The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me

The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me concludes the first season of Supermassive Games' horror anthology with the story of a film crew shooting a documentary about serial killers, who are invited to a remote hotel inspired by the real historical figure of the murderer H. H. Holmes. The gameplay again builds on branching dialogues, quick-time events, and decisions affecting the survival of individual characters, but this time with the novelty of free movement around the rooms and interaction with objects that can be collected, photographed, and used to resolve situations or to unlock shortcuts for further playthroughs.

The hotel, full of hidden traps, secret passages, and mechanical devices, references the real inventions of its historical inspiration and gives the setting a morbid, playful sense of dread, where the player must learn to read warning signs before a trap springs shut. On PlayStation 5, the game offers detailed Victorian-style interiors and carefully lit scenes, where the interplay of light and shadow both reveals and conceals danger, and the sound design skillfully works with the creaking of gears, distant cracking of wood, and the quiet clicking of trigger mechanisms. Cooperative modes allow the story to be followed from multiple angles at once with other players, with each character having access to different parts of the hotel.

Devil in Me was received as a fitting conclusion to the series' first season thanks to its return to a more explicit slasher style after the more psychological previous entries and its greater emphasis on exploring the environment. Critics praised the inventive mechanical hotel as a game setting, although some pointed to technical issues at launch. Today the game is interesting mainly as a demonstration of how classic slasher clichés can be transformed into interactive storytelling with a real risk of losing a favorite character at any point during play.

Why play it: For fans of the classic slasher, the inventive mechanical hotel and the real risk of losing a favorite character make for an interesting conclusion to the anthology's first season, despite minor technical issues.