“It’s all about decisions, isn’t it?” says the steely-eyed Curator. “Decisions made in a hurry, in a panic.”
He friends throughout the desk, holding judgment over my very own selections. One mistake, even made in ignorance, might be the distinction between surviving Man of Medan or main your characters to a grisly finish. Run or disguise. Take the knife or depart it behind. Apologize or say one thing sarcastic. Open the coffin or—
Wait, why would you open the rattling coffin? Have you by no means seen a horror movie earlier than?
Creepy crashes
Four years in the past, Until Dawn tailored Telltale’s branching-story construction to the horror style, to nice success. The catch? It was a PlayStation 4 unique, one of many handful of video games that satisfied me to purchase that console in reality.
Luckily developer Supermassive’s follow-up The Dark Pictures Anthology is being printed by Bandai Namco and is a bit much less picky about platform, with the primary entry or episode Man of Medan coming to PC this week—although not with out some caveats. Before we get into the substance of Man of Medan, it’s value noting the port is tough.
Case in level? If you attempt to entry the keybinding menu from in-game, a.ok.a. wherever that’s not the primary menu, it merely by no means seems, soft-locking the sport and forcing an Alt-F4 exit. And whereas that is essentially the most egregious bug I’ve been in a position to reproduce, there are many others. Having a keyboard and gamepad plugged in on the similar time often ends in buttons not registering accurately, or in controls being overlaid on-screen—for example, displaying the Xbox’s A button and a keyboard’s “S” on the similar time.
You’ll need a gamepad plugged in although as a result of mouse-and-keyboard makes the already sluggish controls really feel even much less responsive. Tank controls don’t map effectively to WASD, I can inform you that, and the menus are nearly unusable. Backspace to go up a degree? What?
I’ve had three laborious crashes to desktop as effectively, in about six hours.
IDG / Hayden DingmanMan of Medan is consistently saving progress, so even that’s not an insurmountable concern. These are all fairly customary first-time port woes, and I count on most might be mounted with a patch or two. That stated, the PC model is nearly definitely the weakest choice at launch.
Gosh, Scooby
It’s a disgrace too as a result of Man of Medan is each bit as neat as Until Dawn. As I stated, it’s a branching horror recreation the place your actions and dialogue choices can result in totally different—typically lethal—outcomes for the individuals concerned.
The bulk of the sport includes the real-life ghost ship, the Ourang Medan. Stemming from the late 1940s, the legend goes {that a} misery sign went out from the Ourang Medan one night time saying that every one the officers and crew had been useless or dying. The final message obtained was a perfunctory and ominous “I die” from the radio operator himself. Upon discovering and boarding the ship, those that found the Medan claimed the whole crew was useless, a lot of them showing to have died of fright. Preparing to tow the Medan to port, it out of the blue exploded and sank to the underside of the ocean.
IDG / Hayden DingmanMan of Medan presupposes a model of occasions the place that final half didn’t occur and the Medan merely floated deserted within the ocean, a slowly rusting tomb. Decades later it’s found by a gaggle of 4 novice thrill-seekers and their employed captain who’re compelled by circumstance to board the Medan and…effectively, in the event you’re fortunate they survive.
I used to be fortunate, they usually did—a reality I’ll chalk as much as many years of absorbing horror film tropes. Hint: Whatever looks as if the apparent answer, you need to in all probability select the other. And completely don’t let your curiosity get the higher of you. Again, why would you open the coffin?
Even so, it’s entertaining and spectacular to see the place the totally different paths intersect. I not often replay Telltale’s video games, or others of that ilk. The few instances I’ve, I’ve realized that the “branches” are principally a intelligent little bit of misdirection. Not a lot truly modifications while you go left or proper.
IDG / Hayden DingmanMan of Medan is totally different although. Death is omnipresent. Characters may depart the story within the first act, utterly altering what follows. Scenarios that appear banal in your run is likely to be life-or-death in one other, supplied you’ve taken (or left behind) sure gadgets. Even a component that seemingly didn’t come into play for my survivors was then addressed in a post-credits scene, a darkish epilogue to an in any other case pleased ending.
The finish result’s extra akin to a high-budget model of Inkle’s video games, myriad small decisions resulting in giant and apparent divergences in the long term. Even character progress is ruled by this technique. Some of your characters—people who survive, at the least—will come out of the Medan unscathed. Others will appear deeply scarred by the horrors they endured upon the ship.
It’s an expertise that begs to be replayed, and fortunately there are a number of other ways to take action. For the solo participant, the Curator’s Cut unlocks after your first run—an alternate model of the story that offers you management of various characters for the foremost story beats.
IDG / Hayden DingmanThe multiplayer choices are what I’m trying ahead to exploring on subsequent runs although. There’s a two-player mode that requires two copies of the sport and a web-based connection, which is advantageous. But I’m principally excited to get a gaggle of buddies collectively and play by means of the Movie Night mode, whereby two to 5 individuals go a single controller across the room and attempt to hold their allotted characters alive. It’s a neat social facet, much like the one I had watching Netflix’s Bandersnatch earlier this yr, however with extra of a conventional online game aspect included.
That stated, the “traditional video game” components of Man of Medan are in all probability its weakest as effectively. Like Telltale’s video games, and certainly like Until Dawn, the motion in Man of Medan is subpar. I used to be truly delay Until Dawn due to its unwieldy tank controls and the sluggish button prompts.
Man of Medan is…just about the identical. Characters walk-stumble by means of environments like they’re 800-pound marionettes, and making an attempt to information them by means of among the Medan’s slender nautical doorways is scarier than something the story has to supply. Even choosing up gadgets is a sluggish and tedious chore. I feel it’s going for “grounded” and “tactile,” however it principally feels clumsy. (And that’s the best-case state of affairs, that means with a gamepad. I already talked about the mouse-and-keyboard struggles above.)
IDG / Hayden DingmanPerformances are fairly hit-or-miss as effectively. Even the liveliest characters have a number of traces that fall flat, and the facial captures can dip from spectacular to uncanny in a rush. It doesn’t sink Man of Medan’s attraction, however the film-like presentation doesn’t at all times maintain up.
Oh, and there’s a very unusual musical alternative for the opening credit sequence—like a B-tier present on The CW. I’ll depart it at that.
Bottom line
Overall I actually loved Man of Medan although and I’m trying ahead to replaying it—and to no matter comes subsequent for the sequence, because it’s pitched as an anthology. I’m particularly curious to learn how lengthy we’ve got to wait. Man of Medan falls on this unusual grey space between episodic recreation and standalone-with-sequels, and it’ll be attention-grabbing to see how Supermassive handles the transition.
Either means, I’ll be there. Man of Medan doesn’t inform essentially the most distinctive story, and certainly you’ll in all probability unravel it lengthy earlier than the characters do. It’s distinctive within the telling although, and sometimes that’s what counts extra.