The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope

Setting and prologue

Little Hope is set in a fictionalised version of the ghost town in Massachusetts, which is isolated by a dense fog. The narrative explores multiple timelines, jumping between the present day and the town's colonial witch trials era. The prologue takes place in 1972 and follows the Clarke family: parents Anne and James, and their four adopted children, Anthony, Tanya, Dennis, and Megan. Megan starts a house fire that kills her parents and siblings, with only Anthony surviving. Following the prologue, the Curator introduces himself to the player and outlines the story's premise.

Characters

The five protagonists are four college students—Andrew (Will Poulter), Taylor (Caitlyn Sponheimer), Daniel (Kyle Bailey), and Angela (Ellen David), a mature student in her forties, along with their professor, John (Alex Ivanovici), a recovering alcoholic.^[1][2][11]

Little Hope centres on a group that generally struggles to cooperate, with their interactions shaped by the player's choices.^[2][8] Interpersonal dynamics include a romantic relationship between Taylor and Daniel, and an established history between Andrew and Angela.^[1][2] Angela is portrayed as highly critical, frequently making cutting remarks and putting her companions down.^[2][4] The protagonists' identities are integral to the plot, as the narrative explores their connections to doppelgängers from the town's history across the different timelines.^[6]

Main plot

In the present day, a bus driver transporting the protagonists is forced to take a detour through Little Hope, where the bus crashes. The driver vanishes, and the group ventures into the fog-shrouded town to seek help. They encounter Vince, a local resident with ties to the 1972 fire, who informs them that the town is abandoned and without power.

As they navigate, the group is repeatedly pulled into the 17th century by a ghostly apparition of a young girl named Mary, the historical doppelgänger of Anthony's deceased sister, Megan. During these visions, the protagonists witness Reverend Carver manipulating Mary into falsely accusing the townspeople, who are doppelgängers of the present-day group, of witchcraft. As the historical counterparts are executed, demonic manifestations of their deaths emerge in the present to hunt the modern group.

The surviving characters eventually reach the ruined Clarke family household, where they witness a final vision of Carver betraying Mary. Through his historical doppelgänger, Andrew can influence the past and choose either to expose Carver's deception, destroy Mary's doll, or allow Mary to be executed. Following this confrontation, the narrative reveals that the bus driver is actually an adult Anthony Clarke. The modern-day students, the professor, and the demonic creatures were all hallucinations manifested from Anthony's survivor guilt; he had been wandering the town entirely alone following the crash. The story's conclusion is determined by Anthony's prior interactions with Vince, whether he acquired a firearm, and how he handled Mary's trial. Depending on these choices, Anthony will either be arrested, commit suicide, remain burdened by his guilt, or finally accept that the fire was an accident and find peace.

Story and design

Supermassive designed Little Hope as a standalone story within a shared universe, connected to other anthology instalments by the presence of the Curator and hidden Easter eggs.^[7] In response to player feedback regarding the pacing of Man of Medan, the team designed the opening sequence of Little Hope to establish the core threat faster.^[3] They shifted away from the modern-day setting of Man of Medan in favour of a narrative intertwining the present day with the 17th-century Andover and Salem witch trials.^[7] Executive producer Pete Samuels explained that the studio chose witchcraft as the central theme to explore the historical roots of paranoia and how communities turn on one another.^[14] The team drew on the real-world Andover witch trials, as the town historically recorded more accusations than Salem.^[3] During their research, the developers discovered a recreation of a 1692 map featuring a small tract of land labelled "Little Hope Meadow", which directly inspired the name of the game's setting.^[17] Supermassive also enlisted a costume designer from the film industry to research period-accurate clothing for the 1692 timeline.^[3] The Silent Hill franchise, particularly its use of volumetric fog, and Arthur Miller's play, The Crucible, inspired the game's narrative and atmosphere.^[14][18] The team also drew upon horror films including The Witch (2015), The Blair Witch Project (1999), Hellraiser (1987), It Follows (2014), The Omen (1976), and Season of the Witch (1973).^[14]

Supermassive initially conceptualised the threat around a group being hunted by a single supernatural force and drew inspiration from It Follows and the "Mr. X" mechanic in Resident Evil 2.^[19] As the witchcraft theme solidified, this evolved into demons that physically manifested the execution methods of the 17th-century doppelgängers.^[20] The art team referenced autopsies to accurately depict the physical trauma of hangings and prolonged water exposure.^{[21]: 00:59–01:35} The developers used backlighting and the town's fog to obscure the full forms of the demons and relied on silhouettes to maximise player tension. They designed the creatures to represent the psychological trauma that can result from witnessing traumatic events.^{[21]: 05:11–06:12} Supermassive used custom tools within Unreal Engine 4 to synchronise the story for both players without delays to accommodate the branching narrative during the Shared Story mode.^[19] The team implemented a hybrid camera system and transitioned between the fixed cinematic angles of Man of Medan and a player-controlled 360-degree camera to enhance environments.^[15]

Casting

Supermassive Games marketed Will Poulter as the game's leading actor. He provided both the voice and motion capture performances for three characters across the narrative's multiple timelines: present-day college student Andrew, Anthony, and 17th-century resident Abraham.^[22] Because the narrative spans three time periods, the studio required the cast to portray multiple iterations of their characters. Poulter used distinct mannerisms and accents for each era to differentiate his roles, which included a Northern English accent for the 17th-century setting. The development team employed dialect coach Julia Leonard to assist him in navigating the shifts.^[20] Alex Ivanovici altered his performance to portray the middle-aged professor John by adopting a heavier and less mobile running style to reflect the character's older age and larger build.^{[23]: 04:37}

As Little Hope marked his first fully motion captured performance, Poulter stated that the pacing of video game development was significantly faster than his previous television and film work. He drew upon his experience acting in the interactive film Black Mirror: Bandersnatch (2018) to navigate the complexities of performing within a branching narrative. While Bandersnatch was filmed entirely out of continuity, Supermassive allowed the cast to shoot the branching scenarios in mostly chronological sequence.^[22] The studio grouped traumatic action sequences together and shot them out of order; the cast found this emotionally exhausting, as they had to snap into high-energy states of terror without the benefit of a build-up.^{[24]: 03:51} Game director Nik Bowen instructed the cast to avoid overly theatrical performances and to focus on authenticity to heighten the psychological horror. Performing scenes where temporal doppelgängers directly interacted with one another proved challenging; Poulter described the motion capture process for these sequences as a "brain scramble".^[22]

Actors described the experience of performing in a blank motion capture volume as strange. They relied on interacting with isolated props and their imagination to convey the game's horror, though some found the uninhibited environment freeing.^{[20][24]: 05:00} Supermassive hired actors to physically portray the demons to ensure the monster movements appeared realistically distressed. The team applied practical constraints to the performers during filming, which included tying physical spikes to them as they limped across the volume.^{[21]: 02:50–02:57} The only exception was the "crushed demon", which had to be entirely hand-animated because the team could not use motion capture footage for it.^{[21]: 02:38–02:50}

Music and sound design

Jason Graves, who previously composed the score for Man of Medan, returned to compose the soundtrack for Little Hope.^[25] He avoided the orchestral and synthesiser sounds of the previous game, and instead focused on capturing the atmosphere of 1692 New England.^[25] Graves recorded the score using antique stringed instruments to reflect the historical setting of the witch trials. These included a bowed psaltery, hurdy-gurdy, hammered dulcimer, and a solo cello.^[26] He kept the instruments out of tune and used his first recorded takes without digital editing.^[27] He also recruited his youngest daughter to record the game's main theme, nursery rhymes, and mysterious whispering to accompany choral chants.^[26][27] Graves composed a six-note motif played on an aged piano, which audio director Barney Pratt stated that it provided subtle clues regarding the character's overarching narrative journey.^[28]

Pratt revealed the audio team's primary focus was creating a strong presence for the game's demons.^[29] Because each demon visually represents the execution method of a 17th-century character, their audio profiles were built to reflect that trauma; the team mixed distant chains and screams with close-up sounds of cracking skin, vomit, and strained breathing.^[29] The team designed these close-up sound effects to feel uncomfortably close to the player.^{[21]: 03:55–04:02} They also designed the overall soundscape to reflect the characters' psychological trauma and created separate audio structures for footsteps and clothing scuffs alongside a dynamic breathing system that reacted in real-time to the protagonists' exhaustion and stress levels.^[29]

Release

Supermassive revealed Little Hope in August 2019 via a post-credits teaser trailer included within Man of Medan.^[30] Bandai Namco Entertainment officially announced the game in February 2020. They initially targeting a middle of 2020 launch,^[31][32] but the game was delayed due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[16] Little Hope was released for PlayStation 4, Windows, and Xbox One on 30 October 2020.^[33] Supermassive later launched native versions for PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X/S on 27 September 2022, which introduced enhanced visuals alongside new accessibility and difficulty settings.^[34] A Nintendo Switch port was released on 5 October 2023.^[35] A post-credits teaser trailer at the end of the game revealed the next instalment in the anthology, House of Ashes, which was released on 22 October 2021.^[36][37]

Critical response

Little Hope received "mixed or average" reviews on the review aggregator website Metacritic,^[45] while 50% of critics recommended the game according to OpenCritic.^[41] Critics praised the detailed character models and atmospheric environments, alongside Poulter's performance across the multiple timelines.^[6][10] Reviewers commended the soundscape and Graves's musical score for heightening the tension and reinforcing the supernatural dread of the 17th-century setting.^[2][4][10] Several publications considered the game a significant improvement over Man of Medan; Mark Delaney of GamesRadar+ and Push Square's Liam Croft characterised it as the strongest release from Supermassive since Until Dawn (2015).^[4][5][6]

The game's investigative elements drew a mixed response.^{[2][8][10][42]} While PC Gamer's Fraser Brown appreciated the freed-up camera system for giving players more control to explore derelict buildings,^[2] Sam Chandler of Shacknews criticised the sluggish character movement and cumbersome camera angles for making environmental searches tedious.^[10] Reviewers also faulted the overall gameplay for failing to meaningfully evolve the anthology's formula.^[1][8]

The implementation of action sequences and QTEs also divided critics.^{[1][6][8][42]} Kimberley Wallace of Game Informer praised the decision to include on-screen notifications warning players of upcoming button prompts as a welcome change from the previous instalment,^[42] while IGN's Lucy O'Brien wrote that the warnings and extended reaction windows lowered the difficulty.^[1] Reviewers argued that this lack of challenge during action set-pieces diminished the sense of peril and undermined the overarching horror.^[6][43]

Critics expressed polarised opinions regarding the narrative pacing and branching choice system.^{[1][4][8][42]} Wallace highlighted the storytelling and lore-rich world,^[42] while Edwin Evans-Thirlwell of Eurogamer found that the game tethered character traits and relationships more confidently to story outcomes than in the previous game.^[4] O'Brien and GameSpot's Andrew King considered the choice-and-consequence mechanics largely superficial, as interpersonal dynamics frequently felt divorced from the player's dialogue choices.^[1][8] Wallace also found the thriller aspects underwhelming and concluded that the reliance on predictable horror tropes and basic jump scares detracted from the overarching psychological dread.^[42]

The narrative's conclusion was a significant point of contention among critics. Evans-Thirlwell and King argued that the ending was a disappointment that failed to bring the game's various timelines together in a satisfying way.^[4][8] The revelation that the demonic creatures and historical doppelgängers were manifestations of Anthony's survivor guilt and PTSD was specifically criticised for undermining the game's interactive elements.^[1][44][46] The "it was all in his head" trope was polarising and alienated portions of the player base, an issue documented by Michael Leri of Game Revolution and Brandon Trush of Bloody Disgusting.^[43][47] Despite this frustration regarding the interactive mechanics, several publications acknowledged the ending as a poignant and effective thematic exploration of trauma and grief.^[4][6][42]

Sales and accolades

Little Hope debuted as the ninth best-selling physical retail game in the UK during its first week.^[48] It was also the fourth best-selling digital game in the UK for the week ending 31 October 2020, though its overall launch week sales were lower than those of Man of Medan.^[49] At the 2021 TIGA Awards, Little Hope won the awards for "Game of the Year" and "Best Social Game", and received a nomination for "Best Audio in a Game Cinematic".^[50]