Hi there, I’m Pete Samuels, Series Director and Executive Producer of The Dark Pictures Anthology. I’m hugely excited to talk to you about Little Hope, the next game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, which is releasing on October 30.
Just to recap — The Dark Pictures Anthology is a series of standalone cinematic horror games, each featuring a brand-new story, setting and characters. Each game is playable in single player or in two multiplayer modes – two-player online Shared Story mode and up to 5-player couch co-op Movie Night mode.
We were really pleased with the response from the PlayStation community to Man of Medan – the first game in the anthology, released last year — and we can’t wait to see your reaction to Little Hope. All of the games in the series are totally standalone and have very different stories. Man of Medan set you adrift in a terrifying ghost ship stuck in the middle of the South Pacific, but this time you are on dry land in the very creepy and strange town of Little Hope!
As with all the games in the series remember that everyone can live and everyone can die in your version of the story – so make your choices wisely as there are always consequences!
So, I’m sure you are dying to know more about Little Hope? How about we start with the story and setting first. Abandoned and all alone after their bus crashes in bad weather, four college students and their teacher become stranded in the isolated town of Little Hope. Trapped by a mysterious fog, they search desperately for a means of escape whilst terrifying visions from the past haunt them from the shadows. After bearing witness to the town’s gruesome past, and the terrible events of 17th Century Witch trials, hellish beings pursue them relentlessly. Trapped in Little Hope they try to figure out the motivation of these demonic apparitions before the evil forces at work drags each of their souls to hell!
As each of the games in the series are very different, so too are our inspirations. The cinematic and literary influences for this game include “The Witch,” “Season of the Witch,” and “Blair Witch,” but people will recognise some other strong influences such as “Hellbound Heart,” “Hellraiser” and other similar works by Barker. Also, two of my personal favourites “It Follows” and “The Omen.” Interestingly, our studio is just a stone’s throw from Guildford Cathedral which features strongly in Richard Donner’s 1976 classic.
The cast and characters are pivotal to our games too, so we’re really excited that we have Will Poulter leading the talented cast of Little Hope. He is a fantastic actor and really bought the character of Andrew to life.
As well as the story, setting and cast we’ve been focusing on some improved features based on feedback from the Dark Pictures community. For example, the team has included context-sensitive icons for interacting with objects in the world and QTE alerts that tell players when one is coming and the action they need to perform. We’ve also added a floating camera in some parts of the game to allow you to fully control your view of the spooky surroundings, together with a wider range of walk-speeds for the characters.
So, there you have it, a brief introduction to the next game in the Dark Pictures Anthology. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and we can’t wait for you to enter the town of Little Hope this Halloween!
