On April 14, the official trailer for The Dark Pictures: Little Hope released on YouTube. For those unfamiliar with The Dark Pictures, the roughly two-and-a-half-minute trailer may seem packed with action, scares and yes, that is Will Poulter.
If you missed the previous installation of The Dark Pictures, Man of Medan, you may have questions about Little Hope and its trailer, such as who the narrator guy is walking around with the candelabra. Here are the answers to those questions and everything we know so far about Little Hope.
What is The Dark Pictures?
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is an interactive horror game by the studio behind Until Dawn, Supermassive Games. With multiple player characters, the game’s narrative path depends on the choices the player makes with these characters. This encourages replaying, as each playthrough will change as the choices change. These playthroughs can uncover details as small as story clues and items or make drastic differences in the narrative, such as character deaths.
Little Hope is the second installation in an anthology by Supermassive called The Dark Pictures. The first game in the anthology, Man of Medan, was released on August 30, 2019. Man of Medan follows a young couple and their siblings whose diving excursion begins to go horribly awry. Like Until Dawn, The Dark Pictures revolves around horror and irony: as the narrative unfolds, players begin to question the things the game has told them -- what is real and what isn’t?
Each Dark Pictures game is a standalone horror adventure. Players who weren’t interested in Man of Medan, or otherwise missed it, don’t have to worry about catching up on it to play Little Hope.
Who is The Curator?
The Curator is what ties The Dark Pictures anthology together. He’s a seemingly omniscient narrator who leads players through each story. At narrative pauses, such as scene changes and time jumps, the Curator appears in his study to speak directly to the player and offers suggestions. It’s wise to keep his words in mind, as the way he phrases his sentences will give players clues about what to keep an eye out for.
Though his intentions are unclear, at least in Man of Medan, he never intentionally misleads the player.
Everything We Know About Little Hope
As described on The Dark Pictures website, Little Hope follows four college students, accompanied by their professor, whose bus crashes in the abandoned town of Little Hope. Trapped there by the weather, the group begins to relive the town’s violent past of witch hunts and possessions. Most notable among the face-captured cast is Will Poulter, the English actor who players may recognize from productions like Midsommar and Netflix’s Bandersnatch.
The trailer shows both scenes from Little Hope’s colonial witch-hunting days and the present, meaning the setting will likely go back and forth between the two. Some reviews for Man of Medan complained about the game’s slow pacing, which appears remedied in Little Hope. House fires, withered creatures and collapsing bridges promise a more action-packed adventure, with perhaps more dire consequences.
The game has three different ways of playing. The first is “Solo Story.” In solo mode, a single player can play through the game as it cycles through each character’s perspective. In “Movie Night Mode,” up to five players can cooperatively play the game together on one console. Before the multiplayer mode begins, players assign themselves characters in the game, and as the game shifts to those characters, the players pass the controller back and forth. Lastly, there’s “Shared Story” mode, which is a cooperative mode where a single player can play online with a friend.
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope is set to release this summer on Xbox, Playstation 4 and PC. It’s currently available for pre-order on Xbox and Playstation 4 for $29.99.