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Games: Interactive creepshow The Dark Pictures: Little Hope offers a highbrow antidote to the usual teen slasher fodder

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope finds a group of college students abandoned in a spooky New England town after their bus crashes
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope finds a group of college students abandoned in a spooky New England town after their bus crashes The Dark Pictures: Little Hope finds a group of college students abandoned in a spooky New England town after their bus crashes

The Dark Pictures: Little Hope

By: Bandai Namco

THOUGH kids were still feelin' dandy and poopin' candy, the pandemic took some of the gunpowder out of this year's Halloween festivities. But the long nights needn't be a damp squib for console horror and, for some after-dark chills, Supermassive Games have finally released the second in their Dark Pictures series.

The creators of 2015 horror hit Until Dawn kick-started the anthology last year with Man of Medan, a waterlogged take on the ghost ship routine. Freaking your deeky this time is Little Hope, which boasts more wicked witchery than Stevie Nicks.

Once again framed by the Curator, our Rod Serling-esque master of scaremonies spins the yarn of a group of college students abandoned in the titular New England town after their bus crashes. Brimming with dark history as a Puritan settlement, '70s rust-belt burg and modern ghost town, Little Hope hops through three time periods at will as our cast are dragged into that halcyon time when burning hags at the stake was all the rage.

As the professor attempts to shepherd his quartet to a working phone, you'll control the usual creepshow cast, switching viewpoints as you aim to reach the end credits with all five intact. This is achieved by ambling along dark, foggy roads, investigating clues and engaging in quick-time events, so lots of bashing the correct button against the clock.

The series' trademark moral choices mean you'll make decisions while in conversation that can affect the outcome and pick up weapons that may help or hinder in a game where anyone can die in a given moment.

Little Hope's strumpet-incinerating witchcraft theme is a gasp of fresh air for the horror genre, though seasoned with the usual tropes of creepy kids, faceless mannequins and shadows in the mist.

Supermassive's classiest affair, Little Hope's plot, like some supernatural Crucible, is a highbrow antidote to the usual teen slasher fodder, though lacking in some of the camp that made previous efforts such fun.

The whole enterprise is lent some legit legs by virtue of Will Poulter – no stranger to horror, with Black Mirror and folsky feminist frightener Midsommar under his belt – as the lead. Yet while beginning with a bang, it can't sustain that momentum, and the oft-used jump-scare of being grabbed by an ashen-faced ghoul gets old fast.

Still, top-drawer tech, solid performances and period trappings make it coven-ready for witchy thrills now that you've finished pumpin' your pumpkins into the bin. At only £20, it won't break the bank, offering around four hours of interactive horror – and that's your (Salem's) lot.