BANDAI NAMCO Entertainment The Dark Pictures: The Devil in Me for Xbox One & Xbox Series X

I've been a fan of the Dark Pictures Anthology from the beginning. The entire series is clearly made by people who know, love, and understand the horror genre, so I've always felt in good hands while playing any of these games. And I like that, unlike many horror games that are more action-based than horror-based, these games emphasize storytelling over gameplay. A lot of gamers don't necessarily like that, but I'm one of the ones who think it's a nice way to go.However, I've also had some issues with the series in the past. Though I appreciate the emphasis on story over in-game action, I've criticized some of the gameplay and mechanics in previous installments. In particular, I've not been a fan of the series' overuse of quick time events to resolve critical moments in the games.Fortunately, The Devil in Me manages to solve a lot of those issues. Though it's still driven partly by quick time events, they're de-emphasized here. In their place, the player has more puzzles to solve, which I think is a better way to go. I'm not sure if they've still quite hit the balance exactly right, but I think The Devil in Me represents a move in the right direction. They've also added new quasi quick-time events, including the ability to hide from view or the necessity of balancing when moving across a log. These are welcome additions, but probably not used quite enough (or with severe enough consequences in some cases) to justify their inclusion.Another new addition is a sort of inventory system for the characters. Some items are the characters' own personal tools and others are things they need to find along the way to progress through the story. Once again, this is a welcome addition that makes the game feel a little bit less like just watching a movie (albeit one in which you occasionally need to mash buttons in the correct order) and more like a roleplaying game. However, I would have liked to see more opportunities to use (or misuse) these various items throughout the game.The story itself is what we're really here for, though. The Dark Pictures series has always been fairly cinematic and seems to be geared toward those of us who want something like a horror movie, but with enough interaction to get the heart rate up a bit at critical moments. With that in mind, the game is really going to succeed or fail less on the basis of the gameplay mechanics and more on whether or not the player finds the story interesting, characters engaging, and scares effective.Overall, it's successful in this department as well. It's an interesting story about a recreation of H. H. Holmes' murder castle and a film crew of mostly likable and interesting characters trying to explore said castle.One of the things that I like about this series is that characters can die as a result of decisions the player makes. And you don't just go back to a save point. They die for good, and the rest of the characters keep moving through the game without them. It's possible for all of the characters to survive, for none of them to survive, or for any combination in between. This means we get a wealth of different variations on the story and also adds a lot of tension to the gameplay.My biggest complaint there is that in this case even a bit more than in previous installments, whether characters live or die is less a result of player skill (either at reflexively pressing buttons during quick time events or at solving the puzzles to make the right decisions) and more a result of mere chance. Given two options, one lets a character live and another makes the character die, and nothing in either the story or the gameplay prepares the player to make the right choice. You might as well just flip a coin. While there's a certain realism in this approach, it actually undercuts some of the tension, because a lot of the tension in a horror game comes from the desperate hope that you make the correct decision. If there's no way you could even hope to know in advance what decision to make--no way to solve the puzzle--I think the player is absolved from a bit too much of the responsibility for those decisions' consequences.With all of that said, I've liked every installment in the Dark Pictures Anthology overall, and I think this is arguably the strongest one yet. I'm certainly happy to recommend it, and I'll certainly be back for the next one.

Este tipo de juegos de la Saga Dark Pictures Anthology son muy entretenidos, se disfrutan mucho pues poseen casi todas las cualidades de una película, pero lo interactiva es lo que la hace mejor pues realmente las decisiones marcan la diferencia entre los posibles finales dando pie a mucha rejugabilidad a fin de saber “que pasaba si”. Sin duda un juego que se disfruta mas con amigos pero tampoco decepcióna jugando en solitario.

One of the longest games of season 1. They also adjusted some of the game play to introduce new things, making that game a bit different than the other ones. Also, this game has a great storyline! Loved it!

Great for horror fans

This game could have been one of the best of the franchise with a little more polishing!Pros: I loved that they took inspirations off an actual real life serial murder!The graphics were greatCons: I played on the Xbox one S. I had some stuttering issues with the cut scenes but nothing game breaking.The developers added way too much information, it made the story hard to keep up with.The camera angles are still horrible..Regardless, I'd recommend others to play this game.