When played the way the developers intended, Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is a one-of-a-kind triumph, and a shared horror experience unlike anything ever produced. It’s extremely presumptuous to ask players to buy two copies to get the full effect, but I can’t deny that it’s absolutely worth the time and expense for those who do. Dark Pictures: Man of Medan is a true evolution of the interactive movie genre, and horror fans owe it to themselves to climb aboard.

Supermassive’s back in full swing. In spite of a predictable plot and setting, I eventually grew somewhat tired of, I loved every aspect of Man of Medan. It’s a killer debut to a series I’m now eagerly anticipating. It has the spooks, fun cast, and unforgiving consequences I grew to love in Until Dawn. Horror fans rejoice, as Man of Medan’s a phenomenal introduction to a promising new interactive anthology series.

For this first episode in The Dark Pictures Anthology, Supermassive Games has fulfilled its mission — to provide us with a game that effectively reproduces horror movie tropes. The quality of the graphics and sound is undeniable, even it sometimes looks more like an interactive film than a game, and it gives little freedom. It achieves its goals by effectively and intelligently managing to frighten us — it's just a shame that the QTEs sometimes make us angry.

Man of Medan is a promising start to the Dark Pictures Anthology. I'd be happy to play more of these b-horror movie simulators, full of pretty people desperately trying to survive.

The great horror atmosphere has created constant tension with me.

Man of Medan is a worthy follow-up to Until Dawn. It hits a lot of the same notes, and it's clear the developers understood the group appeal of watching-slash-playing a cheesy horror film with friends. There are still some weak points, but Man of Medan shows a willingness to learn from the previous game's mistakes and leaves us curious to see the next part of the anthology.

Man of Medan is quickly overtaken by a very average writing quality and an abominable technical level synonymous with jerks and other constant freezes.