The Dark Pictures Anthology (2025)

The Dark Pictures Anthology (1)

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The content below contains spoilers from one or more of the games. Read at your own risk!

The Dark Pictures

Season One

Season Two

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  • Season One
  • Season Two

Each game in The Dark Pictures series is a complete and original story in its own right.

The Dark Pictures Anthology or simply The Dark Pictures is a series of interactive drama survival horror games developed and published by Supermassive Games (Season One was published by Bandai Namco Entertainment) since 2019. It is a distant relative of Supermassive's other horror titles, being the spiritual successor to Until Dawn and a cousin of The Quarry.

The Dark Pictures is inspired by real events and different horror subgenres. Each game is a standalone story, featuring a completely new set of characters and setting, all while sharing the same narrator, The Curator.

Contents

  • 1 Gameplay
  • 2 Plot Scheme
  • 3 Games
    • 3.1 Season One
    • 3.2 Season Two
    • 3.3 Spin-offs
  • 4 Special Releases
    • 4.1 Collector's Editions
    • 4.2 Collection Bundles
  • 5 Trivia
  • 6 Navigation

Gameplay[]

See Bearings, Game Modes, Secrets, Pictures and Keep Calm for more information. For the rest of mechanics, check out this page.

The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of cinematic, choice-based games with elements of exploration, played from a third-person perspective. The player controls five characters, each of whom can die over the course of the story, which allows to complete the game with any combination of protagonists. Each game has a strict autosave system that prevents the player from returning to an early point in the game, thus making every decision they make, including deaths, permanent.

Whenever a character has to choose, a moral compass offers to act logically (Mind), emotionally (Heart) or do nothing at all. After the time runs out, the game automatically chooses inaction or one of the other two options. Most decisions only affect personalities and relationships, but in critical situations they determine the fate of characters and the course of the narrative, branching the story into multiple scenarios. These decisions are recorded as "Bearings" and can update as the game progresses.

When not making choices, the player is free to explore locations and interact with the environment, such as talking to characters, inspecting items and finding collectibles. The anthology always features secrets (reveal details about past events) and pictures (show visions of possible futures). All discovered collectibles are saved and available for review, even if they were not found in the current playthrough. The same applies to co-op, where a collectible is counted for both players even if only one player found it.

In action sequences, the player is required to perform a quick time event, either pressing/smashing the button, pressing the buttons in beat or shooting. Failure of some QTEs have no consequences, while others can take the story along a different path and even cost the character their life. The difficulty can be set to one of three levels (Forgiving, Challenging and Lethal), which determine how often QTE warnings appear and how fast QTEs will be.

Each game in the anthology features two modes for single-player and multiplayer each:

  • Theatrical Cut is the standard mode, where the game is played from the main perspective.
  • Curator's Cut offers a playthrough from an alternate perspective, with other playable characters, choices and collectibles.
  • Shared Story allows two players to play co-operatively online.
  • Movie Night allows two to five players to select their own characters and play on their own turn.

Each new installment introduces several new gameplay mechanics that supplement the old ones or act on their own. Some of these mechanics are exclusive to their games, while the rest continue to be used throughout the anthology.

Plot Scheme[]

Each story in the anthology is made in a 3 act structure along with separate prologue and epilogue:

  • The Prologue acts as a setup for the main story, showing two false protagonists as they are killed by an unexpected threat. The prologue also serves as a tutorial, teaching the player basic mechanics.
  • Act 1 introduces five main protagonists and supporting character(s). Through various circumstances, the cast ends up in the setting, completely isolated from the outside world. Eventually, they confront the antagonist for the first time, causing the characters to split up and one of the protagonists to possibly die.
  • Act 2 follows the characters as they try to find each other. Each group takes turns facing different threats, which may end in two/three protagonists dying. Nevertheless, all surviving protagonists are reunited by the end of the act.
  • Act 3 features protagonists trying to find a way out and uncovering the events of the past after gathering enough secrets. Three protagonists may die in the process, leaving the remaining two alive until the finale. In the end, the group is about to finally escape when they confront the antagonist one last time, either dying or ultimately surviving the night.
  • The Epilogue reveals the fates of the protagonists after surviving their misadventures. Some characters still can die due to the decisions made during gameplay.

Occasionally, the player enters the repository where they interact with the Curator. He summarises their current progress, commenting on the protagonists' actions and fates. At the player's request and sometimes himself, he offers cryptic tips that help them to avoid future mistakes. At the end, the Curator comments on the story's finale and bids farewell to the player, teasing with the next installment in the anthology, which also receives an announcement after the credits/post-credit scene.

Games[]

The Dark Pictures Anthology currently has five installments confirmed out of eight planned, with four of them already released. Besides the main series, the series also has one released spin-off.

Season One[]

  • Man of Medan (2019)
  • Little Hope (2020)
  • House of Ashes (2021)
  • The Devil in Me (2022)

Season Two[]

  • Directive 8020 (2025)

Spin-offs[]

  • Switchback VR (2023)

Man of Medan's cover

Little Hope's cover

House of Ashes' cover

The Devil in Me's cover

Directive 8020's cover

Switchback VR's cover

Special Releases[]

Collector's Editions[]

  • The Dark Pictures Anthology (8)

    Collector's Edition

  • The Dark Pictures Anthology (9)

    Pazuzu Edition

  • The Dark Pictures Anthology (10)

    Animatronic Collector's Edition

1/3

  • Press Kit Edition - an exclusive edition for Man of Medan. In addition to the game, it features a skull-shaped clipboard with the wind rose and a trio of pocket watches.
  • Collector's Edition - an exclusive edition for Little Hope. In addition to the game, it features a Mary's poppet figurine, 2 pins (ship and poppet), a 4-disc steel book, and a cloth map of The Dark Pictures universe.
  • Pazuzu Edition - an exclusive edition for House of Ashes. In addition to the game, it features a vampire figurine, a sticker set, an eclipse pin, and an art print.
  • Animatronic Collector's Edition - an exclusive edition for The Devil in Me. In addition to the game, it features an animatronic bust figurine, a Lonnit Entertainment business card, a hotel card with envelope, and a map of the island.

Collection Bundles[]

  • The Dark Pictures Anthology (11)

    Volume 1 Edition

  • The Dark Pictures Anthology (12)

    Triple Pack Edition

  • The Dark Pictures Anthology (13)

    Volume 2 Edition

1/3

  • Volume 1 Edition - a collection bundle featuring Man of Medan and Little Hope, their respective pins, a 4-disc steelbook, and a cloth map.
  • Triple Pack Edition - a collection bundle featuring Man of Medan, Little Hope, and House of Ashes, their respective pins, a 4-disc steelbook, and a cloth map.
  • Volume 2 Edition - a collection bundle featuring House of Ashes and The Devil in Me, their respective pins, a map of the hotel, and House of Ashes playing cards.
  • Season One Edition - a collection bundle featuring Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me.

Trivia[]

  • Although the games are unrelated to each other, they all exist in the same universe, which the anthology uses to make references between installments.
  • The full anthology is planned to consist of eight games, but if the series is successful enough, it will be expanded into a potential Season Three.
  • The original plan for the anthology was to release two games per year between the six months. However, the plan was abandoned and as a result, Season One was released with one game per year.
  • The anthology's logo is written in Trajan Pro 3 Regular font.
  • Currently, The Dark Pictures has two versions of the intro:
    • The first version appeared in the original Man of Medan and Little Hope before the update. It shows the skull as it slowly turns to the side and reveals the compass, from which the title of the anthology appears in a haze.
    • The second version appeared after House of Ashes and later in the original Man of Medan and Little Hope after the update. It shows a series of fast-paced pictures with scenes from the previous and current games, ending with a speed-up version of the old intro.
The Dark Pictures Anthology (14)
  • One of the anthology's plans was to use the typical "Previously in... (Title)" system to introduce every chapter on each installment as Until Dawn did, but since chapters were very short, they decided to abandon this idea.
  • Most of the characters' models are taken from previous Supermassive's titles, such as Hidden Agenda, The Inpatient, Bravo Team, and Shattered State. Moreover, the anthology tends to reuse the same character models in multiple installments.
  • After the conclusion of Season One Bandai Namco Entertainment ceased publishing the series, being replaced by Supermassive Games itself.

Navigation[]

v · d · e

The Dark Pictures Anthology

Installments
Season One

Man of MedanLittle HopeHouse of AshesThe Devil in Me

Season Two

Directive 8020

Spin-offs

Switchback VR

The Dark Pictures Anthology (2025)
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