The Darkish Footage Anthology: Man of Medan is the primary in Supermassive’s fashionable collection of standalone cinematic interactive drama and survival horror video games. It’s seen a lot reward since its 2019 launch and continues to thrive amongst a cult fanbase unfold throughout PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. However Supermassive isn’t content material with merely providing in-game leap scares, giving us all a shock when it shadow-dropped the Man of Medan Change model out of nowhere in early Might, 2023. So, how do the spooks dimension up?
Let’s start with a quick rundown. In case you’re unfamiliar, The Darkish Footage Anthology: Man of Medan is a closely cinematic and narrative-driven sport during which your selections matter. It takes place in the midst of the South Pacific Ocean close to French Polynesia and revolves round a gaggle of younger adults and their ship’s captain, setting out at sea on a small skipper to do a spot of diving looking for an undiscovered wreck. Nevertheless, the tides quickly change, as a gaggle of modern-day pirates commandeer the ship and set out looking for a mysterious treasure known as the ‘Manchurian Gold’.
Our unlikely crew of captors and captives quickly discover themselves aboard an deserted WWII ghost ship which seems to be tied to this treasure. However, after all, not all is because it appears, and the story quickly devolves into certainly one of chaos, fuelled by greed, worry, and even a pinch of an obvious supernatural risk.
As with the opposite titles in Supermassive Sport’s repertoire, Man of Medan sees you are taking management of the 5 captives at completely different factors, exploring the ship, accumulating clues, and making an attempt to keep away from peril lengthy sufficient to flee. With heaps of key choices in your shoulders and the lives of the protagonists in your arms, it’s as much as you which of them branching paths your story takes and whether or not the characters dwell or die, resulting in an ideal stage of replayability as you discover all the potential outcomes.
Man of Medan presents a single-player mode, a two-player on-line co-op mode known as ‘shared story’, and an as much as five-player native co-op mode known as ‘film evening’, which sees you and your friends taking management of the completely different characters, together with prompts to cross the controller at every flip.
Every playthrough lasts round 4 to 4 and a half hours, which feels excellent for this sort of sport, and there are a lot extra hours to pack in if you wish to discover the completely different outcomes and collectables. Whether or not alone or with associates, each run can provide a vastly completely different expertise, regardless of the general linear path of the narrative – which is definitely one of many principal explanation why the sport nonetheless manages to captivate its audiences to at the present time.
When it comes to gameplay, the sport principally revolves round strolling sections spliced with cutscenes, with the principle crux hinging on these aforementioned selections, accumulating key objects and premonitions to complement your information or affect the result of sure scenes, and occasional QTE sequences (fast time occasions).
The management scheme within the Man of Medan Change model is as easy and simple to understand as on every other platform, and its button format interprets effectively to the joy-cons and Change Professional controller. You stroll round with the left joystick, work together with objects utilizing A and ZR, and hit buttons to align with prompts throughout particular QTE sequences. For essentially the most half, I discover inputs to be very dependable and responsive, with little to no delay, which is exceptionally essential in a sport the place failing a QTE can have an enormous impression on the result of your sport.
Digital camera angles are fastened and cinematic, which definitely provides to the interactive film vibe, however it could possibly typically make motion really feel slightly sluggish and clumsy, feeling closest to the primary Resident Evil regardless of not being true tank controls. This isn’t a difficulty distinctive to the Change model, although the decrease decision and, after all, a smaller display screen in handheld mode, could make it slightly trickier to work out the place you might be in relation to the objects and doorways round you. Fortunately, I discover that is fairly straightforward to adapt to, and as soon as I bought again into the rhythm of how the characters management, I had little hassle apart from the occasional hiccup.
Proper from its preliminary announcement of the Change model, Supermassive has been fairly clear concerning the technical limitations of this port, even noting the 24fps cap on the backside of the Nintendo eShop web page. I used to be initially fairly pessimistic about how this low cap would look, however it’s essential to notice that Man of Medan is a really cinematic sport, and 24fps is the universally accepted norm for a ‘cinematic body price’ – and it really holds up fairly effectively right here, for essentially the most half.
The decrease body price is hardly noticeable in handheld mode, although it does often make the sport look a bit stuttery in docked mode. That is particularly noticeable in a number of the late-game sequences that clearly push the Change’s ageing {hardware} to its limits, similar to when you’re exploring the stormy rooms throughout Misery Sign or working away in Revenge. Naturally, with the body price cap already being so low, any additional drops do look significantly uneven – way more so than such a minor drop in the next FPS tile.
For essentially the most half, this isn’t too problematic and didn’t significantly impression my enjoyment of the sport. Nevertheless, I did have a stumble in direction of the tip of my first playthrough in docked mode, the place the body price dropped dramatically throughout a hold calm QTE, inflicting me to fail and must restart the chapter as a way to hold everybody alive. Fortunately, upon re-loading, the body price managed to easy itself out – however that’s one thing to bear in mind.
Past the body price cap and occasional stuttering, Man of Medan’s Change model is noticeably downscaled in comparison with variations on different platforms. This decrease decision does end in some visible hiccups, similar to some fairly intense texture popping and inconsistent lighting at instances – all of which is way extra noticeable in docked mode than handheld.
Nevertheless, I really respect that Supermassive put within the work to make this port manageable on native {hardware} quite than slapping collectively a Cloud model. It’s clear that a whole lot of work went into bringing Man of Medan to Change, and the sport actually assessments the boundaries of this six-year-old console, that means it’s actually fairly spectacular that it seems to be so good.
Along with the fascinating portability, the Man of Medan Change model additionally presents a number of extra options because the icing on the cake. These embrace up to date gameplay options, similar to a wider alternative of accessibility choices, improved UI and interactions, and even an prolonged playable chapter known as Flooded – a climactic ending to the sport that introduces model new deaths. These extra options each sweeten the deal for brand new gamers and provide an additional layer of incentive for long-time followers of The Darkish Footage Anthology to present the Change model a attempt.
The prolonged accessibility choices are additionally a really welcome addition, providing you the flexibility to toggle single motion buttons, maintain to finish button mash, QTE timers, and extra. There are additionally a pleasant number of subtitle and textual content choices, together with dimension, color, and a dyslexia-friendly font. Sadly, subtitles are off by default, and you might want to go to the in-game settings to show them on. I personally consider that subtitles ought to all the time be on by default, particularly in narrative, choice-driven video games like Man of Medan.
Although the Man of Medan Change model is unquestionably a downgrade compared with the opposite ports, it nonetheless presents loads of enjoyment. I can’t advocate it because the ‘finest’ solution to play the sport, however it maintains a lot of the thriller and pressure of the unique, and, for essentially the most half, its visible and efficiency points are fairly rare or minor, that means it’s nonetheless an gratifying expertise.
The worth level can also be respectable, avoiding that all-too-familiar ‘Change tax’ that appears to tack itself onto nearly each third-party launch and port. It sits at $19.99/£17.99, which may be very near its present full worth on Steam, and roughly half of its launch RRP – a good price for such a memorable sport.
In brief, should you’re on this planet of cinematic, choice-driven narrative horror, and really feel you may overlook a number of the shortcomings enforced by the Change’s ageing {hardware}, then you need to have a fairly nice time with this little jewel of the ocean, particularly with the additional benefit of portability and new content material. Its winding thriller, plausible characters, and impactful alternative system makes for an all-around tense and atmospheric expertise, and, just like the ocean lapping on the fringe of a shore, it’s positive to maintain tugging you again for extra.
For those who’re on the hunt for much more terrific terrors, try our listing of one of the best horror video games on Change and cellular. We’ve additionally bought a collection of the finest visible novel video games to your perusal, providing a wide range of much less spooky tales.
Man of Medan Change assessment
The primary entry into The Darkish Footage Anthology, Man of Medan nonetheless holds up as a tense, cinematic horror expertise the place each alternative issues. Sadly, the Change’s ageing {hardware} holds this model’s efficiency again, however it’s nonetheless a powerful port with some welcome additions, and nonetheless captures the souls of all who board this ship.
