Man of Medan is out now, and it’s developer Supermassive’s spooky follow-up to its PS4 exclusive horror adventure Until Dawn. However, instead of being a sequel to Until Dawn, the studio has opted to create a new gaming horror anthology series called The Dark Pictures, of which Man of Medan is the first episode. Supermassive plans to create a whole Twilight Zone or American Horror Story style series for gaming, where each game is completely separate to the last, and it’s already teased the next episode with a Man of Medan Little Hope game trailer.
The Dark Pictures: Little Hope appears to be the title of the next game in the anthology series, and it will continue the spooky themes and gameplay of Man of Medan but in a completely different story, with a new set of characters. But what can we discern about Little Hope from the trailer? What is the release date for the next Dark Pictures game? Are there any Easter eggs or hints in Man of Medan about Little Hope, or other Dark Pictures stories? Let’s have a look.
How do we know about the Man of Medan Little Hope game?
As mentioned above, for anyone who’s played to the very end of The Dark Pictures: Man of Medan, and stayed to the very end of the closing credits, they’ll be treated to a short teaser trailer for The Dark Pictures: Little Hope, presumably the next game in the anthology series. Make sure not to skip the end credits if you get the option, no matter how tempting it may be, as you’ll also skip over the teaser too and get dumped back at the main menu. Otherwise, you can check out the trailer below. It doesn’t include any spoilers for Man of Medan, incidentally.
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What will The Dark Pictures: Little Hope be about?
We only get a short taste of Little Hope in the trailer, but we can still gather a number of things about it. Funnily enough, the horror movie it most reminds us of is The Blair Witch Project, with its woodland setting, strange rituals and stick-figure motif. This is ironic because Man of Medan comes out the same day as the official Blair Witch game, which has many of the same features.
There are several characters: a man named Andrew, a lady named Angela wearing an old-fashioned school mistress outfit, and a young girl who seems to be wearing a Puritan dress. This girl has a creepy doll, which also looks ancient, and it seems to be connected to the weird undead hand that wields chains and pulls Angela away. The chains suggest something akin to Hellraiser, but then there’s the final shot of the trailer. The title “Little Hope” is apparently the name of a location, perhaps a religious community of some sort? We can only speculate at this point.
What is The Dark Pictures: Little Hope release date?
Supermassive has created The Dark Pictures anthology series as basically a series of episodic releases. In theory there should be far less of a gap between Man of Medan, Little Hope and the other Dark Pictures stories than there was between Until Dawn, which came out in 2015, and Man of Medan. However, the next one won’t be as soon as this year. The teaser trailer for Little Hope says that it will come out in 2020. It’s entirely possible that it will be early 2020, and the third Dark Pictures game (whatever that is) could be out by the end of 2020. It totally depends on Supermassive, of course, and what schedule the team are working to.
Are there any Man of Medan Easter eggs or clues about Little Hope or other Dark Pictures games?
While there is nothing in Man of Medan that outright claims to be a hint towards a future Dark Pictures game, such as Little Hope, there are a number of Easter eggs and clues that seem to suggest it. The most obvious and blatant is the game’s intro title sequence, where the host of the anthology series, The Curator, walks down a hallway filled with moving images suggesting various horror tropes. Numerous images present themselves as possible stories, such as the classic long-haired Japanese ghost girl, an axe-wielding murderer, a patient with a bandaged and bloody face, and a lady dressed in old clothes.
Elsewhere in Man of Medan there are a couple of moments players can discover that certainly suggest future Dark Pictures stories. For example, one of the earliest moments in the game involves player character Brad telling a ghost story to the rest of the group. His story involves a murder with an axe, which you may remember as a significant moment in the intro sequence above.
There are also two items players can find around Man of Medan that hint at possible themes or stories. Even before the ghost story, players can venture into the back of the Duke of Milan boat and find a novel in the closet called “Shroud of Innocence,” which says it’s about the Salem witch trials of 1692. While the title is wrong, this certainly seems to fit in with what we know about Little Hope.
Another possible Easter egg for a Dark Pictures game can be found once players have started exploring the titular Medan freighter. Near one of the game’s doorways, not too far into the ship, players can find a movie poster for a film called “The Mask of Madness.” Several images on the poster seem to match ones from the intro sequence, including the skull mask and the dark figure at the bottom. We’ll presumably find out more closer to the release of Little Hope, and we’re prepared to bet there are more Easter eggs hiding on the ghost ship Medan.
