Man of Medan—first game in this anthology series from Supermassive Games, dropped in 2019. You’re following these five college-age knuckleheads—Alex, Brad, Julia, Conrad, and Fliss—who are out on a dive boat in the South Pacific, chasing a WWII plane wreck. Things soon go south, Pirates show up, a storm hits, and boom, they’re stuck on an abandoned freighter, the SS Ourang Medan. Supposedly based on a real ghost ship legend.

Gameplay-wise, it’s classic Supermassive. You’re making choices, hitting quick-time events (QTEs), and praying you don’t get your favorite character killed The story branches like crazy—every choice feels like it could kill someone or save ‘em. You’re picking dialogue with this “head or heart” compass thing, which sounds cheesy but actually works for those clutch “do I trust this sketchy dude?” moments and is a new concept that has followed onto the other Dark Pictures games. The QTEs can be tense as hell. Miss one, and your character might die. They added some accessibility stuff later, like QTE warnings and easier controls, which is nice for folks who don’t have the reflexes or prefer for a more casual gameplay. The game pushes its branching narrative hard, but some choices don’t impact the story as much as you’d expect. You’ll stress over a decision, only to find it loops back to the same outcome or has minor consequences.

Still, the relationships the charicters have with each other is affected by your decisisions and reactions to certain events, Stronger relationships can mean characters are more likely to save each other in clutch moments. For example, if Alex and Julia’s romance is solid, Julia might risk her neck to pull Alex out of a bad spot. But if you’ve been a jerk, like making Fliss and Conrad beef over dumb decisions, they might not lift a finger when the other’s in trouble, leading to some brutal deaths. It’s a little silly since I doubt once character would abandon them over an argument they had earlier, but this is horror movie logic.

Multiplayer is where this game gets wild. You got Shared Story mode, where you and a buddy play online, controlling different characters, and you can totally screw each other over without knowing it. Then there’s Movie Night mode, where you pass the controller around with your crew.

The ghost ship’s got this grimy, claustrophobic vibe—think Dead Space but wetter and with more jump scares. The character models are pretty good, especially since they’re motion-captured by legit actors like Shawn Ashmore, who was previously in the Quantum Break game. The atmosphere’s on point, with flickering lights and creepy noises that’ll make you check over your shoulder. But, man, the pacing? It’s slower than me trying to get through a 5K. The first half drags like a bad PKA tangent about crypto—takes forever to get to the spooky stuff. Without spoiling, the big narrative reveals lean on horror tropes that feel recycled if you’ve seen movies like Ghost Ship or Event Horizon. The supernatural elements and the “is it real or not?” angle aren’t as clever as they think they are.

Overall, Man of Medan is a fun, spooky ride with your boys, especially in multiplayer, but it’s not topping Until Dawn. If you’re into interactive horror and want something to play while arguing with your friends, it’s worth grabbing on sale