The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan (2019)
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan is a 2019 adventure video game made by Supermassive Games and Bandai Namco Entertainment.
A group of friends charter a diving boat off the coast of Papua New Guinea looking for a World War II wreck. They find it, along with something they did not expect, and spend the rest of the night trying to survive aboard a ghost ship where their own fear may be as dangerous as anything else on board. Man of Medan is the first entry in Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology: a standalone cinematic horror game where every character can live or die based on the choices you make, and where playing cooperatively means negotiating those choices with another person.
Quick answers
What is The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan about?
A group of friends charter a diving boat off the coast of Papua New Guinea looking for a World War II wreck. They find it, along with something they did not expect, and spend the rest of the night trying to survive aboard a ghost ship where their own fear may be as dangerous as anything else on board. Man of Medan is the first entry in Supermassive's Dark Pictures Anthology: a standalone cinematic horror game where every character can live or die based on the choices you make, and where playing cooperatively means negotiating those choices with another person.
When was The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan released?
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan was released on 29 August 2019.
Who made The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan?
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan was made by Supermassive Games and Bandai Namco Entertainment.
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Explore The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan guides
The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan in our writing
- Companion guide: Anthology Horror: The Complete Guide to Portmanteau Frights
- Companion guide: Survival Horror
A few thoughts on The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man of Medan
The abandoned-vessel horror setting shares a register with Dark Tales of Japan, which delivers short, contained horror stories with a similar anthology structure, and Vanished for a more grounded missing-persons tension on the water.
Horror where getting trapped is the real threat
Man of Medan strands its cast on a ghost ship where leaving is not an option, and that same dread runs through Dark Tales of Japan, Vanished, Backrooms, Lee Cronin's The Mummy and FROM, each one built around a place that will not let its characters go. Tomie and Death Note bring the same claustrophobia inward, trapping people inside a curse or a choice instead of a hull.
Books about a group that starts turning on each other
Every choice in Man of Medan can turn a friend into a threat, and these books track that same slide. Lord of the Flies watches a group's rules collapse under pressure, Mr. Mercedes and One of Us Is Next build ensembles where somebody close by is the danger, and American Psycho lets a familiar face hide something monstrous in plain sight.
Albums that turn real darkness into macabre storytelling
Man of Medan treats its ghost story as something to be experienced slowly, and these records take the same approach to darkness. Death's Leprosy sets dread to a death metal crawl, Springsteen's Nebraska turns a killer's story into a bare acoustic ballad, The Slim Shady LP plays horror for uneasy laughs, and Dream Theater's Metropolis Pt. 2 stages an entire death and rebirth as a concept album.