izigame.me

The Good:
+ Fairly well done atmosphere
+ H.H. Holmes is an interesting topic that doesn’t get much exposure
+ A bit more “interactive” than previous Supermassive games
The Bad:
- Terrible camera placement/control
- Technical issues with textures, lighting, delayed prompts, and character facial design
- Story and character development felt rather undercooked
The Bottom Line:
The Devil in Me follows the crew of an independent television series when they’re invited to a remote island in Lake Michigan to visit a meticulously recreated World’s Fair Hotel.
As H.H. Holmes - America’s first and possibly most prolific serial killer - is the subject of their current project, the chance to walk the rebuilt halls of his infamous “murder castle” is too great of an opportunity for the crew to pass up.
Dreams of finally achieving notoriety and success quickly turn into a nightmare for them though as they discover too late that they may be the newest victims of the killer from beyond the grave…
As with all of Supermassive’s titles, The Devil in Me isn’t so much of a traditional game as it is a kind of “interactive horror movie”.
The player controls the various characters as they explore a series of environments and attempt to survive the ordeal - picking up clues along the way to unravel the mystery and having to make both dialogue and situational choices that decide not only the different directions the narrative can go, but also the fates of the characters.
Any/all characters can die at various points throughout the game and their survival (or lack thereof) can alter how events unfold and what experiences the player has.
Unfortunately, not much has been innovated or expanded on from previous installments in the series; however, it did feel like there was a small increase in interactivity. There are more opportunities for the player to engage with the environments as well as a VERY basic inventory system that allows the free use of light sources when exploring, tools to help investigate or obtain clues, and the utilization of items in situations that could potentially save characters or present alternative choices and actions.
This is a good improvement for the series, but if Supermassive is hoping to appeal to a wider audience by evolving the gameplay - they still have quite a ways to go.
While I enjoyed these minor improvements and the return to a less hair-brained narrative than House of Ashes’ Operation Iraqi Freedom vs Mesopotamian vampire aliens, The Devil in Me really failed to appeal to me largely due to what felt like a lack of polish and uptick in technical issues.
For starters, the camera placement and controls have never been great in Supermassive’s games but this time around it felt especially horrendous. In most environments, the camera is way too close to your character which makes navigation clunky and the search for clues/interaction points more difficult than usual - forcing you to swing the camera around like a lunatic in every room just to find things or proceed through the environment.
True technical issues also seemed to be more present in this game than in previous ones.
Inconsistent texture quality, inexplicable dips in frame rate, delayed interaction prompts, and issues with the lighting and brightness hampered my experience throughout.
On top of this, various other issues were present such as the player’s light source automatically switching off every time you interacted with something (forcing you to turn it back on), various janky and stiff animations, more than a few instances of voice acting that just did not sound convincing or appropriate, and the uncanny valley feeling cropping up often as character’s eyes just didn’t behave like normal human eyes at all.
As a fan of Supermassive and these style of games, it honestly kills me to say it, but The Devil in Me is their most disappointing installment yet.
It’s not frightening or anxiety inducing at all, it’s narrative - despite having an interesting basis - is more jumbled than usual and lacks any kind of satisfying conclusion, and it’s lack of polish was just too consistently noticeable to overlook.
A lackluster finale for The Dark Pictures Season One for certain, but hopefully not a sign of things to come with the forthcoming Directive 8020…
Final Verdict = 6 out of 10 Mustachioed Masks