Spoilers for The Devil in Me Ahead
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Meis a grizzly look into the life of a killer obsessed with H. H. Holmes. After luring an unsuspecting film crew to his murder castle, he begins his sadistic games that don’t stop until there’s blood. This is terrible news for Kate, who is already dealing with past trauma.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Mefeatures a delicate look at trauma and its effects through Kate. She demonstrates that sometimes, the only way to move on from trauma is to deal with it head-on. Unfortunately for Kate, that means coming face to face with a psychotic killer.
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Kate’s Traumatic Past in The Devil in Me
InThe Devil in Me, players are introduced to a film crewwhose eyes are set on documenting a house of horrors. Everyone on the team has a role to play, and Kate’s position is in front of the camera. She does her job well, even though the crew has yet to find the success it is chasing. Although Kate can put on a smile when she’s in front of the camera, it is all a facade. Inside, she holds a lot of trauma and pain that stems from her past.
As players learn, in her younger years, Kate had a friend named Shelby. She was supposed to meet up with her, but she didn’t. Unfortunately, that was the same night that Shelby was murdered. Since then, Kate has felt responsible for her friend’s death, and she believes that if she hadn’t abandoned her, Shelby wouldn’t have died.The event leaves Kate with PTSD, and she is unable to let go of the guilt. As if that isn’t torturous enough, Du’Met knows about this tragic aspect of her past, and he taunts her with it throughout her stay in his murder mansion.
Kate Faces Her Trauma
When Charlie’s film crew is invited to Du’Met’s mansion, they are expecting to see nothing except areplica of H. H. Holmes' hotel. Instead, they find themselves trapped in a house of horrors full of elaborate traps designed to terrify and kill. For Kate, the psychological torture starts when she discovers a newspaper reporting on Shelby’s death. She knows it’s no mistake, as it’s an old article. The torture from Du’Met continues throughout her stay.
Though Du’Met is a scary villain, Kate has a chance to redeem herself by facing him and trying to save her friends. She gets this opportunity at least twice, depending onwhat choices players make inThe Devil in Me. This occurs once when Kate is on the roof with the killer, and she has the chance to either run or save Jamie. It’s a genuinely tough choice, as Jamie isn’t always the nicest crew member. Kate receives another chance to redeem herself during the game’s climax when she is fleeing from the murderer’s island on a speedboat. Depending on the choices made, she could have Mark on the boat with her. When Mark and the killer have a brawl, Kate has the choice to attack the killer or jump off the boat and protect herself. If she jumps, she gains the chance to save her skin, but if she attacks Du’Met, Kate gets to do what she couldn’t years ago and protect a friend from a murderer.
SinceUntil Dawn, gamers have always looked to Supermassive Games for immersive choice-based games. WithThe Devil in Me, the studio seems to haveperfected the formula forThe Dark Pictures Anthology. If the suspense and gameplay of this title can be replicated in future titles, the future looks bright for the series.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil in Meis available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.
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