanese media space. Obviously, we've got Naomi Osaka or Crystal Kay. Those of you who watched Japanese TV in the late 2000s definitely know about Enka singer Jero, too. We have personalities like Ike Nwala, who shows Japanese kids every morning on TV in Tokyo that black people actually exist. We also have Avu chan and Ruri chan from the popular band Queen Bee. It's not like Japan is still completely unused to black people at this point. However, it looks like the Sony Japanese marketing team didn't entertain the idea of having some melanin mixed in their commercials.
PS5 Launch Trailer International Version, Japanese Versions
Lastly, I'd also add that I find it interesting (and in some ways funny) how Sony and other game studios have been profusely pushing black people and characters in trailers and footage these past months ever since BLM exploded. That was something noticeable with the trailers released during the "Summer of Gaming" time frame, but this situation falls in contrast to that. I'm obviously against all forms of discrimination and support BLM, but to me the marketing pretty much became the racism-free version of "I have black friends," which only goes so far to actually address these issues. Especially when we got to a point where Sony released a PS4 theme about it. We want more action than words.
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Final Fantasy XVI – Everything We Learned On The World And Characters
On October 29, Square Enix and Final Fantasy XVI Producer Naoki Yoshida explained the world and characters of the PS5 JRPG, with the official site finally opening, and a short post on PlayStation Blog. New key visuals and illustrations were published as well. We detailed everything below.
Final Fantasy XVI is set in the world of Valisthea, a world blessed in the light of the Mothercrystals. They're the usual Final Fantasy crystals, but huuuuuge. They're actual mountains towering across the realms for generations, and blessing them with Aether, the energy source of the world. Aether allows people to use Magicks which provides them comfortable lives.
The history of Valisthea is riddled with countless wars over the Mothercrystals. Six great powers have formed around each Mothercrystal, and an uneasy peace of long reigned between them, with occasional skirmishes. However, this peace is now threatened by the spread of the ruinous Blight. What the Blight actually is though, Square Enix and Naoki Yoshida didn't elaborate yet.
Following next is an explanation of Eikons, such as that Phoenix seen in the reveal trailer. Eikons are the most powerful creatures in Valisthea, the world of Final Fantasy XVI. Naoki Yoshida explained Eikons are the usual classic Final Fantasy summons. So far, Phoenix, Shiva, Titan and Ifrit, were revealed. However, he didn't specify yet how many Eikons there will be in total.
Eikons reside in persons called Dominants, who are able to harness their power. Dominants are either revered leaders of the great powers, or feared and enslaved as tools of war. Sometimes even assassinated. Dominants cannot escape their fate. Plus, it looks like Dominants can also allow normal people to use part of their Eikon's power.
There are six realms, or great powers, in Valisthea
Note that the names of the Eikons for the Dominants in Sanbreque and Waloed were purposefully hidden by Square Enix.
The Grand Duchy of Rosaria
Long ago, a group of small independent provinces in western Valisthea found strength in unity, and formed the Grand Duchy of Rosaria. After years of relative prosperity, the duchy now finds itself threatened by the spread of the Blight—a threat that, left unchecked, would doubtless usher the realm to ruin. Rosaria draws its aether from Drake's Breath, a Mothercrystal situated on a volcanic island off the coast. The Dominant of the Phoenix, Eikon of Fire, is enthroned as Archduke when they come of age.
The Holy Empire of Sanbreque
Sanbreque is the largest theocratic force in Valisthea. The Empire's holy capital Oriflamme is built around Drake's Head, the Mothercrystal that blesses the surrounding provinces with abundant aether. The people happily take advantage of this, living in comfort and security under the watchful gaze of the Holy Emperor, whom they worship as the living incarnation of the one true deity. The Dominant of ****** serves as the empire's champion, taking to the field in times of war to rout its enemies.
The Kingdom of Waloed
Waloed claims the entirety of Ash, the eastern half of Valisthea, as its dominion. The kingdom's control of the continent has oft been tested by the orcs and other beastmen who make their home there, but the current ruler of the realm—Dominant of ****** —has succeeded in quelling their rebellions. Using the power of the kingdom's Mothercrystal, Drake's Spine, this new king has built up a mighty army, with which he now seeks to test the borders of his neighbors.
The Dhalmekian Republic
The Dhalmekian Republic is made up of five states, from which the members of its ruling parliament are drawn. Its Mothercrystal, Drake's Fang, is half-hidden in the heart of a mountain range—the republic's control over it, and its aether, securing the obedience of the large part of southern Valisthea. The Dominant of Titan, Eikon of Earth, is installed as a special advisor to parliament and has a significant say in its decision-making.
The Iron Kingdom
A small group of islands off the coast of Storm, the western half of Valisthea's twin realms. Here the Crystalline Orthodox, an extreme faith that worships crystals, reigns supreme. The Iron Kingdom controls Drake's Breath, the Mothercrystal that sits at the heart of one of their islands—long a source of contention with neighboring Rosaria. Isolated and aloof from the mainland nations, the Ironblood speak their own language. Orthodox doctrine judges Dominants to be unholy abominations, and any unlucky enough to be born on the islands are executed.
The Crystalline Dominion
The Crystalline Dominion sits at the heart of Valisthea, built around the tallest of all the Mothercrystals, Drake's Tail. Many bloody battles were fought for control of this small plot of land due to its strategic importance, till the warring realms finally agreed to an armistice. As part of the peace treaty, the islands around Drake's Tail became an autonomous dominion led by a council of representatives from the surrounding nations—each realm enjoying equal claim to the Mothercrystal's blessing. No Dominant makes their home there.
Meet the main protagonist and main characters of Final Fantasy XVI
The main protagonist of Final Fantasy XVI is named Clive Rosfield
The firstborn son of the Archduke of Rosaria. Though all expected him to inherit the Phoenix's flames and awaken as its Dominant, destiny instead chose his younger brother Joshua to bear this burden. In search of a role of his own, Clive dedicated himself to mastering the blade. His practice pays off when, at just fifteen years of age, he wins the ducal tournament and is dubbed the First Shield of Rosaria—tasked to guard the Phoenix and blessed with the ability to wield a part of his fire. Alas, Clive's promising career is to end in tragedy at the hands of a mysterious dark Eikon, Ifrit, setting him on a dangerous road to revenge.
Following Clive, we have his little brother Joshua
The second son of the Archduke of Rosaria and Clive's younger brother by five years. Joshua awoke as the Dominant of the Phoenix soon after his birth. Despite his noble upbringing, Joshua treats all his father's subjects with warmth and affection—none more so than Clive, whom he deeply admires. Joshua often laments that it was he, the frail and bookish younger son, who was granted command of the firebird's flames, and not his stronger, braver brother. While Clive will gladly throw himself into any danger, Joshua quails at the sight of a carrot on his dinner plate. But carrots become the least of his concern when he, too, is swept up into the tragic events that change Clive's life forever.
Lastly, we have Jill Warrick, the childhood friend of Clive and Joshua
Born in the fallen Northern Territories, Jill was taken from her homeland at a tender age to become a ward of Rosaria, securing peace between the two warring nations. The Archduke insisted that she be raised alongside his sons, and now, at twelve years of age, she is as much a part of the Rosfield household as Clive and Joshua. Ever kind, gracious, and unassuming, Jill has become a trusted confidant to the brothers.
Final Fantasy XVI has been in development for at least 4 years. Most of the Final Fantasy 16 development team is currently working from home, and the scenario is done. Ryota Suzuki, who worked on Devil May Cry 5's battle system at Capcom, previously explained his role as Battle Director of Final Fantasy XVI.
Square Enix previously published messages from Naoki Yohida and Director Hiroshi Takai, and stated bigger information on the game is coming in 2021. Naoki Yoshida again stated in the new PlayStation Blog article that the next big announcement for FF16 will be in 2021.
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Uncharted Movie has Wrapped Up Filming, Mark Wahlberg Teases Sully's Outfit
After beginning initial filming earlier this summer, it was announced today that the shooting of Sony's Uncharted movie has now completed.
The official Uncharted movie account posted to Twitter this morning announcing that the principal photography of the project has wrapped up. An image was posted alongside showing off a clapperboard from the film to go along with a prop that resembles Nathan Drake's iconic ring necklace.
Sic Parvis Magna. That's a wrap on #UnchartedMovie. pic.twitter.com/0BmG5oHCsk
— Uncharted (@unchartedmovie) October 29, 2020
In proximity to the revelation that filming has now finished, Mark Wahlberg, who is set to play Victor Sullivan in the movie, also took to Twitter to share something that will surely juice up many Uncharted fans. Wahlberg shared an image of a button-down shirt that greatly resembles the same kind that Sully wears in Uncharted 3. A cigar, which Sully is almost constantly smoking in the video game franchise, can also be seen sitting in an ashtray in the picture's foreground. While many have been somewhat critical of Wahlberg playing the part of Sully, at least it looks as though they're going to nail the visual aesthetic of the character.
Here we go, kid. @unchartedmovie @Naughty_Dog pic.twitter.com/xpL7etW6qf
— Mark Wahlberg (@markwahlberg) October 29, 2020
With filming now wrapped, hopefully, it won't be long until we get a look at Uncharted in a formal movie trailer. Despite the fact that most video game movies don't turn out to be that good, the film's star power with Holland and Wahlberg should at least make it a fun romp.
Uncharted is set to hit theaters next year on July 16, 2021.
The post Uncharted Movie has Wrapped Up Filming, Mark Wahlberg Teases Sully's Outfit by Logan Moore appeared first on DualShockers.
NBA 2K21 Adds WNBA MyPlayer On PS5 and Xbox Series X
Since the team at 2K Sports put the WNBA into its NBA series, many fans have been waiting for the company to add a women's version of the popular MyPlayer mode. Today, they revealed that dream is finally coming to reality when NBA 2K21 launches on PS5 and Xbox Series X. The W will let players create their own WNBA player and turn her into one of the league's greatest stars. Give the announcement trailer a watch below.
This is a great addition to NBA 2K21. We've slowly seen companies like 2K and EA Sports adding in different aspects of women's basketball and soccer. Until now, EA had probably taken it the furthest by making women's soccer such an integral part of The Journey's story mode back in FIFA 19. However, we've yet to see anyone try fully capture the sport like 2K is doing here.
Not only can fans create their own WNBA superstar and guide their career, but they'll also be able to hop online and test their skills. The W Online is a 3v3 multiplayer mode where you and some friends compete against other teams. It comes with its own exclusive court that will surely look phenomenal on next-gen hardware.
Of course, all the new WNBA additions are far from the only thing coming to the next-gen version of NBA 2K21. Players can expect improvements across the board. This is far from a visual update. Fortunately, fans don't have to wait much longer to try it all out for themselves.
NBA 2K21 comes to Xbox Series X on November 10 and PS4 on November 12. And if you just can't wait, the game is currently available on Nintendo Switch, PC, PS4, and Xbox One now.
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Halo 3 Player Continues to Turn The Game Into a Platformer
I wrote about ClearlyMe and their insane jumps in Halo 3 earlier this month, but here we are again. The trick jumper has put together a new clip, proving that with enough time and effort, the classic Halo title can be turned into a platformer.
Halo 3 players may remember Rat's Nest, a large sprawling map set inside a UNSC base. There's a bit of the map though that peeks out from the mountainside facility, giving players a view of a Pelican landing pad, although it's pretty far out of reach. Not for ClearlyMe though. Using a rocket, a grenade and some debris, they've managed to hopscotch across a massive pit and over an invisible wall to stand where no other Spartan has stood before, at least outside of Forge mode.
The Most Useless Thing I've Done On Halo (Part 523) pic.twitter.com/vFbVuhZut3
— ClearlyMe ® (@ClearIyMe) October 28, 2020
In all, this may be one of ClearlyMe's most impressive jumps yet. Not only did it require precise timing, but their aim also had to be perfect. The rocket had to blow up that security barrier in just the right way, and that plasma grenade had to send a traffic cone in the same direction to be jumped off of without looking at it. I don't want to imagine the countless hours that went into getting all of these moving parts into place.
If you want to see more of ClearlyMe's trick jumps, you can follow them on Twitter or check out their YouTube channel here, where they upload trick jump montages as well.
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Teardown Officially Launches on Steam
For many, the first time they heard about Teardown was at Gamescom Opening Night Live 2020. The gameplay trailer for the destruction indie game had people excited to explore a stylized and completely destructible world. As of this morning, Teardown is finally available on Steam.
In a tweet from Dennis Gustafsson, the founder of Tuxedo Labs studio, he announced that Teardown was officially available on Steam by saying, "we pushed the button!" Additionally, the tweet contained a video of footage from the game of the player driving, shooting, and smashing their way through obstacle after obstacle until finally arriving at a wall that reads: "Teardown available now on Steam."
We pushed the button! pic.twitter.com/arJn3BaNjV
— Dennis Gustafsson (@tuxedolabs) October 29, 2020
This announcement doesn't mean that the game is entirely finished, however. Teardown is in early access which means that content is going to be dished out periodically until the official launch of the game.
Tuxedo Labs has used an interesting marketing strategy for the game by creating a few promotional materials using in-game assets and physics. In addition to the announcement from this morning, the release date was also announced in a Twitter video that had the player character touching up some spray paint that when pulled out revealed the date "October 29."
Gustafsson's Twitter account has all sorts of behind the scenes content including this dev diary of screenshots showing his three-year journey on making the game. The transformation from being just a handful of physics cubes to a full 3-D world happens before your eyes and is pretty remarkable.
As new features get added to the game, Gustaffson will tweet about them showcasing exactly what they can do. In September, he showed off Teardown's racetrack as well as its car physics.
Race track confirmed! pic.twitter.com/uYJG2R2CtN
— Dennis Gustafsson (@tuxedolabs) September 1, 2020
To stay up to date on all things Teardown make sure to stay right here on DualShockers and check out this overview of the game from when it was shown off at Opening Night Live.
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The Dark Pictures: Little Hope Review — Something Wicked This Way Comes
Atmosphere is the glue that holds the story, characters, and monsters together in horror games and Dark Pictures: Little Hope creates the kind of atmosphere that one should expect from Until Dawn developers Supermassive Games. From the moment the game starts until its credits roll, Little Hope is painted with an oppressive atmosphere that's dripping with mystery and intrigue.
Dark Pictures: Little Hope is the second installment in the Dark Pictures Anthology and was preceded by Dark Pictures: Man of Medan. It seems like Supermassive Games learned from some of their missteps in Man of Medan to create an entry in the series that has me excited to see what comes next.
The game is a part of the "interactive film" genre of gaming, one known for entries such as Heavy Rain, Telltale's The Walking Dead, and Until Dawn; games not defined by their gameplay per se, but by their ability to tell engaging stories.
Luckily, Little Hope's story is engaging and starts with a bang. That bang comes in the form of a crashing school bus just outside of a North East American ghost town named Little Hope. After the crash, the shaken passengers venture into the town to try and find help. However, as the name of the town may suggest, help may be out of reach. The cast is tormented by visions of witch trials from the town's bloody past and monsters that chase them through the dilapidated town of the present.
Following Man of Medan, Little Hope is also told like it's being read from a book by the mysterious "Curator," played by Pip Torrens, who checks in with the player periodically throughout the game to either praise or scold them depending on the choices they've made and to impart little bits of wisdom. His study serves as a nice refuge from the waking nightmare that is the town of Little Hope, however, he occasionally makes you doubt your choices making your relationship with him a trepidatious one at best.
Throughout its playtime, Little Hope is pretty scary. Something that Supermassive Games understands well is that monsters in horror games stay scary when the player can never seem to get a good look at them. Because characters are being chased through the woods or abandoned buildings, they never really see their pursuers with any sort of clarity. Players catch a glimpse here and there, but at the end of the day, what you can't see is always more frightening than what you can.
With that being said, it's unfortunate that Little Hope feels like it needs to rely so heavily on jumpscares. Some of them are absolutely earned and extremely effective, but there gets to be a certain point when you've grown numb to being startled. It's tense enough without them, so their inclusion doesn't always make sense because, towards the end of the game, they start becoming predictable.
The gameplay mechanics present in all of Supermassive's other interactive films are present in Little Hope, however, they've been refined. For example, quick-time events have an interesting new feature that tells the player what action each button press will do before it happens. This gives the player more notice on when a quick-time event is coming meaning that they'll have a much likelier chance of doing it correctly and lowers the possibility of a late-game death due to a missed button prompt.
Additionally, the areas of exploration are generally much smaller than they have been in the past, meaning that it's pretty simple to find a large majority of the 50 hidden clues that help piece the mystery together in a single playthrough.
The problems that Man of Medan and Until Dawn had with shifting camera angles are still present. As the camera moves around to give the game a more cinematic look, the controls change to match the fixed camera angle, which is usually disorienting and breaks the flow of movement. It makes areas hard to navigate, especially in tight corridors and small rooms. The overall look and idea is cool, however, it gets immediately less cool when the player character walks directly into a wall.
Man of Medan took the totem system from Until Dawn that pretty much told the player which choices to make in order to keep everyone alive and replaced it with the titular Dark Pictures that don't explicitly tell the player what to do. Instead, they offer a glimpse into the future and say nothing about if what they show is good or bad. In Little Hope, they're equally unclear, but still tell the player, "Hey, this is going to be important, so make sure you really think about it when it comes up." The mechanic works the best it ever has in Little Hope and will hopefully be implemented similarly in future Dark Picture installments.
The decision making and dialogue choices are still around from past games and remain to be a majority of what you do throughout Little Hope. As you choose responses, you unlock character traits for each individual person which then dictates how they react in situations when you're not controlling them. It still works great and feels like you are having a direct impact on the story.
Each time you directly impact the narrative, the game updates its "bearings" and you can see what actions led to what results. It's a formula that's worked for Supermassive in the past and it continues to work well in Little Hope.
As you jump around between characters, you also start developing hidden agendas for each of them and you begin to feel like you're the writer of the story instead of merely being a participant in it. It's an interesting effect that makes each playthrough feel unique. Those hidden agendas come into play when you're making important choices that sometimes will save someone's life or cost them it.
The story of Dark Pictures: Little Hope revolves around four college students and their professor as they try to escape the ghost town they mistakenly thought would contain help. Because it's so reliant on story and characters, the animations need to be top-notch in order to convey the subtly and the range of the actors' emotions. In some spots, the game is great in that regard highlighting the standout performance from horror veteran Will Poulter, but in many places, animations seem stiff and unnatural.
The terror and atmosphere are certainly gripping, but those moments are sometimes ruined by the "seams" of the game starting to show. Because of the interactive nature of Little Hope, the game needs to create a route through the story that encompasses all of the player's choices. However, there are times when those choices don't entirely match the story that Supermassive Games wanted to tell.
For example, there are scenes when different groups of characters split up, despite all of them agreeing that that's how you get killed in horror movies, and who goes in what group is decided by player choice. In one of my playthroughs, three people went one way and two went the other. One scene felt like it was missing dialogue from a third character and the other scene consisted of two characters talking to each other and one interjecting with seemingly unconnected ideas.
Additionally, towards the end of my second playthrough, someone had died in a previous scene and then showed up for a few camera angles like they were a part of the group again. At first, I thought it was an intentional scare, but when no one mentioned it and when the character didn't do anything out of the ordinary, I realized that it was simply a mistake on the development side.
That sort of thing isn't always immediately noticeable until you've played the game more than once, however. Additionally, I seemed to have more trouble with it playing the "Curator's Cut" of the game. The Curator's Cut was introduced in Dark Pictures: Man of Medan alongside the game's online "Don't Play Alone" mode. The cut simulates the experience of playing the game with others online by having you play through alternate scenes and character perspectives that are only available through the online mode.
The problem, however, is that in subsequent playthroughs, I wanted to experience the options that were opposite of the choices I made in my first. Because I was playing the same scenes as different characters, I felt like I had less agency for making certain choices. There were multiple times when I wanted to see what would happen if I had done the opposite of what I did in my first playthrough, but now that I was playing as a different character, I didn't get to make that choice and the NPC chose the option I chose the first time.
To me, part of the reason I want to replay these types of games is to see what happens if I made a different decision, but by playing the Curator's Cut or if I were playing online, I didn't always get to see those options which meant that I would have to do another playthrough on my own if I really wanted to see everything.
There definitely is replayability for Little Hope, but in my experience with choice-based games, you start to realize how little your choices actually matter in the end. Don't get me wrong, there are some things that are huge in terms of consequence, but not everything is as far-reaching as the game might make it appear.
Clocking in between four and five hours, the short length of the game encourages players to, as the Curator reminds them, try again for different outcomes. It's the perfect length for that sort of thing, but if you truly want a different experience, I'd recommend skipping the online modes and just trying to make your own opposite choices.
The biggest problem that Dark Pictures: Little Hope has is that there's no way for it to avoid being compared to Until Dawn, but that doesn't mean that it's a bad game, just not quite as solid as Supermassive's first entry in the genre.
There are certain things that don't quite connect and a handful of plot holes that stick out, but Dark Pictures: Little Hope is definitely worth your time if you're a fan of the genre or liked Until Dawn and were disappointed with Man of Medan. It's a game that's best enjoyed when being played with a group of people to shout out which decisions to make and pass the controller around. At its best, Little Hope is chilling and gripping and creates an internal conflict in the player between wanting to press on and being too scared to see what lies behind the next door.
The post The Dark Pictures: Little Hope Review — Something Wicked This Way Comes by Peter Hunt Szpytek appeared first on DualShockers.