The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me Reviews
Sluggish pacing and stripped-back character interactions dull the charm, but there are still scares to be found
Despite a few shortcomings and inconsistencies, The Dark Pictures: Devil in Me brings the anthology's first season to a powerful end.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me’s tour through a maniac’s mansion is disappointingly lacking in any real menace or surprise.
The Devil in Me is an excellent evolution in The Dark Pictures anthology that weaves an interesting story in a complex and exciting environment that’s both fun and horrifying to explore. It’s the perfect choice for horror fans, full of tense moments, jump scares, and gory scenes. While some of the new features are a little hit or miss, it’s arguably the best title in the anthology. It could do with a little more polish in places, but it’s a game I am keen to replay to delve into the background story further, and hopefully, next time, I’ll ensure everyone lives.
The Devil in Me doesn’t rank particularly high on my personal Dark Pictures ranking — it comes in just under House of Ashes and Man of Medan, which are great for different reasons. But what the game does do very right is take a famous true-crime case and explore it in a manner that comes across as more interesting than exploitative, even while fitting in jump scares and relationship drama. Supermassive could probably have carved a good two or three hours out of this game and ended up with a much stronger product — just as long as it left all of the Holmes-related stuff untouched, please, because that’s where it shines.
Supermassive calls its latest Dark Pictures entry the end of its first season, and it goes out with a bang.
I still would recommend The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me on release if you can handle the technical issues at present. If Supermassive Games manages to implement some updates and fix the performance issues, then I’d perhaps even recommend it – highly! – to seasoned horror fans. In spite of its flaws, The Devil in Me tells a riveting tale of a horrific killer in a thoughtful manner, opens up important discussions about human obsession with sanctifying spectacles, and it shows great potential for the future of the series. It’s just a shame about… everything else.
The Devil in Me not only sticks the landing for The Dark Pictures Anthology, but it does so with a highly-improved game that shows off the potential of this series, feeling like a culmination of every lesson Supermassive has learned along the way.
Two final girl sprints forward and one terrified limp back, The Devil in Me is the strongest Dark Pictures to date, but still feels like Supermassive are yet to find the right balance between fun and frights, camp and terror, and interactivity and storytelling.
With its creepy setting and constant threat, The Devil in Me provides a satisfying horror experience for fans of the series.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Me is one of the most interesting horror games of the year, even if its stupendous premise doesn't hold up to the end. A fun and terrifying title that introduces very grateful novelties to a well-known formula.
Review in Spanish | Read full review
These issues are not unique to “The Devil in Me.” “The Quarry” often felt uneasily patched together, struggling to reconcile all of its plot threads. All of this raises a question that haunts the experience of Supermassive’s games: Amid players’ expectations of visual fidelity and complex narrative, how sustainable is a format where, at any point, any fully voice-acted, motion-captured character can die and be cut from the game in an instant?
Easily the best of The Dark Pictures anthology series, with a horror story that is deliciously chilling, surprisingly well acted, and far more interesting to play than its predecessors.
The Devil in Me often subverts your expectations in such a way that diminishes player agency and makes your own choices feel arbitrary. Although its added gameplay features make for a more interactive experience, they hardly break the mold and were poorly executed. Technical issues tarnished the experience overall. The game still relies heavily on QTE-based survival mechanics and does little to set itself apart from its predecessors. What had the potential to be a truly horrific conclusion to The Dark Pictures Anthology amounts to little more than a lackluster thriller with a predictable narrative that opts for shock value and jumpscares over quality.
The Devil in Me still fails to make the big leap among the greatest champions of the genre, but as a narrative adventure with a horror background it works well.
Review in Italian | Read full review
It is not the best installment of this first season, but it is a solid bet for those who enjoy a direct adventure and sheltered by the resources of the "slashers".
Review in Spanish | Read full review
In the fourth part of the Dark Anthology saga, we visit an old hotel filled with mystery and deadly traps. Updated game mechanics we also get, but as the control is still uncut, it overturns rather than helps. Even the sometimes strange cut remains. With that said; The cinematic concept of many story-crucial decisions still holds up and creates a wonderfully nerve-wracking experience.
Review in Swedish | Read full review
At the end of the day, The Devil in Me feels like a safe bet for the series. Sure, it may not be imaginative like House of Ashes or Little Hope, but it serves as a decent choice-driven horror game that I didn’t mind going through the padding to see what was going to happen next. While this is the “season finale” of The Dark Pictures Anthology, I wonder if it will ever really return? I guess we’ll see. In the meantime, The Devil in Me offers a decent experience with little to no issues.
Despite its few flaws, The Devil In Me is a more than fitting end to The Dark Pictures Anthology Season One, improving on its predecessors in the main area in which they drew criticism: weak story. The endings of both Man of Medan and Little Hope, in particular, left many players unsatisfied, but The Devil In Me offers a substantial and sinful story full of dastardly deeds, classic crimes, and unabashed gore. The Devil In Me is a game that immediately deserves a second playthrough after the credits roll - and perhaps even a third, or fourth.
The last chapter of this first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology confirms the desire to continue to produce products of thickness, balanced on the front of the gameplay, but not for this time still. Supermassive Games tries to do things right, improves some things, gives its best in storytelling and guarantees the player the entertainment necessary to continue and start again, looking for the new choice to make. Stay until the end of the credits, it will be worth it!
Review in Italian | Read full review