During a demo event, MeinMMO author Robert got a first look at The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, the spiritual successor to Until Dawn. This mix of horror and Titanic romance plays out on an old WWII warship, complete with inevitable demise.
What is The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan anyway? Anyone who has played Supermassive’s Until Dawn will find it easy to acclimate. Five friends go on a diving trip complete with a barbecue, soon confronting the inherent horrors of teen horror movies.
The player’s influence includes alternating control of the five friends, exploring the hostile environment, and making far-reaching decisions that impact the survival of the protagonists.
Unlike Until Dawn, you will deal with fewer friends (five), but even more creative death animations. Instead of the “creepy cabin in the woods” setting, Man of Medan places you on an old WWII warship whose crew has mysteriously vanished.
Your goal is to escape the ship in one piece. Depending on the choices you make during the dozens of sequences, all friends can even survive. I had the chance to try out the first 90 minutes of Man of Medan during a demo event.
Anyone wanting to know more about what distinguishes Man of Medan from Until Dawn should definitely read this article:
The story: A diving trip goes wrong
Here’s what it’s about: Five friends meet for a diving trip on a ship. The first few minutes reveal that the clichéd depiction of the protagonists can stand up to Until Dawn.
There’s the lovestruck couple, consisting of the star football player of the school and the cheerleader queen, the boring warnings, and the awkward, inadvertently comic Casanova. Rounding it off is of course the nerd.
Granted, it sounds exaggerated, but that’s exactly the point, so you can quickly build a bond with the characters, for better or worse. Specifically, a lot of time is dedicated to the lovestruck couple at the high school prom in a Titanic manner.
The demo event showcased events before the group reaches the ghost ship from World War II. The interaction between friends and an initial taste of the decisions players can make were the focus.
Apparently, it wasn’t possible to let a character die at this point, which I personally found disappointing, as the clumsy Casanova was particularly annoying.
Graphics: Fantastic facial animations
This is what The Man of Medan looks like: Particularly facial animations and special effects are crucial in horror games. Both areas are done very well by Supermassive. Every skin imperfection was visible in the characters’ faces, with expressions being relatable and lifelike.
However, the detailed facial features revealed themselves only after a short wait, which I personally found disturbing. While the faces were not muddy, the abrupt transition to detailed skin contours was quite noticeable. I hope Supermassive resolves this issue by the release.
The weather effects and water animations were also very pleasant to see and provided a believable immersion.
Gameplay: Clunky on the ghost ship
This is how the characters control in the game world: Your task is to lead the characters through the scenes and interact with various objects or other protagonists. Personally, I found the control to be clunky and abrupt. An aspect that Detroit: Become Human handles much better.
Whether the control will remain this way or is due to an early build will only become clear at release.
The interaction with various objects in the game world was not always smooth for me. Various sticks and buttons on the controller can be used to perform different interactions with an object. For example, you can flip postcards or “swipe” through a picture gallery on a digital camera.
If you’re not aware of the interaction possibilities with the objects, you’ll simply overlook some things.
How scary is The Man of Medan?
Here’s how good the horror effects are: In the first scene, we players experienced events on the warship that made it a first-class ghost ship. I found it noteworthy in this situation that the horror was audible but not visible.
You wandered through the ship’s corridors, could observe the effects of a serious incident, but not the cause. This indeed created a tense atmosphere. Only at the end did we meet the presumed cause of the sailors’ mass death, which, however, did not truly evoke fear.
As only the first 90 minutes could be played, I experienced only two minor jump scare effects. The true horror will likely only be assessable when players are allowed to explore the ship.
The Man of Medan and the decisions – Master of life and death?
This is how your decisions influence the gameplay: During the demo event, I could observe my neighbor making decisions and the consequences they had.
Since my colleague was about two minutes ahead of me, I could immediately test how the gameplay varied with different choices. In my observations, Man of Medan distinguishes between two categories of decisions:
- Minor decisions that give the gameplay a slightly different course but do not change the outcome of the situation itself. In the opening scene, I had the choice to hide or investigate my companion. In both cases, the outcome of the situation remained the same, but the path there was different.
- Major decisions that directly impact the life and death of friends. This need not focus on a specific situation. The consequences of certain decisions may only become clear much later.
The twist: You often cannot recognize the significance of your decisions; you do not necessarily know whether you just made a minor or a major decision.
The Man of Medan – Coop modes
How can Man of Medan be played? For the first time, you can choose between the pure single-player mode and two different cooperative modes, which have different frameworks:
- Shared Story: Play online with another player. Depending on the situation, your decisions have an immediate impact on your counterpart – with all its positive and negative consequences.
- Movie Night: Control one of the protagonists with up to a total of 5 players. The controller is passed according to the scene. Whoever dies is out!
Specifically, the Movie Night mode should provide an evening program for friends and promise lots of fun, especially when a careless decision leads to another player’s demise. That’s guaranteed to create disputes! The cooperative modes are undoubtedly the highlight of Man of Medan, especially for cowards who don’t want to play alone.
How long is the playtime of Man of Medan?
According to Game Director Tom Heaton, a playthrough is said to last about four hours. Due to the significantly increased and varied types of deaths compared to Until Dawn, there should be a strong incentive to play Man of Medan multiple times.
There are supposedly 69 different types of deaths to be seen, as Producer Pete Samuels revealed in a conversation with PlayStation Blog. For comparison: In Until Dawn, there were 38 with 8 friends.
By the way, there are a few gameplay scenes here:
When does Man of Medan come out and on what platforms? Man of Medan is the first episode of “The Dark Pictures Anthology” and is set to release on August 30, 2019, on PC, PlayStation 4, and Xbox One. The episodes of the anthology are thematically unrelated.
Have you had a chance to get an impression of Man of Medan? How do you like it?
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