The upcoming survival horror title The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan has been announced to contain not one, but two multiplayer modes. This has been confirmed in a PlayStation blog post by executive producer of The Dark Pictures Anthology Pete Samuels and through a recent multiplayer trailer on both the PlayStation 4's and publisher Bandai Namco's YouTube channels.
In the blog post, it detailed the three ways The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan can be played, namely: Solo Mode, Movie Night Mode, and Shared Story Mode. Solo Mode is pretty much self-explanatory, providing you with a single-player experience. Movie Night Mode is similar to the previous mode, but allows you to play with up to four friends, with each person taking control of a different character. At different points in the game, you will be asked to pass the controller and the performance of each character will be summarized periodically. This provides a more “real experience”, letting you sit back and watch the story unfurl right before your eyes without your own character biases clouding your judgment.
Perhaps the most interesting addition is Shared Story mode which can be played online with another friend. It works like Story Mode, but you and your friend play it simultaneously. If you split up, you have no means of communicating (unless you have your phone on you while you’re playing, but where’s the fun in that?) and you may not see each other again. “We think that it really brings something fresh to the genre to play with a friend online, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the results,” Samuels stated in the blog.
Having covered Man of Medan during the last few weeks, I’m very impressed with how the game is turning out. It’s no surprise at all that this game is getting a lot of attention, since Until Dawn was groundbreaking for how it dealt with its narrative, and with the added modes for Man of Medan, I wouldn’t be surprised if it ended going the same way.
The survival horror game from developer Supermassive Games will be releasing the first title under The Dark Picture Anthology, Man of Medan on August 30 for the PlayStation 4, Xbox One and PC.