House of Ashes happens during the Iraqi conflict in 2003. You play mainly like a squad of US soldiers delivered to investigate and procure weapons of mass destruction during the conflict. The arguable lead here's Rachel King; a CIA officer played against-type by Ashley Tisdale. She’s accompanied by Jason Kolchek, Nick Kay, and her estranged husband Eric King, leading the operation. Keeping things interesting, you’ll also play as someone from the other side of the war, an Iraqi lieutenant named Salim searching for his son amongst the conflict.
The plot starts to get going when the squad gets to their mark and it is attacked by Iraqi forces. Within the chaos, it appears that the audience has awakened strange creatures that begin to hunt the group down as they try their finest to flee. Eventually, through a bizarre earthquake, they’re dropped into an underground Akkadian temple created to appease the gods throughout a cataclysmic event. If you’ve seen films like The Descent, you most likely have an idea from the mood and atmosphere House of Ashes goes for – it’s dark, tense, and oppressive.
I’ve briefly alluded for this previously, but House of Ashes is a big step-up from Man of Medan and Little Hope. I’d had some concerns after i had hands-on with the games twice captured, but so many of those concerns fell away as the story progressed. Man of Medan and Little Hope both went in unexpected directions, too. However, the way House of Ashes executes its grand finale is really a lot more satisfying. I’m not going to spoil anything – to do this could be neglectful on my part – but House of Ashes goes in a direction that you’ll never guess. I’m excited for more people to experience it.
As a game title, House of Ashes plays better than its predecessors too. Fixed camera angles (though I adore them) happen to be scrapped for an entire player-controlled camera. A passionate flashlight button also lights up the room. Still, it slows down your character – though the trade-off feels inconsequential as there’s no moment where your character’s speed matters. Hence, we spent most of the game playing with our flashlights on anyway.
I say we because House of Ashes returns the multiplayer options the previous two games did. Shared Story enables you to jump online and have fun with a buddy, just like if you were playing split-screen locally. Movie Night enables you to assign characters to each person in the area, and the game will explain when that person will need the controller passed to them. You can even assign several character to someone if you don’t have four others in the room with you. The only real disadvantage to this mode is that some characters possess a more prominent role within the story than others – so some people within the room might not reach play as much.
That being said, difficulty options, which can be set individually for each player, are a welcome accessory for the series. House of Ashes is about the quick-time events, as you’d expect, when you are able to adjust their leniency for more casual players is welcome. Unfortunately, it still didn’t save one of the members in my group from killing their character in the final act (you realize who you are). However, it’s still a welcome addition which makes the sport playable for individuals no matter their knowledge about video games.
Little Hope were built with a remarkably annoying habit of throwing the same tired jump scares at you until they weren’t scary whatsoever. Thankfully, House of Ashes will the opposite. Many of the scares are achieved the good old-fashioned way – because they build tension and a feeling of dread and not ending every possible moment having a loud noise. There's still some jump scares plus some fantastically achieved ones, but overall the game is a lot more subdued in the method of scaring players. Especially at the end of each act, I’ve never been so tense in trying to make i do all the right things to keep my characters alive at the climax of each act.
With the jump to the new generation of consoles, House of Ashes looks fantastic. There’s still the odd case of the uncanny valley in certain characters – Clarice is terrifying whenever she moves her mouth – but everyone else otherwise looks and animates well. In my Little Hope review, I’d lamented these games would not quite get to the visual fidelity of the bigger budget cousin Until Dawn, but House of Ashes comes pretty close. The sunlight, the beautifully designed locales, as well as the creatures themselves all combined efforts to make this the very best presented Dark Pictures game to date.
Despite being the star, Ashley Tisdale is a little bit flat within her performance although the remaining cast does a great job at selling the drama and tension internally of Ashes. Add an excellent and intense score by Dead Space alum Jason Graves, and you’ve got a thrilling soundscape to hightail it from monsters to.
