The new slew of information is really cool ranging from all sorts of interesting tidbits and whatnot. Man of Medan is going to be the first game in The Dark Pictures anthology series from the acclaimed developers and earlier today we learned that gamers won’t have to wait much longer to get their hands on it as it is set to release on August 30th.
Check out the new Repercussion trailer for the Man of Medan horror title down below:
In addition to the new trailer, we also earned more about the characters, the branching narratives, and much more! Check out some of the highlights from the interview down below:
It’s the first in a series of intense, standalone horror stories
“Man of Medan takes place the South Pacific and sees five friends set sail on a holiday diving trip,” explains Samuels. “With a rumored WWII wreck to find, and plenty of on-deck partying to be had, our group get ready for what should be the trip of a lifetime. As the day unfolds, and a storm rolls in, their trip soon changes into something much more sinister.
“People should expect the kind of tension and fear that many associate with Until Dawn, and with more significant branching that we’ve ever done before. All the characters can live or die!”
The branching narrative is much bigger than in Until Dawn
As in Until Dawn, branching narrative is the game’s backbone. All of the game’s key character live or die depending on the decisions that you make as a player, and the information you uncover.
“There are scenes that only exist on specific narrative paths; different combinations of survivors possible before the final scenes; more significant and in some ways more surprising consequences of ‘mismanaging’ relationships; and endings that vary significantly depending on the paths you take,” explains Samuels. “Man of Medan has the most branching and possible outcomes of any of our games to date. There are many ways to attempt to quantify this, but here’s just one.”
“In Until Dawn there were 38 death scenes for the characters and you could see up to 10 on a single playthrough. In Man of Medan there are 69, and the most you are likely to see on a single playthrough would be nine. That means you’d need to play the game a minimum of nine times just to see all of the death scenes, let alone all of the other possible story events.”
Supermassive has pulled together another talented cast
A key factor in Until Dawn’s success was how it leaned on a talented cast of actors to really sell the game’s pulpy, tongue-in-cheek dialogue — among them, breakout Heroes star Hayden Panettiere and a pre-Mr. Robot/Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek.
With Man of Medan, the studio has put together another impressive roster of Hollywood talent, including Shawn Ashmore (X-Men, The Following) playing Conrad and Ayisha Issa (Shadowhunters, Warm Bodies, Immortals) voicing Fliss.
The characters will be relatable
Creating a horror game that is genuinely scary is a rare skill, and something that few titles successfully pull off. Supermassive’s secret sauce? Relatable characters that you believe in and care about.
“Our brand of horror is about the vulnerability of characters that you care about. Characters that might be just a little like you. They’re largely unarmed and unsuspecting, and are as terrified as you’d be if such events happened to you,” says Samuels. “That’s what effective horror is for us. ‘Real’ people, with believable relationships, subjected to extreme terror.”
It’s the start of something bigger
As already mentioned, Man of Medan is the first installment in a series of horror titles, dubbed The Dark Pictures Anthology. It’s not episodic — each entry will be a standalone story — but they will all exist in the same universe. “There is one character that bridges the anthology. He’s called The Curator and is brilliantly played by Pip Torrens,” teases Samuels.
“We’ve committed ourselves to two games in any 12-month period. The first three are well underway and the fourth and fifth are fairly well advanced from a narrative perspective. We even have our ideas in place for the sixth, seventh and eighth! Across all of these, and others to come, we hope, we’d expect to cover many more of the 39 subgenres of horror we’ve identified! We couldn’t be more excited.”
Man of Medan is set to release for the PS4, Xbox One, and PC on August 30th. Are you excited for the upcoming horror title? Let us know on the comments below!
