The Darkish Footage Anthology: Man of Medan is the primary in Supermassive’s fashionable sequence of standalone cinematic interactive drama and survival horror video games. It’s seen a lot reward since its 2019 launch and continues to thrive amongst a cult fanbase unfold throughout PC, PlayStation, and Xbox. However Supermassive isn’t content material with merely providing in-game bounce scares, giving us all a shock when it shadow-dropped the Man of Medan Swap model out of nowhere in early Might, 2023. So, how do the spooks measurement up?
Let’s start with a short rundown. In case you’re unfamiliar, The Darkish Footage Anthology: Man of Medan is a closely cinematic and narrative-driven sport wherein your selections matter. It takes place in the course of the South Pacific Ocean close to French Polynesia and revolves round a gaggle of younger adults and their ship’s captain, setting out at sea on a small skipper to do a spot of diving searching for an undiscovered wreck. Nevertheless, the tides quickly change, as a gaggle of modern-day pirates commandeer the ship and set out searching for a mysterious treasure known as the ‘Manchurian Gold’.
Our unlikely crew of captors and captives quickly discover themselves aboard an deserted WWII ghost ship which seems to be tied to this treasure. However, after all, not all is because it appears, and the story quickly devolves into one in all chaos, fuelled by greed, worry, and even a pinch of an obvious supernatural menace.
As with the opposite titles in Supermassive Sport’s repertoire, Man of Medan sees you’re taking management of the 5 captives at completely different factors, exploring the ship, accumulating clues, and trying to keep away from peril lengthy sufficient to flee. With heaps of key selections in your shoulders and the lives of the protagonists in your arms, it’s as much as you which ones branching paths your story takes and whether or not the characters stay or die, resulting in an amazing stage of replayability as you discover the entire potential outcomes.
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Man of Medan presents a single-player mode, a two-player on-line co-op mode known as ‘shared story’, and an as much as five-player native co-op mode known as ‘film night time’, which sees you and your friends taking management of the completely different characters, together with prompts to cross the controller at every flip.
Every playthrough lasts round 4 to 4 and a half hours, which feels excellent for one of these sport, and there are a lot extra hours to pack in if you wish to discover the completely different outcomes and collectables. Whether or not alone or with buddies, each run can supply a vastly completely different expertise, regardless of the general linear path of the narrative – which is well one of many most important explanation why the sport nonetheless manages to captivate its audiences to at the present time.
When it comes to gameplay, the sport principally revolves round strolling sections spliced with cutscenes, with the principle crux hinging on these aforementioned selections, accumulating key gadgets and premonitions to complement your data or affect the result of sure scenes, and occasional QTE sequences (fast time occasions).
The management scheme within the Man of Medan Swap model is as easy and straightforward to understand as on every other platform, and its button structure interprets nicely to the joy-cons and Swap Professional controller. You stroll round with the left joystick, work together with gadgets utilizing A and ZR, and hit buttons to align with prompts throughout particular QTE sequences. For essentially the most half, I discover inputs to be very dependable and responsive, with little to no delay, which is exceptionally necessary in a sport the place failing a QTE can have a large influence on the result of your sport.
Digital camera angles are mounted and cinematic, which definitely provides to the interactive film vibe, however it could possibly typically make motion really feel a bit of sluggish and clumsy, feeling closest to the primary Resident Evil regardless of not being true tank controls. This isn’t a problem distinctive to the Swap model, although the decrease decision and, after all, a smaller display in handheld mode, could make it a bit of trickier to work out the place you’re in relation to the objects and doorways round you. Fortunately, I discover that is fairly simple to adapt to, and as soon as I acquired again into the rhythm of how the characters management, I had little bother except for the occasional hiccup.
Proper from its preliminary announcement of the Swap model, Supermassive has been fairly clear concerning the technical limitations of this port, even noting the 24fps cap on the backside of the Nintendo eShop web page. I used to be initially fairly pessimistic about how this low cap would look, but it surely’s necessary to notice that Man of Medan is a really cinematic sport, and 24fps is the universally accepted norm for a ‘cinematic body charge’ – and it really holds up fairly nicely right here, for essentially the most half.
The decrease body charge is hardly noticeable in handheld mode, although it does sometimes make the sport look a bit stuttery in docked mode. That is particularly noticeable in a few of the late-game sequences that clearly push the Swap’s ageing {hardware} to its limits, reminiscent of whilst you’re exploring the stormy rooms throughout Misery Sign or operating away in Revenge. Naturally, with the body charge cap already being so low, any additional drops do look notably uneven – much more so than such a minor drop in a better FPS tile.
For essentially the most half, this isn’t too problematic and didn’t notably influence my enjoyment of the sport. Nevertheless, I did have a stumble in direction of the tip of my first playthrough in docked mode, the place the body charge dropped dramatically throughout a hold calm QTE, inflicting me to fail and must restart the chapter with a purpose to hold everybody alive. Fortunately, upon re-loading, the body charge managed to clean itself out – however that’s one thing to remember.
Past the body charge cap and occasional stuttering, Man of Medan’s Swap model is noticeably downscaled in comparison with variations on different platforms. This decrease decision does end in some visible hiccups, reminiscent of some fairly intense texture popping and inconsistent lighting at occasions – all of which is much extra noticeable in docked mode than handheld.
Nevertheless, I really respect that Supermassive put within the work to make this port manageable on native {hardware} reasonably than slapping collectively a Cloud model. It’s clear that loads of work went into bringing Man of Medan to Swap, and the sport actually checks the bounds of this six-year-old console, which means it’s truthfully fairly spectacular that it appears to be like so good.
Along with the fascinating portability, the Man of Medan Swap model additionally presents a couple of further options because the icing on the cake. These embrace up to date gameplay options, reminiscent of a wider alternative of accessibility choices, improved UI and interactions, and even an prolonged playable chapter known as Flooded – a climactic ending to the sport that introduces model new deaths. These further options each sweeten the deal for brand new gamers and supply an additional layer of incentive for long-time followers of The Darkish Footage Anthology to present the Swap model a strive.
The prolonged accessibility choices are additionally a really welcome addition, providing you the power to toggle single motion buttons, maintain to finish button mash, QTE timers, and extra. There are additionally a pleasant number of subtitle and textual content choices, together with measurement, color, and a dyslexia-friendly font. Sadly, subtitles are off by default, and you should go to the in-game settings to show them on. I personally consider that subtitles ought to all the time be on by default, particularly in narrative, choice-driven video games like Man of Medan.
Although the Man of Medan Swap model is certainly a downgrade as compared with the opposite ports, it nonetheless presents loads of enjoyment. I can’t advocate it because the ‘finest’ solution to play the sport, but it surely maintains a lot of the thriller and pressure of the unique, and, for essentially the most half, its visible and efficiency points are fairly rare or minor, which means it’s nonetheless an pleasant expertise.
The worth level can also be respectable, avoiding that all-too-familiar ‘Swap tax’ that appears to tack itself onto nearly each third-party launch and port. It sits at $19.99/£17.99, which may be very near its present full worth on Steam, and roughly half of its launch RRP – a decent value for such a memorable sport.
Briefly, should you’re on this planet of cinematic, choice-driven narrative horror, and really feel you may overlook a few of the shortcomings enforced by the Swap’s ageing {hardware}, then it is best to have a fairly nice time with this little jewel of the ocean, particularly with the additional advantage of portability and new content material. Its winding thriller, plausible characters, and impactful alternative system makes for an all-around tense and atmospheric expertise, and, just like the ocean lapping on the fringe of a shore, it’s certain to maintain tugging you again for extra.
In the event you’re on the hunt for much more terrific terrors, take a look at our record of the perfect horror video games on Swap and cellular. We’ve additionally acquired a number of the finest visible novel video games to your perusal, providing a wide range of much less spooky tales.
Man of Medan Swap evaluation
The primary entry into The Darkish Footage Anthology, Man of Medan nonetheless holds up as a tense, cinematic horror expertise the place each alternative issues. Sadly, the Swap’s ageing {hardware} holds this model’s efficiency again, but it surely’s nonetheless a formidable port with some welcome additions, and nonetheless captures the souls of all who board this ship.