The Devil in Me Preview – Who is The Real Devil in You?

The Devil in Me, the fourth instalment to the Dark Pictures Anthology as well as serving as the season finale for Season 1. Different from the past entries, this time we return to the classical horrors of a serial killer.

The Devil in Me is set to launch on 18^th November 2022 for the PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and Steam.

For the first preview of the game, we were introduced to the main characters as well as the setting for the game. For the beta build of the game, we got to try out their new interactive mechanic, unique items that each characters have and explore the Murder Hotel itself.

Do bear in mind, while we played it on PC via Steam, this build can only be played entirely on the controllers.

The Story of Its Horror

The center of the story this time revolves around a serial killer basing on H.H. Holmes, America’s first serial killer.

You will be following the crews of Lonnit Entertainment consisting of Charlie, Kate, Mark, Jamie and Erin as they are invited to stay at the “Murder Castle” to record a documentary to save their show. Strings of strange events happened and suddenly they find themselves trapped in the hotel full of lifeless mechanic dolls.

All the while they are completely unaware that behind the shadows, someone was watching their every move.

Much like their past entries, each of the characters have their own conflicts and relations with one another. For example, Mark is Kate’s ex-boyfriend and there’s a clear tension between them. The choices you make will affect how they feel towards one another

You can also begin to see how Supermassive has been listening to the feedbacks from the players. This time around, rather than being locked into doing specific actions to proceed, you can opt yourself to take a different course of action before proceeding.

It would not be labelled a horror without jump scares now, would it? The beta build preview has several of it and it surely did make me jump. You can feel the horror vibes from those jump scares much like how you would expect from the classical horrors of The Shining and SAW.

It’s unfortunate that most of the scenes from the preview did not really give a clear picture of the overarching plot. However, that’s a good thing since it makes me want to know more about the murder castle and the serial killer himself when the full game comes.

The New Mechanics To Guide You

Compared to the usual actions Quick Time Events you can make from previous entries, the characters in The Devil in Me comes with their own unique items that gives them an edge to solving puzzles and in the overall exploration.

For example, we have Charlie with his business card to open locked drawers and there is Mark that has his monopod to reach objects on high places.

Playing as Erin is a total anxiety inducing experience. She has her sound equipment and what it does is that it would pick up sounds for you while you walk through the hallway in the dark. Despite all this, it is relieving to find out that all these unique items are easy to access and use.

As we progress into the game, there are times when we meet with dangerous threats that could lead to the characters death if we made the wrong choice. That is where premonitions come in.

They work just as they did in the previous entries, giving us hints through visions of how the characters die. Each game in the anthology has their own variation of visions, for Devil in Me, its visions focusing on where it kills them.

Supermassive really stepped up in their exploration gameplay this time. In Devil in Me, every side of the room can be explored. You can drag furniture around, climb on them to reach higher places and maybe use them as a makeshift bridge to jump on and reach the other side of the room.

You can run in this game. Run, I tell you. Say goodbye to fast walking.

As you are approaching the “target” room, you are still free to explore around to collect important notes and clues to help you. Sometimes, you might even come across premonitions before going to the designated room.

The game also comes with collectibles in the form of coins that you can exchange to unlock extra content in the menu.

The game is not without its flaws. Getting the “button indicator” to show up would be the most frustrating experience so far. It is extremely prominent when you are in a creepy room or need to move furniture around and you have to angled yourself just right so the indicator would pop up.

Given that this is beta build, I could only hope that the final build would not be as excessively frustrating.

The Puzzles

If you are familiar with the Dark Picture Anthology, you would know that this game has puzzles for you to solve. In my case, the puzzles were not too difficult since the instructions they give are pretty clear. As long as you follow where the clues point you too, the puzzles are solved as easy as pie.

The Devil’s Closing Thoughts

If anything, Supermassive Games listening to the players’ feedback and adding more interesting mechanics into the game is a massive plus. Sure, there are repeating mechanics from previous entries, but now you have complete freedom on how you want to uncover the story behind the murder hotel.

The whole plot of being trapped in a big mansion with a serial killer is sure to attract horror movies enthusiast. With how heavy the game relies on the story and how the beta only covers the tip of it, there is sure to be more surprising twists waiting for us. I cannot wait to grab my hands and experience the game when it launches this week.

Join Us!