Horror game fans have something special to look forward to this Halloween, it seems, as Bandai Namco announced today that The Dark Pictures: Little Hope will be released on October 30. The announcement was made via a new, and very creepy, release date announcement trailer.
This latest trailer for Little Hope provides the best look at the horror story at the heart of the game yet. The parallels with the Silent Hill franchise should be immediately recognizable, as a group of people finds themselves in a foggy town with some dark and dangerous secrets. Beyond the fog, however, there's a very intriguing plot involving a little girl, a centuries-old witch hunt, and a supernatural evil. All of it wrapped in a meta-story about the player helping finish write a story for the Curator.
For those unfamiliar, The Dark Pictures is an anthology of games developed by Supermassive Games. Supermassive is best known for its PS4 game Until Dawn, which defined the structure of its The Dark Pictures releases. Little Hope is the second game in the anthology, with the first being 2019's Man of Medan. Supermassive plans to release 8 games in The Dark Pictures Anthology. The original plan was for two games a year, but with Little Hope being over a year after Man of Medan plans may have changed.
Little Hope will be a new story with the same gameplay structure of Man of Medan, going by early details. Gameplay will revolve around basic third-person survival horror action mixed with impactful dialogue options that branch the story in many different directions. These decisions can lead to a variety of endings, including character deaths, and is meant to be played multiple endings to get the "full story."
As with Man of Medan, Little Hope will also feature some multiplayer features. There will be a two-player co-op storyline, for example. There will also be a local multiplayer "Movie Night" mode where each player picks a character and the controller gets passed with each scene change.
Pre-orderers of Little Hope will also receive a curious feature named the Curator's Cut. The Curator's Cut will be released several months after launch but will allow players to play through a certain scenario with otherwise inaccessible characters. These scenes will presumably flesh out some of Little Hope's story and secrets.
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope releases on October 30 for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.