Supermassive Games has its oeuvre in narrative driven horror tropes games, the studio being most know for fan-favourite Until Dawn. They continued this style of work on in the Dark Pictures Anthology series and the first part, Man of Medan came out to mixed reviews, some liking the story but not the characters and visa versa. I enjoyed the game enough but it didn’t blow me away, although the central mystery was pretty interesting. I played the second game, Little Hope, and thought that it was an okay experience but not as good as their previous work.

So, it was with some sense of trepidation that I approached the third game in the series 'House of Ashes.' The reviews had been more favourable to this game with some claiming that it was the studio's best game since Until Dawn.

Over the course of a couple of days, I have to say that I enjoyed my 6 or so hour playtime. The story was intriguing and I like how they didn't shy away from the horrors of the invasion of Iraq. The characters were more nuanced and the Iraqi backdrop was beautifully realised with the Sumerian ruins being gorgeously portrayed. In terms of gameplay its the usual QTE stuff and dialogue tree choices but it's all pretty typical of Supermassive Games. Below are screenshots of my playthrough.