{"id":26754,"date":"2022-12-07T18:57:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-07T17:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.radiotimes.com\/?p=1752118"},"modified":"2022-12-07T21:44:43","modified_gmt":"2022-12-07T20:44:43","slug":"the-devil-in-me-review-jessie-buckley-shines-in-hh-holmes-horror","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/radiotimes\/rss_feed\/the-devil-in-me-review-jessie-buckley-shines-in-hh-holmes-horror\/","title":{"rendered":"The Devil in Me review: Jessie Buckley shines in HH Holmes horror"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Rob Leane\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Wednesday, 07 December 2022 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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<\/div> 3.0 out of 5 star rating<\/span> <\/span> <\/div> <\/div>

Guildford-based company Supermassive Games has made a name for itself through story-driven horror games, where you guide a group of characters through deadly situations whilst also managing their interpersonal relationships.<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s latest output in this oeuvre is The Devil in Me<\/a>, which is billed as the first \u2018season finale\u2019 of The Dark Pictures Anthology series (which has been putting out yearly instalments since 2019\u2019s Man of Medan).<\/p>\n

Inspired by real-life serial killer Henry Howard Holmes, as well as the recent popularisation of true-crime media, this game centres on a film crew who are invited to visit a secluded hotel \u2014 it is said to be a faithful recreation of the infamous \u2018Murder Castle\u2019 that featured in many of the urban legends about Holmes.<\/p>\n

As ever, Supermassive Games has attracted some impressive on-screen talent to The Devil in Me cast<\/a>, with Wild Rose star Jessie Buckley playing an investigative journalist\/TV presenter, while Game of Thrones alum Paul Kaye portrays the producer of a floundering true-crime TV series.<\/p>\n

Together with their camera, sound and lighting engineers, these characters travel to a remote island to stay at this creepy hotel, in the hope that such an eye-catching exclusive will improve their show\u2019s chances of success. Of course, it doesn\u2019t take long for things to go wrong.<\/p>\n

To start with, the game seems very promising, with an opening prologue about the original HH Holmes grabbing the attention nicely. In the game\u2019s version of the first Murder Castle, Holmes feels like a genuine threat. Add this to some unsettling level design and an interesting period setting, and you\u2019ve got a game that feels focused and frightening and worth recommending.<\/p>

When the game jumps to the present day, there\u2019s a stretch where it maintains this quality quite well, with the modern hotel quickly proving to be a scream-inducing deathtrap in its own right. The corridors can move, there are doors that lead nowhere, and there\u2019s an eerie animatronic in the bar.<\/p>\n

The film crew characters are easy to get to know, as well, with Buckley and Kaye deserving special praise for their terrified-yet-likeable performances. Nikki Patel puts in a great turn as Erin, the sound engineer, as well, bringing a believable nervous energy to proceedings.<\/p>\n

Compared to the previous games in the Dark Pictures series, The Devil in Me gameplay has a few upgrades, with there now being a light inventory system at play. Each character has their own items (eg Erin has an inhaler for her asthma as well as a microphone and headphones that let her hear through walls).<\/p>\n

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Nikki Patel as Erin Keeman in The Devil in Me.<\/span><\/figcaption> Supermassive Games\/Bandai Namco<\/i><\/span><\/div>\n

Some of these items work better than others \u2013 trying to use a flash-photography bulb to see anything useful is nigh-on impossible, for example, but the headphones do come in handy when you\u2019re trying to find the right direction to move in.<\/p>\n

Underneath these upgrades, the underlying systems are largely unchanged. You\u2019ll have to make conversational choices and key decisions to guide the crew through various torments, and you\u2019ll also have to succeed in button-mashing quick-time events if you want to keep everyone alive.<\/p>\n

As ever, unless you\u2019re checking an online guide every few minutes, pausing the game anytime a choice comes up, you might find that you lose a couple of characters along the way. There was one death that felt particularly harsh to us, but that is part of the franchise formula here.<\/p>