Main game
2.99 average rating based on 805 ratings
I enjoyed Until Dawn. The characters here are slightly more interesting but the plot is less varied. It seems like the divergent narrative paths don't really reveal different aspects of the backstory. The gameplay is serviceable from a mechanical perspective (I enjoy the fixed camera angles, which contribute to the cinematic tone) and there are plenty of jump scares; I also appreciate the fact that the developers included a couch co-op mode. It's fine for what it is but doesn't expand on the Until Dawn interactive film formula so much as it just recasts it with adult characters and something of a frame narrative. I'm looking forward to seeing how the developers continue to explore this framework and hope they can build something truly great.
Played a physical copy on PlayStation 4 at a friend's house with 3 other players.
I love every game supermassive has made. I love the formula. This was no different. The only negative I can say about it is that I didn't know any of the actors, but that's personal to my experience.
I LOVE CHOICE GAMES I... nah this mediocre as hell. i'm seeing a pattern here with dark pictures anthology games. their stories aren't good, but the choice aspect is really good.
Choice and consequence games will always be tense and anxiety-inducing which is why it works perfectly with horror. Even when the story is weak, it's still fun, and Man of Medan's story is weak. Their approach to horror is so lazy. They just throw in several pointless jump scares that don't have any affect on the characters.
I almost made it out with all the characters, but I lost a character because of a cheap QTE event.
Gameplay= Mechanics, gameplay options (freedom), repetition, goals, difficulty
Story= plot, engagement, characters, world-building
Presentation= graphics, animation, environment/character design, Art direction, Script, music
Gameplay: 3/5
Story: 3.5/5
Presentation: 3/5
I’m a big fan of Until Dawn but have not been impressed by any of Supermassive’s follow-up work. Hidden Agenda & Inpatient both felt like short and underbaked side projects and not successful iteration on the things I liked about Until Dawn: the branching narratives, the creative and tense QTEs, the psychological profiling the game does on you the player, and the great mesh between a watchable a playable game for groups. Man of Medan wears its lower budget on its sleeve compared to Until Dawn but I’m happy to say that it feels like a solid follow-up. Passing a controller and playing with a small group was my favorite way to play Until Dawn and Man of Medan fully embraces that with two entirely different ways to play co-op. The QTEs aren’t quite as creative this time around as the game is not exclusive to one platform and cannot lean into unique controller features like the light strip on PS4. The branching isn’t nearly as robust this time around and the game is a much shorter experience overall but this is matched by a lower price-tag. I hope the game does well enough to make more “Dark Pictures Anthology” …
Read MoreI’m a big fan of Until Dawn but have not been impressed by any of Supermassive’s follow-up work. Hidden Agenda & Inpatient both felt like short and underbaked side projects and not successful iteration on the things I liked about Until Dawn: the branching narratives, the creative and tense QTEs, the psychological profiling the game does on you the player, and the great mesh between a watchable a playable game for groups. Man of Medan wears its lower budget on its sleeve compared to Until Dawn but I’m happy to say that it feels like a solid follow-up. Passing a controller and playing with a small group was my favorite way to play Until Dawn and Man of Medan fully embraces that with two entirely different ways to play co-op. The QTEs aren’t quite as creative this time around as the game is not exclusive to one platform and cannot lean into unique controller features like the light strip on PS4. The branching isn’t nearly as robust this time around and the game is a much shorter experience overall but this is matched by a lower price-tag. I hope the game does well enough to make more “Dark Pictures Anthology” series games beyond the already-announced sequel and that we continue to get more games in this unique style.
Read LessEnjoyable enough, tho the game is very short...! Still prefer Until Dawn....! Excited for Little Hope.
story: 1/5 gameplay 2/5 dialogue 2/5 graphics 2/5 atmospheric/immersive: no surpassed expectations: no
It's a short game, but with an interesting storyline, with many jumpscars along the way and many choices to make in each action has a consequence, which makes you want to play again to see a different path after completing the game for the first time. My only downside to this game is the speed with which the buttons appear and the amount of time left to the player to perform the action.
Finished the Theatrical Cut last night, fun game however the cast are largely forgettable and the controls feel real stiff. Still got some good scares in with a few creepy twists, i'll give the Curator's Cut a crack tonight.
The last time I put together an Extra Life group, our pillar game was Until Dawn. We played a host of party and co-op games leading to that, but then we played Until Dawn, well, until dawn.
Needless to say, it was fun. And in addition to all the titles people are recommending to me in the forums, we are looking for another game that gives us a similar experience. What was fun about Until Dawn was the sometimes absurd acting and story lines, the general mayhem of that type of horror and the fact that we could make decisions together.
Our first candidate obviously needs to be Man of Medan, especially now that Supermassive allows each player to contribute to the decision process directly. If it has the same mix of horror, camp and absurdity as Until Dawn, we will thoroughly enjoy ourselves.
Another candidate is Detroit Become Human. It probably won't contain quite as much intentional humour as Until Dawn, but it might be fun to collectively take the piss out of the writing and absurd choices that David Cage believes makes for quality storytelling.
I am open to other suggestions if anyone has any, but it might …
The last time I put together an Extra Life group, our pillar game was Until Dawn. We played a host of party and co-op games leading to that, but then we played Until Dawn, well, until dawn.
Needless to say, it was fun. And in addition to all the titles people are recommending to me in the forums, we are looking for another game that gives us a similar experience. What was fun about Until Dawn was the sometimes absurd acting and story lines, the general mayhem of that type of horror and the fact that we could make decisions together.
Our first candidate obviously needs to be Man of Medan, especially now that Supermassive allows each player to contribute to the decision process directly. If it has the same mix of horror, camp and absurdity as Until Dawn, we will thoroughly enjoy ourselves.
Another candidate is Detroit Become Human. It probably won't contain quite as much intentional humour as Until Dawn, but it might be fun to collectively take the piss out of the writing and absurd choices that David Cage believes makes for quality storytelling.
I am open to other suggestions if anyone has any, but it might come down to campy ghost ship horror that allows for collective decision making versus a bad game masquerading as high art that we can enjoy tearing into, while also collectively making decisions. The latter might be hilarious if we intentionally make all the worst possible divisions. Well, to be fair, that probably applies to both.
P.S. we will definitely be playing at least one so bad it's good games in the form of Night Trap ;-) It takes about an hour to play so we will probably play that as a lead in to one of the games above.
So I'm about 3 hours into Man of Medan on PC. Just want to warn everyone that the keyboard controls kind of suck. So if you can play with a controller do so. Also, I had a really hard to getting into the game due to some kind of problem with Windows Defender. I went into my settings and everything seemed fine. The game finally booted up and played with no issue after around 3 tries. Still don't know what was REALLY wrong... Finally, I've experienced a few audio desync issues I'm guessing due to some assets streaming. But they did fix themselves. So I'm guessing the game is best played on an SSD if you are going to play it in 4K as I was. Also, there was a little texture pop in during some cinematics, which was annoying but that also fixed itself. All of this happened after the first 1 and a half or so. So it doesn't happen right off the bat. There are some strange "jump cut" style scene transitions that I wasn't a fan of. I'm guessing these had something to do with dialogue or quicktime event choices. Don't know, but they are jarring. …
Read MoreSo I'm about 3 hours into Man of Medan on PC. Just want to warn everyone that the keyboard controls kind of suck. So if you can play with a controller do so. Also, I had a really hard to getting into the game due to some kind of problem with Windows Defender. I went into my settings and everything seemed fine. The game finally booted up and played with no issue after around 3 tries. Still don't know what was REALLY wrong... Finally, I've experienced a few audio desync issues I'm guessing due to some assets streaming. But they did fix themselves. So I'm guessing the game is best played on an SSD if you are going to play it in 4K as I was. Also, there was a little texture pop in during some cinematics, which was annoying but that also fixed itself. All of this happened after the first 1 and a half or so. So it doesn't happen right off the bat. There are some strange "jump cut" style scene transitions that I wasn't a fan of. I'm guessing these had something to do with dialogue or quicktime event choices. Don't know, but they are jarring. I've enjoyed most of my time with the game, I just wish some of the animations were better. ALOT of characters look and act like robots ALOT of the time. Also, some of the texture models, especially on faces seem a little poor. I'm not sure what native resolution they intended people to play on, but I'm guessing it wasn't 4K.
Read Less
I am going to buy this and Control today. I will convince my wife to play it with me. She will reluctantly agree, but then enjoy it immensely for about an hour. She'll never want to play it again, so it will sit on my shelf for 6 months until I have forgotten enough about it to want to do a solo run. I know all this, yet I will buy it anyway because sharing that first hour will be a lot of fun. This is generally my co-op experience. I would really like to finish Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light one day.