It's nice to see that Friv2Online Games Studio site are listening to criticism: each subsequent game of The Dark Pictures Anthology is getting better, getting rid of controversial gameplay decisions and acquiring new mechanics. The third part of the series, House of Ashes, feels much more dynamic than the slow Man of Medan and Little Hope. However, it was not without problems. More details in our review.

Man of Medan was about a nightmarish ghost ship. Little Hope is set in a town filled with witches and monsters. House of Ashes sends us to the ruins of an ancient Sumerian temple, where bloodthirsty creatures have awakened.

Events take place in Iraq, in 2003. Here, a detachment of American special forces is investigating the site of a potential storage facility for weapons of mass destruction. Ambushed by the Iraqi military, the soldiers take the fight, but soon both sides fall into the ground, where they discover something worse than chemical weapons.

Unlike the previous parts of the series, this time the threat is real, and the monsters are not a figment of the heroes' imagination. Therefore, the heads here are truly torn off. However, the creatures are opposed by trained fighters, so the dynamics increase, and in the gloomy caves rifles speak more often than people.

Traditionally for an anthology, we have five characters at our disposal, each with certain personal qualities. Senior officer Rachel King, played by movie star Ashley Tisdale, is domineering and tough, which, however, does not prevent her from showing softness from time to time - and it is not surprising, because the girl fell into a love triangle with ex-husband Eric and young Sergeant Nick.

In turn, confident and intolerant intelligence lieutenant Jason Kolchek is forced to team up with a former enemy - Iraqi infantryman Salim, who also ended up underground.

Will all the heroes be able to find common ground, reject conflicts and unite in the face of danger - it depends only on you. The projects of The Dark Pictures Anthology series are not only about horror, but also about the relationships of characters, which often turn out to be more important than the ability to quickly press buttons to perform a QTE. Dialogues allow you to choose different response options (and sometimes silence is the best choice), and they can lead to unexpected consequences. An encouraging speech will inspire a partner, and a tough order will make you follow the command without hesitation.

Similarly, the actions of the player affect the development of the plot. Some are less, others are more. For example, in my walkthrough, the heroes decided to linger because of a wounded comrade, and because of this they did not come to the aid of their partner: at the decisive moment, he, without waiting for help, died. In general, my first trip underground led to the loss of three out of five characters, and the developers prepared as many as 60 unique death scenes - so there is room for replayability. As usual, you can save all the heroes, and you can lose all, and each outcome of events is provided by the scenario.

Spoiler: Decisions can lead to non-obvious results.
An ancient Sumerian temple interspersed with a network of caves is a very monotonous setting. Therefore, it turned out to be quite boring to explore it. In addition, the authors rarely give the opportunity to freely wander around the location, and in those episodes when we can still explore the area, they have a habit of taking away freedom after some time or trigger activation. If there are several active points in the room, it is not always possible to understand which one will trigger the cut-scene and move the plot further. This can be a problem for collectors who want to collect all the documents, notes and secrets in the first playthrough.

The previous parts of the anthology were criticized for the weak dynamics of what was happening: the action developed very slowly, and the script contained many filler episodes that artificially stretched the narrative. In House of Ashes, the authors took into account the comments and added speed to the friv game: there are still extra scenes that could be dispensed with (like a skirmish between characters who hardly appear in the plot), but in general, events move faster, and the story constantly changes genres - from a viscous thriller to body horror and almost sci-fi.

The fixed camera, which felt like an homage to classic horror, but was still very uncomfortable, is a thing of the past: now you can rotate it 360 degrees, which allows you to more closely explore the environment. Active objects are highlighted, and the flashlight that has appeared for the heroes makes it possible to see more details in the darkness of the caves.

A choice of difficulty levels has been added to the game, and already at the average it becomes difficult to accurately complete all QTEs. However, the game is loyal to misses, and does not punish for one or two mistakes. At the same time, sometimes it is better to ignore QTE altogether - the proposed action is not always the only correct one. There are few activities in House of Ashes, and before the tests, hints appear, signaling that you should prepare. And during the cut-scenes, it's better not to put the gamepad aside: QTE can appear right in the middle of the video.

Like past installments of The Dark Pictures anthology, House of Ashes can be played with friends. There is an online mode in which players control different characters at the same time, and a local "Movie Party" mode, where two to five participants select characters and control them in turn, passing the controller to each other as the scene changes.

In the press version, the Director's Cut mode was disabled, but it will also appear on the release: this mode allows you to go through the story again, but with different characters, cut-scenes and decisions. It is unlikely that you want to make more than five reruns, especially with unskippable cut-scenes, but it is quite possible to complete House of Ashes a couple of times with new plot forks.

This is the first game in the line to be native to next-gen consoles and it looks really good on PS5 with high quality textures, fast loading times and 4K resolution. In the settings menu, it is possible to select performance and quality modes; I recommend the first one: there is no difference in picture level, but the frame rate becomes more stable. Support for the features of the DualSense gamepad, alas, was not delivered: there is almost no vibration, and triggers are minimally involved in the gameplay.

Finally, I would like to note the acting and the Russian voice acting of the characters. Surprisingly, Rachel King, played by the most famous actress in this anthology episode, was the least convincing, and her dubbing causes Spanish shame with frequent mismatches.

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes turned out to be a fix, a good continuation of the series, and, finally, a solid game - albeit not very scary, but fun enough to motivate you to reach the final, and even go on a replay. Supermassive Games is not going to stop working on the anthology: the next part, according to the permanent Guardian, promises to be "more domestic" - a clear hint at the setting of the next friv game.