Like its predecessor, Man of Medan,
it’s through the co-op modes that the
game reveals all of its mysteries. In
singleplayer, you’ll control different
members of the stranded quintet,
trapped in the town of Little Hope
by fog and plagued by
visions of 17th century
witch trials. The shared
story, however, lets you
experience these
scenes from a different
perspective, and when
the game splits you up,
you’ll have to rely on
your co-op buddy,
listening to them investigate ruined
buildings or get ambushed by a
monster, with only a QTE between
them and death.
The frantic QTE sequences made
me feel like I was always just about
to die, but they’re actually easygoing.
To make them more accessible, there
are unobtrusive alerts ahead of the
prompts now warning you that a
QTE is coming. This extra second
to prepare doesn’t diminish their
impact, but it does make it less likely
that you’ll hit the wrong button.Little Hope is a social game. You
can enjoy it on your lonesome, but
you’ll miss out the best parts. You’re
meant to yell, swap theories about
why the gang is trapped and develop
these characters together. After every
surprise, I found myself
hitting pause so we
could talk about what
just happened and
build the full picture
from our individual
perspectives. This was
the magic that made
Man of Medan work,
too, and good co-op
can make it easy to overlook places
where the game is less refined. But
Little Hope doesn’t really develop
it further, and it actually takes
advantage of it less. Where Man of
Medan used it to foster paranoia and
sow distrust between players, Little
Hope’s approach to co-op seems
more straightforward.ABANDON HOPE
There’s still lots of character drama,
mind you. The gang is made up of
three students in their 20s, a maturestudent and their professor. Two of
them are dating, but nobody really
gets along that well in Little Hope.
They’re stressed, but they’re also
just kinda dicks, with one bland
exception. They’re all familiar
archetypes, like the vanilla do-gooder,
the tense academic and the Queen of
Karens. Being painted in broad
strokes makes it easier to slip into
their personalities when you take
control of them, though, and while
none of these characters are
particularly nuanced, most of them
are fun roleplaying subjects.
Between QTEs and conversations
are opportunities to explore, mostly
by looking at objects the game clearly
highlights. The camera has been
freed up to give you more control,
and while there aren’t any puzzles,
Supermassive uses the time to ramp
up the tension and tease some hints
about what’s really going on.
Sometimes its cinematic notions
get the better of it, however, and the
camera abruptly switches to a
dramatic angle, like maybe you’re
being watched from some bushes.
Perfectly fine for a movie, maybe, but
every single time this happened, my
co-op partner and I stopped in our
tracks because we thought we’d hit
a cutscene. There are quite a few
awkward scene transitions, too, or
places where the pace abruptly
speeds up and it’s not clear what
the heck is actually going on.
Most of the time, though, it’s like
being stuck in a schlocky horror
movie. It’s Final Destination meets
The Crucible, where you’re watching
yourself die one minute and
attending a dimly lit witch trial the
next. The co-op doesn’t impress quite
as much as it did in Man of Medan,
but this is still one of the best ways to
get spooked with some mates.NEED TO KNOW
WHAT IS IT?
A choice-laden horror
game with some great
co-op modes
EXPECT TO PAY
£25
DEVELOPER
Supermassive Games
PUBLISHER
Bandai Namco
REVIEWED ON
GTX 1080 Ti, Intel
i7-8086K, 16GB RAM
MULTIPLAYER
Yes
LINK
thedarkpictures.com74
While Little Hope is not
quite as novel as its
predecessor, the co-op
is still bewitching and
offers up some scares.VERDICTNobody
really gets
along
that well in
Little HopeC
erebral horror is fine, but I like my scares to come from
monster chases and stuff jumping out of the shadows. Idiots in
peril, abandoned towns, maybe some ghosts – that’s where I
get my thrills. Little Hope, the second game in the Dark
Pictures Anthology, has all of that, along with multiplayer
modes that help it simultaneously capture the experience of watching and
being inside a goofy horror flick with your pals.SCOOBY GANG
LITTLE HOPE is a ghost tour that’s
better with friends. By Fraser Brown
HALLOWEEN PARTY
Here are the three ways you can play Little HopeSOLO
On your own, you can still
play as each member of the
group and get a favourable
ending, and you might find
it a little scarier.SHARED STORY
This is an online-only
co-op option for two
players that lets you
experience scenes from
a different perspective.MOVIE NIGHT
You’ll need four friends
to make the most out
of this one, which is an
offline co-op mode where
everyone takes turns.Little Hope
REVIEW