Game review: House of Ashes

I started playing this game on stream, game number three in The Dark Pictures Anthology. Do I like this game more than the other two? If so, why? If not, how come? Without further ado: let’s get into the review!

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A group of American marines comes across an underground nest of pure, ancient evil while trekking through the Arabian desert.

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There are five playable characters, just like that was the case with the other two games. We’ve got Eric, Salim, Jason, Nick, and Rachel. The only thing that really bothered me, however, was that they keep reusing older characters’ faces. Eric for example was the policeman in Little Hope, Clarice was Taylor (and two others) in Little Hope, Jason was Joe in Man of Medan, Nick was Brad in Man of Medan, Dar was John in Little Hope, Joey was Charlie in Man of Medan and Daniel in Little Hope. Only the main protagonists seem to be new actors and new faces. To me, it’s rather annoying that I have to get used to the same face, but with a completely different voice actor and personality in terms of a new character.

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The game controls are the exact same as the previous two. Answer either with head, heart, or nothing. You’ve got QTE’s when in a fight, hitting either X, square, circle, or triangle, or aim to shoot or stab, and the heart monitor QTE to avoid detection. Simple mechanics, nothing to complain about that. I actually still like the heart monitor QTE way more than the one they had in Until Dawn where you had to keep the controller perfectly still. That was so bloody hard, and this is very doable. So, I hope they keep these mechanics for further games.

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Just like the other games, you’ve got your fair share of secrets and pictures to find. I gotta admit that they’re a bit harder to find than in previous games. It does make it more fun to explore more, but also harder when you try to platinum the game and focus more on collecting than actually playing the game. Thus, I recommend you play the game without really looking the first time to fully experience the gameplay. What I did like about this game, in comparison with the other two, is that there were ten parts of Randolph’s Journal. After finding one part, a short cinematic will play telling you about the trials faced by Randolph Hodgson and the archaeologists that entered Naram-Sin’s temple many decades ago. And that was very well done, especially with going back to the black and white era of videos.

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All in all, I did like this game way more than Man of Medan. It had way more dialogue and more choices that I felt really mattered in order to keep them alive. Did I enjoy it more than Little Hope? Kinda hard to say, honestly. I think Little Hope was more or less a mental experience, whereas this was just nothing but trying to survive. Both had different aspects I truly liked, but if I have to choose, I’d still pick Little Hope. Nonetheless, I did enjoy this game a lot. And that’s mostly because of Jason. God, the balls that man’s got. He’s by far my fave character. The only tiny complaint I wanna end with is the saving. Once you reach a point where you’re a playable character, you think it’s okay to safe and end the game. Not always. Apparently, there are certain chapters that only get saved when you stop at a new chapter. If you stop in the middle of that chapter, you have to play it all over again after you stopped the game. Just something to keep in mind while you’re playing.

End conclusion: yes, I recommend this game wholeheartedly. I shall give House of Ashes, 4 out of 5 stars!

Love, Skye Lewis/Deem ❤

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