The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.1 Update

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is a 2019 interactive drama and survival horror video game with paranormal horror elements developed by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco Entertainment. It is the first out of eight planned installments in The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of standalone horror video games. Man of Medan features a cast of five playable protagonists and a multilinear narrative influenced by player choice. The game’s decision-making scenes, of which there are several, can significantly alter the trajectory of the plot and change the relationships between the main characters. Due to these choices, any of the five protagonists can die permanently.

GAMEPLAY

The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is a horror-themed video game played from a third-person perspective in which single or multiple players assume control of five different characters that become trapped on board a ghost ship. Players are required to make decisions based on their character’s “head” or their “heart”, or can choose to do nothing while selecting between different options when interacting with other characters. The selection of options is stylized as a compass, which is both representative of the characters’ “moral compass” and reflective of the game’s nautical themes.

The narrative changes and adapts to the choices that the players make, thus making it possible for players to keep all playable characters alive or to have some (or all) of them die. Choices also affect the characters’ personality traits (which affects subsequent cutscenes and dialogue options), as well as their relationships with each other. The game can be played multiple times, as there are multiple endings and multiple scenarios based on the decisions that the players make. Action sequences mainly feature quick time events, most of which, if missed, can lead to dire consequences for the characters.

As players explore the ghost ship, they can find different “Dark Pictures” that give them premonitions of what may happen in the future. Players can also uncover the mystery surrounding the tragedy that occurred on the ship in the past, which can help save their character’s lives in the present. Inspired by the popularity of their 2015 game Until Dawn’s streaming, and the number of people playing the game with their friends by sharing the controls.

Supermassive Games introduced two different multiplayer modes in The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan titled “Shared Story” and “Movie Night”. “Shared Story” allows two players to play co-operatively online. “Movie Night” allows up to five players to select their characters and prompts them to pass the controller at each turn. In a throwback to horror titles of yore, Tank controls are available for this game.

PLOT

Man of Medan is presented as an unfinished story in the possession of the omnipresent Curator (Pip Torrens/Tony Pankhurst), who requests the player’s assistance in completing it. A prologue, set after World War II, details an American warship in Manchuria being overrun by ghostly apparitions, causing the death of the crew. In the present day, brothers Alex (Kareem Alleyne/Tom Weston)[b] and Brad (Chris Sandiford/Tom Weston) are preparing for a diving expedition into the South Pacific Ocean alongside Alex’s girlfriend, Julia (Arielle Palik/Zara Sparkes), Julia’s brother, Conrad (Shawn Ashmore), and the ship’s skipper, Fliss (Ayisha Issa/Storm Stewart).

Alex and Julia seek to find a World War II wreck plane rumored to have crashed. Meanwhile, a group of fishermen consisting of Danny (Russell Yuen/Jozef Aoki), Junior (Chimwemwe Miller/Michael Addo), and leader Olson (Kwasi Songui/Winston Thomas) crash into Fliss’ boat, the Duke of Milan. After the expedition group celebrates, the fishermen ambush the boat and take the protagonists hostage; Brad may optionally remain in hiding. Conrad attempts to steal the fishermen’s speedboat, which he can either successfully do so and flee, remain captured, or be killed in the attempt.

Olson discovers the coordinates of a seemingly hidden treasure named Manchurian Gold and seeks out to find it with the Duke’s crew in his captivity. The Duke crashes into the SS Ourang Medan, the freighter featured in the prologue, which the fishermen board, taking the Duke of Milan’s distributor cap to prevent the crew from fleeing. The protagonists immediately plan to regain the distributor cap and escape. The group is split after Fliss is recaptured and Brad is either too captured or leaves the Duke and re-joins her, while the others secretly follow.

Both groups begin to witness unknown threats, optionally resulting in deaths: Fliss searches the ship’s lower deck, potentially alongside Brad, and locates the Manchurian Gold, a leaking chemical substance; Conrad, if he remains captured, pursues Fliss and is pursued in turn by a female sailor who “ages” into a corpse-like appearance; and Alex and Julia are attacked by Olson and a hallucinogenic version of Alex. The surviving protagonists regroup and head towards the radio room to request extraction.

They contact the military, optionally revealing their coordinates and the ship’s name. The group then again splits, with one team heading further into the generator room and the other remaining with the radio. The team heading to the engine room successfully reactivated the power and surmised that Manchurian Gold was a hallucinogenic bioweapon developed during World War II to induce hallucinations in victims. As Olson pursues, one of the protagonists on the radio decides to investigate after hearing a gunshot. If Alex stays behind, he goes down with whoever is with him and finds Olson dead before being attacked by rats and optionally destroying the distributor cap and/or dying. If Alex did not stay in the radio room, only one protagonist would investigate.

This protagonist is forced into a fight with Olson, with the distributor cap either being recovered or destroyed in the onslaught. If at least one of the generator protagonists survived, they emerge and send a cargo door crashing down on Olson to kill him. With the other protagonist either escaping or being crushed. Otherwise, Olson kills the radio protagonist before succumbing to a heart attack. The surviving group members reunite on the outer deck of the ship, with the overall outcome depending on the fate of the group via player choice, whether the Duke of Milan’s distributor cap was saved or destroyed, and whether the military was called for assistance alongside whether the ship name was disclosed.

FEATURES

• Man of Medan game.
• Curator’s Cut game mode.
• Multiplayer modes featuring 2-player online and 5-player couch co-op.
• Improved gameplay elements such as difficulty settings and quick-time event warnings, enhanced user interface and interactions, and more comprehensive accessibility options such as customizable subtitle sizes.
• An extended playable chapter, Flooded, with additional deadly outcomes in this climactic game finale.