The Devil in Me Review – Hello Devil, My Old Friend.

The Devil in Me is an interactive drama and survival horror game by Supermassive Games available on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S and PC via Steam.

The game serves as the season finale for the first season of the Dark Pictures Anthology and brings us back into the classic horrors of a serial killer featuring the Lonnit Entertainment crew in a murder castle.

The Gameplay of the Devil

Since The Devil in Me is part of the Dark Pictures Anthology, it’s no surprise that the game shares a few gameplay elements with past titles. One of them is the three game modes that you choose; Solo Story, Shared Story and Movie Night.

Solo Story is the standard mode of playing the game and is the only mode that will give you the Curator’s Cut upon clearing it. Shared Story, as the name implies, is the mode where you can play together with someone and Movie Night is the same as Shared Story but with multiple players and you pass the controllers to the person assigned to the characters.

Quick Time Events (QTE) is also present in this game and the tension is the same as ever. There are tons of QTEs in this game and the stress is through the roof when failure could result with the characters dying. I, for one, do not deal with brutal deaths very, very well.

Of course, the game isn’t just a copy and paste from previous titles slapped with a new story.

One of the new mechanics introduced in this game is character unique items. Each character in the game has an item that only they can use that will help you in overcoming the challenges thrown at you. For example, Charlie has his lighter to brighten dark rooms and Jamie has her multimeter to help with rewiring circuits.

The Devil in Me also gives you even more freedom when exploring. In previous games, you can only walk around and interact with objects for some dialogues and whatnot when outside of QTEs. In this game however, you can run, jump and even crawl around while exploring the mansion. There are also times when you can move furniture around to help you get to unreachable places.

Say goodbye to awkward room walking. You shall not be missed.

Although there is one thing about the exploration that does irk me a bit. The walls of the hotel shifts around as you progress and whatever places that you did not explore might no longer be accessible anymore. It bothered me to no end with how I missed a few key dialogues since I just went straight to the objective instead of exploring.

The Devious Visuals of the Game

Having played the game on the PS5, everything looks visually amazing. Everything but the characters.

There is just something about the models of the characters and how they have this thousand-yard stare on their face on every occasion. During moments where their life is on the line, they scream in horror all right but their eyes are just gazing into the abyss. They don’t feel alive at all. I’m more creeped out with the main characters than the killer actually.

The environment? The settings? They nailed it. The hotel looks super amazing and every part of it screams danger but not because of the traps and maze-like corridors but rather the ominous feeling it brings. The moment I first saw the hotel, my flight and fight sense spiked up because I had a feeling that some horrible stuff had happened here.

The camerawork in this game could use a little bit more polish to it, especially when in narrow spaces or moving around the furniture. The camera angles itself very weirdly by default in those situations that whenever a second is present, they just outright disappear. 

The Story of the Devil in You

The story centers around the five crew members of the Lonnit Entertainment. We have the director Charlie Lonnit, Kate Wilder as the reporter, Mark Nestor as their cameraman, Jamie Tiegan the lighting technician and Erin Keenan, the intern. In order to save their dying show, Charles accepted the invitation to a replica of the murder castle of HH Holmes, America’s deceased con artist and serial killer.

They were greeted by Granthem Du’Met and are ready to shoot their film. What they did not know was that soon they will be trapped in the hotel and that hides more than what they could have thought of. Death traps, creepy animatronics, maze-like corridors and worse, a serial killer out to get each of them.

The Devil in Me strays away from the supernatural horrors the previous titles in Anthology did and instead brings us back into the old classic of a serial killer horror. We even got to see him in action at the very start of the game through a flashback which was something I do not thoroughly enjoy. Do not get me wrong, it is amazing but I just do not deal with gory deaths very well.

The Devil’s Thoughts

Serving as the season finale for the first season of the Anthology, I think The Devil in Me did a pretty good job in bringing this horror season to a close. The story is amazing and the voice actors did really well in delivering their lines. It is a shame that the models don’t exactly do any justice to it.

Aside from that, the new additions to the game like more movement and the unique items also gives the game a fresher experience and I enjoyed every bit of it. Overall, the game is pretty amazing and I cannot wait to see what Supermassive Games has in store for us in Season 2.

Game was reviewed on PC.  Review code provided by Bandai Namco Entertainment SEA

The Devil in Me

Publisher: Bandai Namco Entertainment

Developer: Supermassive Games

Release Date: 2022-11-18

Microsoft Windows, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S

A group of documentary film makers receive a mysterious call inviting them to a modern-day replica of serial killer H.H. Holmes ‘Murder Castle’. But on arrival they soon discover they’re being watched, and even manipulated, and suddenly there is much more at stake than just their ratings

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