Due to the fact its 2015 release, teen-horror homage Till Dawn has constructed a legion of fans, hooked on its branching narrative, memorable characters and ruthlessly effective scares. Developer Supermassive has dipped its toes back into horror on a couple of occasions due to the fact — with spin-offs Till Dawn: Rush of Blood and PS VR prequel The Inpatient — but now, with upcoming chiller Man of Medan, it is creating a complete-bodied return to the genre.
Taking the Till Dawn template and stretching it in some fascinating new directions, it is shaping up to be a really satisfying spiritual successor to the studio’s breakout hit. Ahead of its launch on August 30, we sat down with Supermassive CEO and the game’s Executive Producer, Pete Samuels, to obtain out why fans really should begin salivating.
It is the initially in a series of intense, standalone horror stories
Man of Medan is the initially entry in The Dark Images Anthology, a series of cinematic horror games influenced by actual globe legends and events. Each and every game functions a brand-new story, setting and characters, constructing on the exact same higher-stakes branching narrative formula established in Till Dawn.
“Man of Medan requires spot the South Pacific and sees 5 buddies set sail on a vacation diving trip,” explains Samuels. “With a rumored WWII wreck to obtain, and a lot of on-deck partying to be had, our group get prepared for what really should be the trip of a lifetime. As the day unfolds, and a storm rolls in, their trip quickly alterations into some thing significantly extra sinister.
“People really should anticipate the sort of tension and worry that numerous associate with Till Dawn, and with extra considerable branching that we’ve ever performed prior to. All the characters can reside or die!”
The Till Dawn group is involved
Man of Medan is incredibly significantly reduce from the exact same cloth as Till Dawn, with crucial talent from that group at the wheel. Horror fans are in protected hands. “Most of the Directors are the exact same, and about half of the group in total. We’re also utilizing numerous of the exact same inventive partners,” confirms Samuels.
The branching narrative is significantly larger than in Till Dawn
As in Till Dawn, branching narrative is the game’s backbone. All of the game’s crucial character reside or die based on the choices that you make as a player, and the details you uncover. This time on the other hand, Supermassive has taken issues even additional.
“There are scenes that only exist on distinct narrative paths distinct combinations of survivors feasible prior to the final scenes extra considerable and in some strategies extra surprising consequences of ‘mismanaging’ relationships and endings that differ substantially based on the paths you take,” explains Samuels. “Man of Medan has the most branching and feasible outcomes of any of our games to date. There are numerous strategies to try to quantify this, but here’s just one particular.”
“In Till Dawn there have been 38 death scenes for the characters and you could see up to 10 on a single playthrough. In Man of Medan there are 69, and the most you are probably to see on a single playthrough would be nine. That indicates you’d will need to play the game a minimum of nine instances just to see all of the death scenes, let alone all of the other feasible story events.”
It is not limiting itself to one particular horror sub-genre
Whereas Till Dawn was an unabashed tip-of-the-hat to the teen slasher hits of the ‘80s and ‘90s, Man of Medan draws on a wider variety of horror influences.
“Man of Medan absolutely has some related touchpoints, but also some that you’d recognize from the household invasion subgenre, and some significantly extra supernatural — even sci-fi horror,” says Samuels. “It absolutely feels extra modern in its influences we consider and, of course, it is the initially in an anthology. The second, third and fourth are really distinct in their influences.”
Supermassive has pulled with each other an additional talented cast
A crucial element in Till Dawn’s achievement was how it leaned on a talented cast of actors to genuinely sell the game’s pulpy, tongue-in-cheek dialogue — amongst them, breakout Heroes star Hayden Panettiere and a pre-Mr. Robot/Bohemian Rhapsody Rami Malek.
With Man of Medan, the studio has place with each other an additional impressive roster of Hollywood talent, like Shawn Ashmore (X-Guys, The Following) playing Conrad and Ayisha Issa (Shadowhunters, Warm Bodies, Immortals) voicing Fliss.
It is genuinely pushing the PS4 hardware
Till Dawn was a actual looker, harnessing Guerrilla Games’ Decima Engine to make its dark, atmospheric areas genuinely pop. Man of Medan’s visuals are just about every bit its equal. “We’ve moved to Unreal Engine now, and our group have constructed some amazing systems and tools that, incredibly particularly, assistance what we do and the appear that we want,” explains Samuels. “We’ll be supporting 4K resolution and HDR for compatible systems.”
The characters will be relatable
Making a horror game that is genuinely scary is a uncommon ability, and some thing that couple of titles effectively pull off. Supermassive’s secret sauce? Relatable characters that you think in and care about.
“Our brand of horror is about the vulnerability of characters that you care about. Characters that may be just a tiny like you. They’re largely unarmed and unsuspecting, and are as terrified as you’d be if such events occurred to you,” says Samuels. “That’s what productive horror is for us. ‘Real’ persons, with believable relationships, subjected to intense terror.”
It is the begin of some thing larger
As currently pointed out, Man of Medan is the initially installment in a series of horror titles, dubbed The Dark Images Anthology. It is not episodic — each and every entry will be a standalone story — but they will all exist in the exact same universe. “There is one particular character that bridges the anthology. He’s known as The Curator and is brilliantly played by Pip Torrens,” teases Samuels.
“We’ve committed ourselves to two games in any 12-month period. The initially 3 are properly underway and the fourth and fifth are relatively properly sophisticated from a narrative point of view. We even have our suggestions in spot for the sixth, seventh and eighth! Across all of these, and other individuals to come, we hope, we’d anticipate to cover numerous extra of the 39 subgenres of horror we’ve identified! We couldn’t be extra excited.”
Man of Medan hits PS4 on August 30.