Horrific Halloween 2019 - Man of Medan

It's October, so Shangrila Towers is serving up All Hallows' Eve-themed posts for the guys and ghouls in your neighborhood. Today, I review "Man of Medan," a video game developed by Supermassive Games.

"Man of Medan" is basically an interactive horror movie. The game puts you in the shoes of four friends trapped on board a ghost ship with a crew of ruthless pirates. Through the actions and dialogue you pick for them, you decide who lives and dies:


Mechanics-wise, "Man of Medan" is a follow-up to "Until Dawn," Supermassive's first PS4 title. While that game didn't support multiplayer, my friends and I played it together, passing the controller around, sharing the scares, and kibitzing about what we should do next. "Man of Medan" goes one better by including a "Movie Night" mode that assigns characters to certain players and instructs you when to pass the controller over (usually right after a cliffhanger).

Because the story branches pretty dramatically at points (a main character can become separated from the other survivors in the first act and absent for the rest of the game), "Man of Medan" is relatively short - about five hours total. Another caveat is the game's heavy reliance on QTEs, which I know is a deal-breaker for some players. If you can live with those faults, I recommend "Man of Medan" to any group of horror fans looking for a good time.

Rating: 80/100 (90/100 when played in local co-op)