Supermassive Games’Dark Pictures Anthologybegan withMan of Medanin 2019, and its first season comes to an end this year withThe Devil in Me. As a whole, thefirst season of theDark Pictures Anthologyhas had its ups and downs, butThe Devil in Mebrings it to a powerful end with an intriguing plot, an excellent approach to horror, solid gameplay, and a satisfying end, no matter which players earn.
InThe Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me, players take on the role of a group of documentary filmmakers that is working on a docuseries based on H.H. Holmes. Historically known as America’s first serial killer, Holmes is believed to have killed 200+ in urban myths that pervaded American culture at the time, and the game treats this historical sensationalism as fact. The filmmakers travel to a modern-day replica of Holmes' “Murder Castle,” and any horror fan can predict what happens from there.
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What’s interesting though is the sheer power of the Murder Castle, as it serves as the perfect, unnerving setting for the franchise. Players quickly learn not everything is as it seems, and getting lost in the Murder Castle is part of the experience. The beauty and deadliness of the setting certainly elevate the game, but it’s not restricted to just this either. Players have access to a handful of other locations, particularly in the opening and final acts, and it creates a certain sense of fear. Isolation is nothing new in horror games, but thesetting ofDark Pictures: The Devil in Meperfects this.
The setting’s atmosphere is reinforced by and, in turn, supportsThe Devil in Me’s overarching plot. It is definitely the best within the anthology and, arguably, among the best within the horror game genre too. On the one hand, it feels like something written for folks who are obsessed with true crime television series, while the game wears its horror movie inspirations on its sleeve, likeSaw,Halloween,Friday the 13th, andThe Shining. It seems difficult to reconcile true crime with psychological horror and slasher flicks, butThe Devil in Mepulls it off with aplomb. The result is an entertaining and terrifying horror spectacle that will leave players screaming “don’t go in there!”
To elevate this horror even more, players can find Dark Picture collectibles around the map that give players premonitions of potential deaths, but like any good premonition, they are not always what players expect. This leaves players debating whether they can trust something as simple as a boat, or if they should be on the lookout for certain rooms. Even then, it’s not as simple as avoiding X or Y to avoid a certain fate. Of course, death in a horror game is nothing new, but losing anycharacter inThe Devil in Meis heartbreaking. There’s the spectacle of the death, but the writing is excellent too.
In its co-op game modes (including online and/or up to 5-players in local co-op), players will take control of characters that only exist in the prologue, as well as the main cast:Kate Wilder (played by Jessie Buckley, serving as this entry’s star power), Charlie, Mark, Erin, and Jamie. Each character is distinct in their personality, deals with the horrors in their own ways, and is influenced directly by the player controlling them. By the time players could potentially lose their first character, the attachment is there, and horror awaits on an emotional level.
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As a choice-based narrative adventure game, most of its gameplay and combat come in the form of QTEs and puzzles. The bigger puzzles ofThe Devil in Meadd a nice fun factor to the game, but they’re not necessarily innovative. The same goes for its QTEs.The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me’s QTEs are often used to great effect, accentuating the horror of any scene or driving home the point players are about to be caught, but they areQTEs as seen in otherDark Picturesgames. They’re not bad, but they’re nothing memorable.
The Dark Pictures Anthologyhas always been something different, and this entry in the franchise brings out the best of its differences. However, it also serves as a testing ground for new features that don’t necessarily supportThe Devil in Me’s gameplay. One new feature, for example, is character inventories, but these are underutilized. They serve mostly as finding a key for a door, and then immediately using the key. Each character has a unique puzzle they can solve with certain character-specific equipment, but these aren’t anything special in terms of gameplay. And while the addition of jumping, crawling, balancing, and so on add some nice variety to the franchise, most of these new features feel like first iterations. Overall, thesenewDark Picturesfeaturesshow promise that’s just not executed well here.
And therein lies the biggest problem withThe Devil in Me. It’s mostly negligible, but there are quite a few inconsistencies throughout the game. For one, each and every character will look incredibly detailed in one cutscene, look almost life-like in bigger cutscenes, but then in equally important cutscenes look like Play-Doh. There are also strange audio bugs that seemingly change at least one character’s voice that we couldn’t replicate in-game or on other games. It’ll sometimes seem like, visually and audibly, players are checking out 2-3 different games within theDevil in Me.
Furthermore, because each character has a distinctive personality, it’s entirely possible to make dialoguechoices inThe Devil in Methat make the character act out of turn, only to be completely undone in the next scene, or have them act as if they don’t know key information that they certainly do. Likewise, this sometimes results in characters also acting like they know something they couldn’t possibly know. And, despite these characters having a clear established history, they’ll often act as if they know nothing about each other. However, despite its inconsistencies, technical issues, and head-scratching moments,The Devil in Meis a ton of fun.
The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Mepackages an enigmatic killer, stories of true crime, the spectacle of horror movies, and a group of shy misfits and powerful personalities into a plot that feels deserving of its own big-budget film. It’ll leave players questioning everything they know about the killer and each other, and yearning to dive in once again to see other endings, discover more secrets, and try to save everyone.
The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Mereleases on July 07, 2025, for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S. Game Rant was provided a PS5 code for the purposes of this review.
The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of intense, branching cinematic horror games featuring two multiplayer modes.Each story is standalone and can be played independently.This Bundle gives you access to Man of Medan, Little Hope, House of Ashes, and The Devil in Me.In Man of Medan, five friends set sail on a holiday diving trip. As a storm rolls in, and the day unfolds their trip soon changes into something much more sinister.In Little Hope, four college students and their professor are trapped and isolated in an abandoned town and must escape the nightmarish apparitions that relentlessly pursue them through an impenetrable fog.In House of Ashes, at the close of the Iraq War, Special Forces hunting for weapons of mass destruction unearth something far deadlier – a buried Sumerian temple containing a nest of unearthly creatures. To survive the night below, they must forge a brotherhood with their enemies from the world above.In The Devil in Me, a group of documentary film makers receive a mysterious call inviting them to a modern-day replica of H.H. Holmes’ ‘Murder Castle’. But on arrival the crew soon discover they’re being watched and even manipulated, and suddenly there’s much more at stake than just their ratings!Wherever you start, don’t play alone!
