Schlagwort: man of medan

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Supermassive Games just gets horror. When Until Dawn screamed onto PS4 back in 2015, it brought with it a savvy understanding of horror tropes matched with hyper-realistic graphics and real consequences that made the fear come alive. The threat of death looming over each character and the drive to solve its lingering mysteries kept me coming back to the game, often alongside friends who would watch and help me find new paths (and untimely ends) for the cast through multiple playthroughs.

When I played a short demo for Man of Medan back at E3, I could tell that the first game in Supermassive’s Dark Pictures horror anthology was off to a solid start. The characters felt human, and the consequences of my interactions felt meaningful. Stepping onto the historic U.S.S. Hornet in Alameda earlier this week for a longer preview of the game, Supermassive gave a broader peek at its narrative structure…and a first look at its game-changing multiplayer modes.

Shared Story mode is a two-player online mode that puts each player in control of different characters, at times presenting them with totally separate sequences. Man of Medan follows a group of 20-somethings who embark on a wreck-diving adventure hoping to discover some treasure, but instead stumbling upon something much darker. The game indicates when control is shifting to a new character, and it similarly relays who your partner is controlling in the upper right hand corner. “Your friend is deciding” flashes ominously during time-critical moments left in their hands.

Characters can appear in scenes together, physically exploring a shared environment or even having a conversation, or they can be split up. In one sequence I played as the reckless Julia, diving below our ship to explore an undiscovered WWII plane wreck. While I grappled with choices underwater (do I take my scuba gear off to possibly reach a clue? Do I pull a bullet out of the hull as a souvenir or respectfully leave things untouched?), my partner controlled the reluctant captain of the ship Fliss, engaging in a totally unrelated interaction. Each of us had conversations and made choices that would affect the relationships for all the characters in the story, and we did this without being able to consult one another.

This is the collaborative crux of Shared Story mode. While my partner and I both had an idea of who each of these characters are, and what choices we’d like them to make, the mode creates scenarios where our individual choices created unexpected waves for one another. Sometimes it ended well; our separate conversation choices led to one character getting seasick, which in turn led to him being hidden when the boat was eventually overtaken by intruders. Other times, our best intentions served only to get in each other’s way. While exploring the ship, I rummaged through someone’s luggage, leaving out a bottle of cologne. When the intruders boarded later in the demo, I thought I had made a savvy choice — having the bottle exposed made it easier to grab and smash against one of the bad guys’ heads. But when I consulted my partner after the dust had settled, she told me since her character was above deck during that scene, smashing the bottle actually interrupted her character’s attempt at escaping, leaving us wondering what could have been.

An earlier moment, which served as a tutorial, featured WWII soldiers aboard a battleship. In its final moments, my partner and I believed our characters were separated and succumbing to differing grisly fates. When we met up after the playthrough, the questions flowed quickly — where did you go? What did you see? How did you die? It turned out our characters were actually in the same room, but experiencing different supernatural visions that resulted in us killing each other.

This excitable exchanging of notes made a playthrough of Movie Night mode even more dramatic. The couch co-op mode lets five people each choose a character, then pass the controller when each corresponding character is in control. Having all just come out of a first runthrough, everyone in my party had opinions about which choices we should make, all willing to miss a quick time event or make a more aggressive remark just to see how the narrative would shift. And shift it did — seedier details were revealed, different clues were unlocked, and we even got a character’s ear cut off (sorry Conrad!).

While Until Dawn organically worked as a more communal experience, Supermassive has woven that idea more elegantly into Man of Medan. Its naturally collaborative modes serve to heighten the game’s suspense and add interesting new layers to an already delightful horror romp. My choices felt impactful, and it was fascinating to see how offhand comments could make ripples…or treacherous waves. I’ll be grabbing a friend to see where the story goes next when Man of Medan launches August 30 on PS4.

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 4 minutes

Hi there, I’m Pete Samuels, Series Director and Executive Producer of The Dark Pictures Anthology. We’re thrilled to announce multiplayer for Man of Medan and the entire Dark Pictures Anthology, and I’m hugely excited to talk to you about it today.

As we’ve announced last year, The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of standalone cinematic horror games, each featuring a brand-new story, setting and characters. Man of Medan is the first in the series, releasing on August 30. We hope you’re as excited as us that you’ll be able to play every game in the series in multiplayer.

First up, some details. We’ve announced two multiplayer modes for The Dark Pictures Anthology — Shared Story mode and Movie Night mode. In Shared Story you’ll play online with a friend, making choices that affect both of you. We really hope you enjoy the intensity of experiencing the story with a friend… and that you are still friends after!

In Movie night mode, five people (you and up to four of your friends) can play couch co-op. Each player can enter their name and choose which character (or characters) to play, then simply pass the pad whenever that character is the focus of the game. You can explore, react, and make decisions to keep your character alive and stay in the game. When prompted, simply pass the controller onto the next player so that they can continue with their character. Periodically, the game will present a summary of how each player has played. We were so impressed by the innovative and collaborative ways people played Until Dawn together that we created this feature to help facilitate that way of playing.

Creating a narrative game with multiplayer has thrown up some interesting design challenges — the most significant of which was in the two-player Shared Story, and how to have both players enjoy a great story when they each see different things and neither sees everything. It also created some great new design and narrative opportunities which we hope will surprise you. When you and your friend ‘split up,’ you can’t be sure that you’ll ever see their character again! It is horror, after all.

We think that it really brings something fresh to the genre to play with a friend online, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results.

Each mode is different but both have been influenced by our experience with Until Dawn. When Until Dawn released we were surprised and delighted by how many people were streaming the game. We’ve had around 1 billion views on YouTube alone. We’d also get plenty of people telling us how much they enjoyed playing the game together with friends on the couch. These both fed into the initial design of The Dark Pictures Anthology and we decided that along with story, characters, and cinematic production values, multiplayer should be core to the series. In short, we have built The Dark Pictures Anthology from the ground up with multiplayer in mind.

Your first chance to try this out will be in Man of Medan, the first in the series. This game sees four American tourists and their inexperienced captain going on the diving holiday of a lifetime in the South pacific. All sounds idyllic right? Wrong, things soon take a turn for the worse and it will be up to you what happens next. With Man of Medan having more branching than any of our previous games, you’ll need to replay the game many times to find out every possible scenario.

Whether you play Solo, online Shared Story, or couch-based Movie Night, we hope you’ll have a great horror experience. We can’t wait to see and hear how you get on. My advice? Don’t. Play. Alone!

Website: LINK

Reading Time: 5 minutes

Since its 2015 release, teen-horror homage Until Dawn has built a legion of fans, hooked on its branching narrative, memorable characters and ruthlessly efficient scares. Developer Supermassive has dipped its toes back into horror on a couple of occasions since — with spin-offs Until Dawn: Rush of Blood and PS VR prequel The Inpatient — but now, with upcoming chiller Man of Medan, it’s making a full-bodied return to the genre.

Taking the Until Dawn template and stretching it in some interesting new directions, it’s shaping up to be a truly satisfying spiritual successor to the studio’s breakout hit. Ahead of its launch on August 30, we sat down with Supermassive CEO and the game’s Executive Producer, Pete Samuels, to find out why fans should start salivating.

It’s the first in a series of intense, standalone horror stories

Man of Medan is the first entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of cinematic horror games influenced by real world legends and events. Each game features a brand-new story, setting and characters, building on the same high-stakes branching narrative formula established in Until Dawn.

“Man of Medan takes place the South Pacific and sees five friends set sail on a holiday diving trip,” explains Samuels. “With a rumored WWII wreck to find, and plenty of on-deck partying to be had, our group get ready for what should be the trip of a lifetime. As the day unfolds, and a storm rolls in, their trip soon changes into something much more sinister.

“People should expect the kind of tension and fear that many associate with Until Dawn, and with more significant branching that we’ve ever done before. All the characters can live or die!”

The Until Dawn team is involved

Man of Medan is very much cut from the same cloth as Until Dawn, with key talent from that team at the wheel. Horror fans are in safe hands. “Most of the Directors are the same, and about half of the team in total. We’re also using many of the same creative partners,” confirms Samuels.

The branching narrative is much bigger than in Until Dawn

As in Until Dawn, branching narrative is the game’s backbone. All of the game’s key character live or die depending on the decisions that you make as a player, and the information you uncover. This time however, Supermassive has taken things even further.

“There are scenes that only exist on specific narrative paths; different combinations of survivors possible before the final scenes; more significant and in some ways more surprising consequences of ‘mismanaging’ relationships; and endings that vary significantly depending on the paths you take,” explains Samuels. “Man of Medan has the most branching and possible outcomes of any of our games to date. There are many ways to attempt to quantify this, but here’s just one.”

“In Until Dawn there were 38 death scenes for the characters and you could see up to 10 on a single playthrough. In Man of Medan there are 69, and the most you are likely to see on a single playthrough would be nine. That means you’d need to play the game a minimum of nine times just to see all of the death scenes, let alone all of the other possible story events.”

It’s not limiting itself to one horror sub-genre

Whereas Until Dawn was an unabashed tip-of-the-hat to the teen slasher hits of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Man of Medan draws on a wider range of horror influences.

“Man of Medan certainly has some similar touchpoints, but also some that you’d recognize from the home invasion subgenre, and some much more supernatural — even sci-fi horror,” says Samuels. “It certainly feels more contemporary in its influences we think and, of course, it’s the first in an anthology. The second, third and fourth are quite different in their influences.”

Supermassive has pulled together another talented cast

A key factor in Until Dawn’s success was how it leaned on a talented cast of actors to really sell the game’s pulpy, tongue-in-cheek dialogue — among them, breakout Heroes star Hayden Panettiere and a pre-Mr. Robot/Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek.

With Man of Medan, the studio has put together another impressive roster of Hollywood talent, including Shawn Ashmore (X-Men, The Following) playing Conrad and Ayisha Issa (Shadowhunters, Warm Bodies, Immortals) voicing Fliss.

It’s really pushing the PS4 hardware

Until Dawn was a real looker, harnessing Guerrilla Games’ Decima Engine to make its dark, atmospheric locations really pop. Man of Medan’s visuals are every bit its equal. “We’ve moved to Unreal Engine now, and our team have built some awesome systems and tools that, very specifically, support what we do and the look that we want,” explains Samuels. “We’ll be supporting 4K resolution and HDR for compatible systems.”

The characters will be relatable

Creating a horror game that is genuinely scary is a rare skill, and something that few titles successfully pull off. Supermassive’s secret sauce? Relatable characters that you believe in and care about.

“Our brand of horror is about the vulnerability of characters that you care about. Characters that might be just a little like you. They’re largely unarmed and unsuspecting, and are as terrified as you’d be if such events happened to you,” says Samuels. “That’s what effective horror is for us. ‘Real’ people, with believable relationships, subjected to extreme terror.”

It’s the start of something bigger

As already mentioned, Man of Medan is the first installment in a series of horror titles, dubbed The Dark Pictures Anthology. It’s not episodic — each entry will be a standalone story — but they will all exist in the same universe. “There is one character that bridges the anthology. He’s called The Curator and is brilliantly played by Pip Torrens,” teases Samuels.

“We’ve committed ourselves to two games in any 12-month period. The first three are well underway and the fourth and fifth are fairly well advanced from a narrative perspective. We even have our ideas in place for the sixth, seventh and eighth! Across all of these, and others to come, we hope, we’d expect to cover many more of the 39 subgenres of horror we’ve identified! We couldn’t be more excited.”

Man of Medan hits PS4 on August 30.

Website: LINK