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Welcome to the World’s Fair Hotel, the perfect spot to lose your friends and your soul!

*All photos used are screenshots taken during gameplay.

Hi everyone, this is the full review for The Devil in Me by Supermassive Games and published by Bandai Namco.

I want to thank the amazing Chantay from Bandai Namco for giving me a preview key of the fourth installment of the phenomenal Dark Pictures Anthology series: The Devil in Me and a full review key!

This will be a spoiler free review like always, and building off of my preview review! 

With that all said, let’s begin! 

Gameplay

The gameplay in the full game is so much more fluid in terms of free roam compared to its predecessors. It’s one of the things that made the game stand out more from the other entries. It felt so much more immersive than the previous games because there were more places to explore and climb. Plus, there were also extra little challenges to do whilst in free roam.

But, there’s one thing that’s back, which I’m sure many players are gonna love. Just in Supermassive Games tradition, premonitions are back! 

They are items (in this case paintings) that show premonitions of outcomes and events that can happen during your gameplay, either as a warning or an encouraging sign on future actions you should take/avoid.

There are also bearings, which have also returned and it documents every major decision you’ve made in the game, so you can keep track of all the diverging paths of the story and collectibles that you find that can help you piece together what’s happened in this hellish hotel!

As well as that, heartbeat QTEs (Quick Time Events) are back too, which can get your pulse racing, trying to click the right buttons on time, and remembering that sometimes doing nothing is better than taking action in these kinds of games.

They’ve also introduced hiding spots in the game too, which I think is genius in upping the suspense within the game. It was like a little nod to Until Dawn’s “DON’T MOVE” sequences and put a twist to the stand heartbeat QTEs, because you had to physically find a hiding spot. Pick wrong, or not find somewhere on time, you could be caught. I felt the same terror, hiding in cupboards and under creepy operating tables with the killer on the loose.

There’s even a scenario later in the game where your character and another character are hiding and depending on your past and current actions will result in one or both of their deaths.

The stakes in The Devil in Me is upped way more than I expected, and more than once I had to pause the game to give myself more time to find about the stressful situations at hand. I LOVED IT!

Also, just like how we saw in the preview (when I got a certain character killed *cough cough*) The keep calm QTEs, can slightly differ in terms of difficulty depending on whether each character has a specific item with them. A few of them have personal items that can keep them calm in scary situations, which was another touch I loved.  

Decisions decisions decisions 

Yep! Just like what I said in the preview, and as expected of any Supermassive Games game, decisions dictate who survives the night in The Devil in Me. 

You’ll be given choices throughout your gameplay with both speech and actions, and it’s down to you to decide which is the right one, because even the smallest of decisions can affect the story later down the line!

Now, as most of you who read the preview know, I was VEX during my first run through of the preview as for the first time ever I got a character killed in a Dark Pictures Anthology game! I was fuming because I thought I made the right decision, even after seeing the premonition of said death, but I was wrong, chose violence and got a character killed!

If you wanna see who, check out my Tiktok: @Janellemccurdy. https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMFPvrHM2/

Of course during the playthrough of the full game, I made sure not to make the same mistake twice, but you’ll find out at the end of this review how many of the characters survived during my playthrough!

Characters 

So, compared to the preview, we aren’t introduced to our main characters during the first sequence. Instead, we are thrown back in time and play as a young newlywed about to check into the World’s Fair Hotel…

Since this is spoiler free I won’t go into what happens, but after that scene, which is really good and creepy at the same time, we are brought forward to the present day, where we are introduced to our main crew! A group of filmmakers, who have gotten the opportunity to create a show about the infamous “Murder Castle” also known as the World Fair Hotel, where Mr Du’Met is supposed to meet them and show them around, but he’s nowhere to be found… and someone else roams the hotel instead.

First up you have Charles (Charlie), who is the boss of the group and immediately just rubbed me up the wrong way in the preview with his arrogance and foul mouth. Then you have Erin, who is a sweet girl and works as the sound tech.

There’s Kate and Mark, who have a history together, but different goals in mind and one is haunted by their past. Kate is the “star” of the show and Mark is the camera guy. 

Then finally you have Jamie, who is so lowkey funny and sometimes blunt at times. She works in lighting.

As I said before, each character has an item that can help them on their journey. Charlie has a credit card that can unlock cabinets and drawers, Mark has his camera and a tripod stick to knock things down from high places, and take pictures (and evidence) of what goes on in the hotel and Erin has her sound tech gear.

There’s one moment in the preview in which you play as Erin and you’re walking around with some sound equipment and she picks up a lot of creepy things in her headset. It’s actually one of my favourite scenes in the preview AND the main game. I won’t spoil it, but just know you’re in for a wild ride.

The Hotel

The World’s Fair Hotel itself is creepy and definitely gave me 1408 kinda vibes, if you haven’t seen that film, you definitely should because that’s what the World Fair Hotel looks and feels like! Like I said, I won’t go onto too much in thus preview review, but there were times during certain sequences in the game that I legit got lost walking the halls and I loved every bit of it! That old vintage vibe both fascinated me and gave me the creeps as the hotel doubles up as a museum experience around a certain serial killer.

The infamous curator returns!

Yes guys! Our favorite curator returns to The Devil in Me with a badass intro. I had to give him a little shoutout haha because he never fails to entertain us with his comments on our gameplay after each chapter.

And just like the previous games, he offers you hints on what to expect in the next chapter that follows, however, be warned, he offers them in riddles, and a few times I’ve scratched my head trying to work out what he’s going on about haha! But still, I love that he’s here to stay and that ending thoooo! That’s all I’m gonna say on that! 👀

Glitches?

To be honest, there was only two glitches I experienced during the “keep calm” sequences where I was sure I pressed the button on time, but it messes up anyway.

Another glitch I stumbled across was when Jamie was in the basement of the hotel with Mark and she somehow got stuck within planks of wood haha. Restart the checkpoint and it was fixed.

Conclusion

I REALLY enjoyed The Devil in Me. Compared to the slight slow burn of the preview, the main game puts you in the suspense/danger zone fairly quickly and I loved every second of it! Lowkey, I think this is actually my favorite entry in THE DARK PICTURE ANTHOLOGY series.

So! How did I do in my first full playthrough, you ask? Well… I STILL BROKE MY ALL CHARACTERS SURVIVE STREAK!! 

Yo guys, hear me out though, it was literally so close to the end and it was during a “keep quiet/ calm” QTE and I could have sworn I pressed the button at the right time, but somehow Charlie made a noise and I got him killed. So… Yeah.

To be fair, I did say if someone had to be sacrificed it was gonna be him, but still, IT’S SO ANNOYING my streak is over. Alas, we move though and I thoroughly enjoyed this game and I can’t wait for the next season of THE DARK PICTURE ANTHOLOGY!!

If you haven’t played The Devil in Me, you really should! If you love tense, gory and story driven horror games, this is for you! Be sure to check out my Tiktok (@janellemccurdy), if you want a glimpse of the cool press kit! 👀