The Devil in Me is the most recent installment and season finale of The Dark Pictures Anthology games. The Dark Pictures Anthology games take inspiration from various real life historical events.This game follows a documentary film crew that are invited to an exact replica of America’s first serial killer, H.H. Holmes’ murder hotel. However, something far more sinister is going on behind the scenes than filming a documentary. 

Checking In

Every single little detail in this game is phenomenal, the studio has always had incredible attention to detail. It is like Five Nights at Freddy’s meets Saw meets American Horror Story: Hotel. The atmosphere  and scope of the game’s various  locations is absolutely incredible and the best in the series. Each room, corridor, and secret detail are rendered in such a way that feels both inviting and terrifying. The game is not afraid to outright reference its inspirations like Saw in its story and embrace cheesy, slasher, B movie tropes. The Devil in Me is at its best when it is presenting choices, paying homage to its references, and showing everything it has to offer. 

The Devil in Me is a genuinely scary experience and has some really tense moments and morally tough decisions. The Five Nights at Freddy’s feel and Saw-like traps are fitting given the situation and killer’s motivations, which add to the atmosphere. The killer is an ever present, very real, and mysterious threat. There is a back story there, but not everything is shared. There is also a sense of dread that lingers throughout the runtime due to the killer and story that exists under the surface told through collectibles, clues, and other secrets. The killer is unlike anything these games have presented before and fits in well thematically. 

The Devil in Me is an extremely grounded story. This is due to interpersonal connections, little to no supernatural events, the choices you can make and their impact on the story, and the setting of the hotel replica. Everything feels very real, which is largely because this is based on an event that really happened and has been retold in other media. The hotel is a very real location and tangible.

Plot

The story is interesting, the characters are well developed, the lore is well thought out, and the themes presented work well given the plot. The atmosphere in the series is great, but the hotel is definitely a character in itself. The whole storyline with Du’met, Lonnit Entertainment, the mannequins, Hector Munday, Joseph Morello, and traps are engaging and the choices you make keep everything going. This is longer than other entries, but it needs the length to tell the full story. Length will also slightly vary on the player’s choices. The intrigue is constant because of all the plot threads. Du’met is a great villain, though his motivation could have been explained just a bit more. 

Gameplay: New & Old Mechanics 

The gameplay is the same as always with some new twists introduced. It is still largely exploration of linear areas, finding items, hidden lore, collectibles, and making choices. There are some new mechanics present, being each character’s special abilities and the new puzzle solving elements. The puzzle solving was a welcome addition, some really make you think, but some became repetitive. Overall, the puzzles were a nice change of pace and served the story as well as fit in with the never ending  maze of the hotel.