The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes Reviews
It doesn’t help that House of Ashes tends toward monotony. Much of the game is spent slowly exploring dark caves, sometimes the exact same ones, except with different characters. Too often you may find yourself trying to shake off tedium by trying to interact with something only to inadvertently activate a protagonist’s death. Or a jump scare might shake you out of it, but given how telegraphed they are, the game’s horror ends up being as ineffective as the story, which is given over to Aqua Teen Hunger Force-like levels of deranged non-sequitur plotting. While the prior games in this series never reached the heights of Until Dawn, they didn’t lack for disturbing and memorable imagery. By contrast, this game’s non-human baddies are so over-designed and uninspired that they never jangle the player’s nerves.
Supermassive fans deserve better. The horror genre as a whole deserves better. No recommendation can be provided for this dark plunge.
If only House of Ashes were possessed with something malevolent enough to actually scare us; sadly, it commits a litany of sins, none of them original.
The Dark Pictures: House of Ashes is unfortunately a step backwards compared to the previous episodes of the series, at least in terms of the script, atmosphere and technical realization. The affordable price makes it interesting for those who don't want to miss a single chapter of the anthology, but others should turn to the previous chapters or wait for a possible fourth episode capable of bringing the horror series back on the right tracks.
Review in Italian | Read full review
House of Ashes is the third and the worst instalment of The Dark Pictures, which makes us think that the whole anthology will end prematurely.
Review in Russian | Read full review
Supermassive Games fails to understand that they can’t direct their art with such indignation. Rather than letting consumers enjoy their titles in sometimes unintended ways, they’ve come to limit the gameplay experience as a means of controlling the community. In the process, they have damned the conversations that could have risen, with House of Ashes acting as yet another middling product, free of the soul that leaves a lasting impression.
Unlike the previous two games in The Dark Pictures Anthology, I was pleased with how things played out with the core narrative, but this game had my least favourite cast of characters in all three of the games.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes is a fun enough way to pass a few hours, and is a lot more enjoyable when you get a few friends involved. But as a cinematic story, it's far too forgettable, with writing that's never better than 'fine' with performances to match.
The new installment in the series got its horror stripped down to a level that probably won’t make you hesitate to play it alone at night, it will get you through a story that escalated fast to uncover a big lore that was weirdly shortened to end the story. Even though it was fun sometimes, House of Ashes is a broken mirror of what it could have been.
Review in Arabic | Read full review
House of Ashes belts out some decent cinematic horror, but at the same time, the whole adventure is rather forgettable. The characters are quite fun to watch and the variety of death animations are certainly amusing. Although since the story itself isn’t very memorable, it’s hard to stay invested.
House of Ashes does just enough to deliver the basic goods for horror fans, marking a modest step forward for the underwhelming franchise.
If you enjoyed the first two games, there is some fun to be had in House of Ashes, but glitches, a predictable story structure and some boring jump scares holds it back from being a truly worthy sequel.
If you can stick through some wooden voice acting and awkward animation, there is a decent B-movie thriller here that is easy to digest if you’re looking for some video game pulp horror this Halloween season.
A selection-driven fictional game series inspired by mean and entertaining horror films has two main tasks: to show the players the impact of their choices on storytelling and to scare them. So when such a product has faced serious weaknesses in presenting horror and even the right use of jump scares, it is simply to be accepted that it failed to achieve artistic success at all.
Review in Persian | Read full review
The best setting of the series and an improved camera do not hide the sometimes glaring weaknesses of House of Ashes.
Review in German | Read full review
There's a lot to like in House of Ashes. It can look great (but also a bit ropey at points), the acting is largely excellent, and your actions (or lack of) can really impact the story. Yet, the game element is lacking, which in turn makes the gameplay sequences where you're in proper control end up lacking in scares. This is a fun time, especially if played in a group or online with a friend, but I was more afraid of button prompts than the monsters.
As much as I feel like this series is stuck in the shadow of Until Dawn for a large part of the audience, collectively, The Dark Pictures Anthology is becoming something memorable in its own right. I’ll keep enjoying these games as long as I can, House of Ashes included.
A lackluster military versus monsters soap opera that just about redeems itself with an extravagant final third and unmatched co-op mechanics.
House of Ashes has a distinct setting with themes and twists that give it more meaning and style when compared to its other Dark Pictures brethren. It is unequivocally the best thing Supermassive has made since Until Dawn. But that bar is pathetically low as the five console horror games following that unexpected 2015 hit have been all mediocre or downright terrible. House of Ashes is getting close enough to the surface to see sunlight beaming through the cracked bits of earth above, but it’s still stuck underground.
House of Ashes is more of an action game than a thriller.
Review in Greek | Read full review