DestinyLeah
What would 2020 be without a good COVID-related delay? The latest domino to fall as teams around the globe learn to work in uncharted circumstances is Little Hope, the second installment in Supermassive Games’ The Dark Pictures Anthology. For those who haven’t jumped into the anthology yet, it is a series of separate horror experiences guided by a narrator. Each story follows several characters, all of whom may die if players do not make careful decisions. Players can add to the fun by joining a single friend on a separate console for a shared story mode, or invite several friends to share the controller in movie night mode. Little Hope is obviously delayed for now, but The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is available and garnered a solid score in our review.
While the development team is still working from home to reach a release point for Little Hope, the official statement makes it seem like the current delay involves motion capture as well. That complicates things quite a bit, with most studios closed down to accommodate social distancing and recommended health practices. While the original launch for Little Hope was planned for the Summer of 2020, Supermassive is now aiming for a Fall 2020 release.
While it is unfortunate that the game has been delayed, many of the replies to Supermassive CEO Pete Samuels’s tweet are beyond terse. Nevermind the logistical challenge of moving a two-hundred person team into remote work in sudden unforeseen circumstances, game delays are both common and understandable when working with high-resolution motion capture. This is far from the first game to be delayed due to coronavirus containment measures, and it will not be the last. Hoping that developers catch it as some strange form of retribution for daring to delay a video game is toxic, though, and we don’t stan a toxic anything. The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope will get here when it gets here, just like every other thing in 2020.
