A few days ago we saw the release of the new horror game from Supermassive Games titled Man of Medan. The wait for a new game from the makers of Until Dawn has been long, but with this new release comes the promise of several more games in the future. Before I was able to get Until Dawn myself, I watched YouTuber Pewdiepie play it several years ago. Since then I have played the game a couple of times with different people, and struggled to find a game as good as it. As soon as Man of Medan came out, I bought the game on PC and played it, and here are my thoughts.

The Prologue

Right off the bat, we have a prologue similar to Until Dawn, allowing us to get some background. Serving also as a tutorial, the game shows the opportunity to make choices that may change your outcome. This is what made Until Dawn such a great game, and now Man of Medan. Just to get it out of the way, one issue I had with the gameplay was that the characters take a while to start walking when you move the joystick. This can be slightly frustrating, but doesn’t ruin the gameplay. The prologue sets the story up pretty well and when exploring the boat later, we get to see some extra clues talking about Charlie and Joe, the two characters from this prologue.

Introductions

As with Until Dawn, we get a rundown of each of the five playable characters from Man of Medan. We get told their characteristics and their relationships between the characters. While I don’t think their characteristics are very important, even though we can alter them with our choices, the relationships can have some effect on the results. First off, we meet Brad, brother of Alex, described as witty and innocent. Alex, boyfriend of Julia, is described as level-headed and caring. Julia, sister of Conrad, is described as excited, impatient, selfish and witty. Conrad is described as foolhardy and relaxed. Lastly, Fliss, the captain of the boat Duke of Milan, is described as altruistic, innocent, motivated and relaxed. Still keeping up?

While these characteristics are sometimes evident, more so when you aren’t playing them, some characters have more personality than others. Fliss and Conrad are the most distinct and interesting. Fliss is uptight and stubborn, while Conrad is jokey and flirty. Brad comes next, showing some personality with his interest in WW2, and being a bit shy. Then we have Alex and Julia. In my opinion, these characters aren’t particularly interesting and don’t really add much of interest to the game, other than the fact that they are in a relationship.

The Plot of Man of Medan

I did quite enjoy the storyline of Man of Medan. The game was quite a lot shorter than Until Dawn, being about 5 hours rather than 8 or more. It also took a while for the game to really get going. The prologue takes up a bit of time, and then we don’t get onto the ship until about and hour and a half into the game, maybe longer. It was nice to get to know the characters a bit, but it could have definitely been shorter. Interspersed between the action, we get scenes with a character similar to the creepy therapist in Until Dawn. Known as the curator, he gives us occasional tips to allow us to understand the plot better and keep characters alive.

The Real Threat

To begin with, the theme of Man of Medan seems to be supernatural. With dead bodies coming alive, and creepy beings chasing and attacking us, this would be the first conclusion. This on its own creates a good horror storyline, with keeping the characters alive being the goal. Later on in the game, you can work out that the things the characters are seeing are not actually real, but are hallucinations brought on by the ‘Manchurian Gold’, a gas still on the ship. This gas was to be used by the soildiers as a weapon post World War Two, and can bring on intense hallucinations that cause the victims to kill themselves.

I thought that this twist was very interesting and made me think in a whole different way. As the curator mentions, it adds a political and scientific side to the plot. Once I learned this information, it meant that I was able to more understand how to survive. On another note, Man of Medan was much easier to nagivigate than Until Dawn, as it kind of points you in the right direction, which is probably one reason why it’s a lot shorter.

The Multiple Endings of Man of Medan

Like Until Dawn, Man of Medan has a few different endings, especially pertaining to how many characters you keep alive. You can end up with all characters alive or even all characters dead depending on how you play the game.

In my first playthrough with my boyfriend, we ended up missing a couple QTEs which killed off Brad, but other than that we killed Conrad and Julia and kept the distributor cap. This meant that Alex and Fliss were able to escape on the boat and go home. I then went back and saved both Julia and Brad but destroyed the distributor. Because we had called for help earlier on, the military turned up and saved us. Then we were imprisoned for knowing too much. This confused me at first, and is a bit of a frustrating ending. Furthermore, if you let them know the name of the boat you need rescuing from, they will kill you onsight.

One other ending is if you don’t call for help but the distributor gets destroyed. In this case, the survivors die from thirst/hunger/fear on the boat. Another ending happens if Conrad escapes on the speedboat when the villians are aboard the Duke of Milan. He then comes back with a bigger boat to rescue them all. To check out a rundown of all the endings and how to get them, here is a link to an article: https://www.pcinvasion.com/man-of-medan-endings-guide-post-credits-scenes/

Misleading Choices

I found that there were quite a few choices that you would think would definitely be the right thing to do, but ended up being the exact opposite. The most obvious of all being that calling for help actually ends in either imprisonment or death. Choices like this are made to catch you out, and can be annoying but can also make the game more interesting. Also, there were some cases where is seems like you have a choice but you actually don’t. There was one example where in my first playthrough we completed a ‘keep calm’ event, and the same thing happened when we failed the ‘keep calm’ event. No consequences, just more QTEs.

Collectables and other similarities

The collectables work in Man of Medan in a similar way to Until Dawn. The pictures act like the totems in showing you particular outcomes. Instead of the butterfly effect theming, we have bearings, which pertain to the boat theme.

There are secrets hidden around the boat that can help you to understand the plot, and sometimes open up storylines. For example, if you learn the name of the boat that might just get you killed. And just like Until Dawn, Man of Medan has the post-credit scenes and interviews that give you more insight to the characters well-being.

Final Thoughts

Overall, I enjoyed this game. It wasn’t as terrifying and night-mare enducing as Until Dawn was for me, but I enjoyed it nonetheless. With an intriguing storyline and well-timed jumpscares, it really is an interesting game. It also comes with promise of more games, including one already announced called Little Hope, releasing some time in 2020. The four year wait between Until Dawn and Man of Medan has been long but rewarding. I hope that their games in the future continue to get better and I look forward to playing Little Hope next year.

Well there’s my review of the Supermassive release, Man of Medan. I hope you enjoyed reading, and if you haven’t played the game already go play it! You can buy it on PC here: https://store.steampowered.com/app/939850/The_Dark_Pictures_Anthology_Man_of_Medan/

If you have any other games you want me to play and review, please go to https://www.a-day-in-june.com/contact-me/ and fill in a contact form.

That’s all from me, see you in the next one!