Man of Medan kicks off The Dark Pictures Anthology so elegantly and chillingly that you just can't get enough of that lovie-dovie stuff.

Supermassive Game's high concept - an anthology of horror stories - is off to a great start with Man of Medan. We don't get nearly enough horror that aims to be thoughtful like this. The challenge will be to make sure that each game in the series is different enough to reflect a different approach to horror, but things are off to a good start.

A good start for the Dark Pictures Anthology and another solid, entertaining horror experience for Supermassive Games.

At its best, Man of Medan is every bit as gripping, beautiful, and giddily silly as Until Dawn, but technical issues, a rushed story, and a confusing approach to player choice betray the limited resources the game’s creators had to work with. Man of Medan is currently the best option for those desperate for more Until Dawn, but I'm hoping Supermassive Games can scare up something a little more substantial for future The Dark Pictures titles.

Sadly, you can’t help but compare it to Until Dawn which quite frankly did everything better. Man of Medan is over far too quickly and doesn’t have the same impact of Supermassive’s previous entry. It is, however, a short but sweet enjoyable romp which is way better when played with friends.

Personally, I’m genuinely excited for future Dark Pictures instalments. And I’m still playing Man of Medan, figuring out its hidden traps and machinations, despite my frustrations with it.

Man of Medan has a couple of fun gimmicks, great faces and bunch of exciting moments spread throughout, but it's also filled with badly paced sequences, bland characters, annoying technical issues and cheap scares that are so frequent and so poorly executed that you can't help but feel offended and frustrated.