The Satan in Me tackles the true-crime craze, and it’s scary as hell

The Darkish Footage Anthology has been exploring all flavors of horror, from Sumerian demons deep within the desert to ghost ships stranded at sea. The Satan in Me, the most recent and remaining entry within the anthology collection’ first season, guarantees a extra intimate journey, delving into the true-crime story of H.H. Holmes and his semi-apocryphal Homicide Fortress in Chicago. This isn’t a narrative of supernatural mummies or harrowing journeys by means of time — it’s about 5 burned-out media staff attempting to outlive a contemporary imitator of Holmes (and possibly dying within the course of).

As in every Darkish Footage recreation, The Satan in Me places you answerable for a solid of 5 characters. Gamers watch the characters go about their media jobs on this bizarre new place, work together with each other, discover areas, and resolve puzzles. The meat and bones of the sport comes right down to quick-time occasions the place gamers assist their character of alternative flee from an attacker, battle off an ambush, or dodge harmful obstacles. The Satan in Me tackles true crime — and when it focuses on that topic, it will get actually scary.

The Satan in Me opens with a tutorial the place a younger married couple come to Chicago to expertise the primary Ferris wheel on the 1893 World’s Truthful. They’ve the misfortune of reserving the improper resort and are available face-to-face with Holmes, who finally ends up murdering them. Supermassive depicts Holmes as a terrifying killer, with unnerving line supply and literal skeletons in his closet, however the studio deftly captures that he’s additionally a rip-off artist. His crowning achievement on the finish of the tutorial isn’t cradling a corpse or admiring a cranium however stealing a girl’s wedding ceremony ring. Even the skeleton we spot within the tutorial is a part of the grift; Holmes bought them to medical amenities for a tidy revenue.

Previous the tutorial, within the modern-day, we’re hanging out with director Charlie and his crew: lighting tech Jamie, sound engineer Erin, cameraman Mark, and journalist Kate. In keeping with previous video games, these characters have some juicy drama already underway. Kate and Mark are contemporary off a breakup, whereas Erin and Jamie are feeling out a possible relationship. All of them work on a actuality TV present that’s nearly out of cash and lifeless within the water, however a mysterious benefactor named Granthem Du’Met affords them an opportunity to tour his property, which is a duplicate of the notorious homicide resort run by H.H. Holmes within the late 1800s. Predictably, issues go horribly improper, and Du’Met is imitating Holmes’ tendency to construct elaborate homicide traps.

Every thing nice from The Satan in Me facilities across the true-crime angle. An obsessed recluse and Holmes stan constructing animatronics of his victims and arising with trendy homicide traps in imitation of Holmes is a genuinely creepy concept, and it’s plausible in an period the place we are inclined to deal with serial killers with equal elements revulsion and reverence. Netflix recently released a docudrama series about Jeffrey Dahmer that drew heavy criticism for failing to respect the victims’ households. It is smart that somebody would possibly fall right into a sort of hero worship for the nation’s first city serial killer.

Supermassive spends a number of time specializing in the truth that Holmes requested to be buried deep beneath concrete, claiming that there was a satan inside him that drove him to kill, very similar to a muse drives a poet to put in writing. It’s an amazing courtroom speech. However the man himself was pushed by monetary motives as a lot as murderous ones. The Satan in Me means that Du’Met’s machinations are the results of the true-crime craze as a lot as Holmes’ darkish deeds, and it’s a enjoyable concept to chew on.

I’m not completely in love with The Satan in Me; I skilled technical issues all through my playthrough, mixed with some awkward puzzles and unnecessarily lengthy platforming sequences. The brand new stock system is neat (seize a sure merchandise? It may well present up later throughout a cutscene for the characters to deploy) however doesn’t really feel totally fleshed out. Our main solid can be just a little too wanting to give up their telephones and get right into a automobile to their lethal vacation spot so the plot can get transferring.

The Satan in Me doesn’t rank notably excessive on my private Darkish Footage rating — it is available in slightly below Home of Ashes and Man of Medan, that are nice for various causes. However what the sport does do very proper is take a well-known true-crime case and discover it in a fashion that comes throughout as extra attention-grabbing than exploitative, even whereas becoming in soar scares and relationship drama. Supermassive might most likely have carved a very good two or three hours out of this recreation and ended up with a a lot stronger product — simply so long as it left all the Holmes-related stuff untouched, please, as a result of that’s the place it shines.

The Darkish Footage Anthology: The Satan in Me was launched on Nov. 18 on PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Home windows PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Sequence X. The sport was reviewed on PC utilizing a pre-release obtain code supplied by Bandai Namco. Vox Media has affiliate partnerships. These don’t affect editorial content material, although Vox Media could earn commissions for merchandise bought through affiliate hyperlinks. You will discover extra details about Polygon’s ethics coverage right here.