Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn was a great horror game that mixed adventure and horror with a cinematic approach to storytelling, and it was a hit. Supermassive’s next project, The Dark Pictures Anthology, premiered last year with Man of Medan, which told the frightening story of a group of college students who find themselves aboard a ghost ship. Now, the next entry in the horror franchise is coming up in just a few months. Originally planned to release this summer, the game was delayed in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic and will now release on October 30. Publisher Bandai Namco announced the release date alongside a new trailer for the game on July 8. If you already know it’s a day-one purchase for you, pre-orders for The Dark Pictures: Little Hope are available now. Plus, two special editions for the game were announced, including a Collector’s edition.
Like Until Dawn and the first Dark Pictures game, Little Hope will involve playing as several different characters from a third-person perspective and making decisions as the story progresses that will affect various outcomes. The decisions you make for each character affect how their personality evolves over the course of the game, and those decisions also affect their relationships with each other. As a result, there are multiple endings and different ways events can play out in Little Hope, and as always, the stakes are high–no one is guaranteed to survive if you don’t think carefully about your next move.
Story-wise, Little Hope follows a new group of college students along with their teacher, who find themselves stranded in a quaint, isolated town shrouded in fog after their bus crashes in a storm. You soon discover the town has a dark and bloody past–in the 17th century, the town was “gripped by witchcraft,” and nobody was safe from the accusations that would cause your death. The trailer shows flashbacks to 1692, when these Salem-inspired events took place, and it seems as though your actions in the past will affect how the future plays out, although it’s unclear exactly how much agency you’ll have in these scenes.
“All that suffering, all that malice leaves a profound effect. It creates repercussions. And there are always repercussions,” teases the mysterious Curator in the trailer, the omnipresent narrator from Man of Medan who returns to guide you and speak to you directly as the player in Little Hope.
While similar to Until Dawn in many ways, The Dark Pictures Anthology innovates on the genre with its multiplayer gameplay, which is set up perfectly for a spook-filled game night. In the couch co-op Movie Night mode, each player will pick a character (or two, depending on your group size) to play as, and every time that character has a playable scene, you’ll pass the controller around. You can also play online with a friend in the two-player Shared Story mode. While each player will experience the story together, at certain points the story will branch off, giving each player a unique perspective of the events. The new multiplayer elements in The Dark Pictures Anthology were inspired by the immense popularity of Until Dawn streaming and the fact that many people would gather to play through the game together. Of course, you can still play the entire story solo if you wish.
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope pre-order bonuses
Pre-order The Dark Pictures: Little Hope, and you’ll get early access to the Curator’s Cut, which was also a pre-order bonus for Man of Medan. The Curator’s Cut shows you new playable scenes from other characters’ perspectives, offering new decisions to be made and new consequences to be had. For Man of Medan, the Curator’s Cut became free a few months after release for everyone who had completed a full playthrough of the game, but pre-ordering ensures you won’t have to wait to see the bonus content.
Pre-order The Dark Pictures: Little Hope
The standard edition of The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is selling for $30, the same price as Man of Medan at launch. Pre-order listings are live now on Steam, the Xbox Store, and the PlayStation Store along with major retailers. The Amazon listing below offers free release-day shipping and the pre-order price guarantee–if the game gets discounted before launch, you’ll be charged only the cheapest price once it ships. At Best Buy and GameStop, this game falls just short of the $35 minimum that gets you free shipping, but you’ll still get your copy by release day.
Pre-order The Dark Pictures: Little Hope Special Bundle
For $30 more, you can get the Little Hope Special Bundle, which gets you a copy of the game for either PS4 or Xbox One, plus a steelbook case that has disc slots for each chapter of The Dark Pictures Anthology. The Special Bundle also comes with a physical ragdoll that ties in with the story of Little Hope.
It’s up for pre-order for $60 exclusively at the Bandai Namco Store.
Pre-order The Dark Pictures: Little Hope Collector’s edition (Europe only)
Upgrade to the Collector’s edition, and you’ll get a slew of physical goodies along with your copy of Little Hope and the pre-order bonus. You’ll receive a sweet Collector’s Box, a four-disc steelbook case, a Dark Pictures Anthology world cloth map, two exclusive collectible pins, and Mary’s Ragdoll, if you’re into owning creepy dolls.
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope Collector’s edition is only available through the Bandai Namco Europe store and costs 49,99€ for PS4 and Xbox One, and 39,99€ for PC (downloadable code only).
Pre-order The Dark Pictures: Volume 1 (Man of Medan + Little Hope)
You don’t need to have played Man of Medan to play Little Hope as the two stories are completely separate, but if you missed out on the first game in the anthology series, here’s a great way to grab both in nice package with some extra goodies. Volume 1 of The Dark Pictures Anthology, which includes the first two games, will be available to pre-order as a limited edition that gets you a special box with both games. Buying Volume 1 gets you many of the same bonuses as the Collector’s edition: two exclusive collectible pins, a four-disc steelbook case, and a Dark Pictures Anthology world cloth map (no ragdoll included with this one).
The physical version is only available in the European region at select retailers, but you can also buy it digitally for $50 on PS4, Xbox One, and PC if you just want a bundle with the two games.
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