The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes drops five people into a buried Akkadian temple and asks a simple question: will they trust each other long enough to climb out? Supermassive Games built the third entry in its horror anthology around that question, and the answer changes depending on how you play.
Trailer, via Bandai Namco Entertainment America.
Five Protagonists, One Hole in the Ground
House of Ashes is an interactive drama and survival horror game played from a third-person perspective. Control switches between five protagonists during the 2003 invasion of Iraq: CIA officer Rachel King, played by Ashley Tisdale; her husband, U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Eric King; Marines Sgt. Nick Kay and 1stLt. Jason Kolchek; and Salim Othman, a soldier of the Iraqi Republican Guard.
The unit is hunting for chemical weapons. What it finds instead is a nest of vampiric creatures that have been hibernating underground for millennia, surfacing only to feed on their victims’ adrenaline. Trapped beneath the Arabian desert, Americans and their enemy have to fight as one.
Managing relationships is the core mechanic. Characters can stay amicable and work to keep everyone alive, or split off and worry about their own safety. The proverb “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” runs through the whole story.
Quick Time Events and a New Difficulty Setting
House of Ashes keeps the anthology’s staples: QTEs, two single-player modes, two multiplayer modes, and collectibles that show visions of possible future events. It is the first game in the series to add difficulty levels, which affect the QTEs. Players can hold rather than mash buttons, and they can give themselves more time to respond.
Some QTEs ask you to dodge an obstacle or stay calm while hiding. Others put a reticle on a target to shoot it. Miss the timing and a protagonist can die permanently. A notice appears before each one, showing what kind of action is coming.
New features include a more interactive camera system and a handheld light source for easier navigation. Jason Graves composed the soundtrack during COVID-19 lockdowns in the United Kingdom.
Jason and Salim Carry the Story
Two dynamics hold House of Ashes together. One is Rachel’s romantic triangle with Eric and Nick, which can cause serious problems between the three after a year apart. The other is Jason and Salim.
Jason enlisted after the September 11 attacks. He is Islamophobic, haunted by memories of ordering the shooting of an unarmed civilian at a checkpoint. Salim is a father who wants to reunite with his son. Their animosity can turn into friendship, and Salim can help Jason overcome his prejudices.
That second thread is the best writing in the game. It gives the co-operation theme a face instead of a mechanic.
What Works and What Doesn’t
The prologue sets the table well. It takes place in 2231 BC, as a Gutian army prepares to invade the capital Akkad and a solar eclipse lets the vampires beneath the temple emerge and massacre both armies. The Curator then introduces himself in his library and explains the decision-making and pictures systems.
The monster logic is thinner. The game’s timeline says a spaceship carrying thousands of large, bat-like aliens crashed in the former territory of the Akkadian Empire, and a parasite gestating in the host’s body mutated them into vampires vulnerable to ultraviolet light. It is a lot of explanation for creatures that work better as a shadow.
The five leads also split the attention. Tisdale was marketed as the game’s leading actress, but Rachel’s story is the least interesting of the group.
House of Ashes sits in the middle of the anthology. It is not the sharpest of the standalone stories, and the creature backstory overexplains what the setting already sells. But the Jason and Salim arc, plus difficulty options that make the QTEs fair, make this the entry worth recommending to anyone who skipped the series.
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