Supermassive Games is a developer that has become synonymous with choice-driven horror titles starring recognizable actors and actresses. This reputation began with the PS4 exclusive Until Dawn in 2015 and has continued to grow through a series of shorter games known as The Dark Pictures Anthology. The Quarry, which acts as a spiritual successor to Until Dawn, was released in June 2022 and proved that Supermassive still has plenty of horrific and fascinating stories to tell.
Supermassive Games was created in 2008, and quickly became a second-party developer for Sony. The company's first few years were spent developing DLC for LittleBigPlanet and games that required the PlayStation Move controller before their breakout hit Until Dawn was released. Supermassive Games is one of the most unique developers right now, and has created some incredible adventures since its debut.
Updated November 29, 2022 by Kyle Chamaillard. Supermassive Games is a busy studio and released both The Quarry and The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me in 2022. After adding The Quarry to the list earlier this year, we're revisiting it once again to see where their latest title lands against the developer's other projects.
11 Wonderbook: Walking With Dinosaurs
Do you remember Wonderbook, the book that comes to life through the PlayStation Eye camera? It's ok — no one does. Supermassive Games was a reliable studio for Sony to offer these types of projects to, and with the help of the BBC they created an immersive and educational game about dinosaurs.
Walking with Dinosaurs is often regarded as being the best of the four Wonderbook games. It offers kids a fun way to learn about the Jurassic period, and tests their knowledge with a variety of trivia questions. The only scary thing about this early Supermassive title is how they were able to make learning this much fun.
10 The Inpatient
The Inpatient is a prequel to Until Dawn, and returns to a more traditional horror experience after Supermassive released Tumble VR and Hidden Agenda. It's a PlayStation VR exclusive where you play an amnesiac patient in the Blackwood Pines Sanatorium, sixty-three years before the events of the original game.
Until Dawn fans were excited to explore the sanatorium — which was heavily featured in the game — and learn more about the history of Blackwood Mountain. The experience, though, turned out to be disappointingly short and boring. The graphics were good for virtual reality, but the movement was clunky, which broke the immersion, and the scares felt cheap and undeserved.
9 Tumble
Supermassive Games isn't always dragging you into grotesque, goosebump-inducing horror games. Tumble is a puzzle game that involves building or destroying towers with the PlayStation Move controller. Puzzles in other Supermassive titles can often have consequences, like the death of a character, but Tumble's puzzles are just pure joy.
It succeeds largely because it's an excellent stress reliever with accurate motion controls. The PlayStation Move was not very successful, but a few games managed to capitalize on the technology and Tumble was one of them. It was also one of the first games Supermassive developed on its own, paving the way for later projects.
8 Hidden Agenda
After the success of Until Dawn, Supermassive wanted to apply the mechanics from its popular horror game to a different kind of experience — a murder mystery. Hidden Agenda contains the quick-time events and excellent performances you should expect from a Supermassive title, but fails by adding new ideas that slow down the adventure.
Hidden Agenda is one of a handful of games that utilizes the Playlink feature. Other people around you could influence decisions using their cellphones, and sometimes players would receive prompts meant to cause confusion and conflict within the group. It felt like Sony once again asking Supermassive to create a game around new technology, similar to Walking with Dinosaurs and Tumble.
7 Until Dawn: Rush Of Blood
In an unexpected turn of events, Supermassive Games adapted Until Dawn into an arcade shooter. Some fans of the narrative-driven game were not pleased with this change, but it did offer a fun and often scary experience. It was one of the many games that launched alongside the PlayStation VR in 2016, but failed the recapture the magic of the original.
Instead of creating massive explorable environments in VR, Supermassive Games decided to keep it simple and created an on-rail shooter. You ride on a roller coaster and shoot enemies in creepy environments, but there isn't much more to do besides that. Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is also disappointingly short on Until Dawn Easter eggs and references.
6 The Dark Pictures Anthology: Man Of Medan
Man of Medan is the first entry in the Dark Pictures Anthology, and it feels like it. It was Supermassive Game's first attempt at telling a shorter story with less consequential decisions, and while it's a fun and often spooky time, it also stumbles more than it succeeds. It was also the first time Supermassive decided to focus on a multiplayer aspect for one of its games.
It features a pretty fun group of characters, and an intriguing opening act that quickly sets the stage through the choices you make. Playing with a friend offers the most fun, as small decisions either player makes will affect the outcome of the adventure and the characters' fates. It's also a genuinely scary game at times, with its ghost ship aesthetic and haunting score. Man of Medan was a great start to the Dark Pictures Anthology series, but is only a fraction of the fun of its sequels.
5 The Dark Pictures Anthology: The Devil In Me
The Devil In Me is the final installment in The Dark Pictures Anthology's first season and is the first time the series felt like it was taking a step back instead of pushing the genre forward. Its premise about a film crew investigating a haunted hotel was incredibly intriguing, but a combination of unlikeable characters and predictable twists make the overall experience feel less ambitious and fun than its predecessors.
House of Ashes and Little Hope excelled at having characters you actually want to see survive the night, but The Devil In Me's cast feels like a group of toxic people with few redeeming qualities. It's not all bad though, as The Devil In Me might have some of the scariest moments and most brutal deaths in any Supermassive game.
4 The Dark Pictures Anthology: Little Hope
Little Hope is the second game in the Dark Pictures Anthology, and is proof that Supermassive is always trying to improve on its formulas. Not everything that felt off in Man of Medan is entirely fixed, but Little Hope's writing, characters, and story are certainly an improvement. The interactions and dialogue between characters feel more authentic, and it's shocking when any of them meet their untimely demise.
Little Hope follows a group of people after their bus mysteriously crashes, following them as they spiral into darkness. They soon find themselves trapped in a ghost town plagued by witches, and will need to work together to survive the night. What helps Little Hope stand out is that you get to explore the modern timeline, as well as the events from the past that led to the town's curse.
3 The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes
It might not have been a bad idea to finish the first season of The Dark Pictures Anthology with its third entry. Once again, Supermassive took everything that worked in Man of Medan and Little Hope, and found interesting ways to refine them while also introducing new and exciting ideas. House of Ashes also saw a major visual improvement from the developer, minus some occasional texture and animation bugs.
Man of Medan and Little Hope have moments where they shine, but House of Ashes is the most consistent in its quality and fun. Decisions feel more consequential, and the story does a great job of keeping you engaged during its six to seven-hour campaign. The performances from Ashley Tisdale and the rest of the cast are some of the best Supermassive have captured so far, and help sell the horror of being trapped in a cave with ferocious monsters.
2 Until Dawn
Supermassive Games may not be what it is today if it wasn't for Until Dawn. It was an ambitious project that began as a first-person PlayStation 3 game that required motion controls, before eventually becoming a choice-driven horror game. It follows a group of teenagers who reunite one year after a tragic accident. What begins as a melancholic reunion quickly becomes a nightmare.
Every choice you make will have a drastic effect on the story, the relationship between the characters, and who lives and who dies. There's an engaging yet anxiety-inducing sense of tension throughout the game, because you never know what consequences your actions may have. Until Dawn is full of throwback horror clichés and is perfect for anyone who enjoys horror-adventure games like Telltale's The Walking Dead.
1 The Quarry
After the release of Until Dawn, most of Supermassive's horror games have taken place in The Dark Pictures Anthology. Those games are all fantastic, but none of them have been able to recapture the magic of the 2015 PS4 exclusive. For a long time, it felt like the studio would never release another game with the same quality of story and characters as Until Dawn. That's before Supermassive released The Quarry, a game that somehow exceeds expectations and proves that Supermassive still has plenty of creative juice in the tank.
The Quarry feels like the culmination of Supermassive's repertoire up to this point. Its characters are funny and relatable, while also feeling like they fell out of a lost Wes Craven movie. Until Dawn was a single-player experience, but The Quarry includes the multiplayer modes from Dark Pictures Anthology, so you can enjoy all ten amazing hours of this interactive movie with a friend. The Quarry features an all-star cast, stellar soundtrack, and the best writing in a Supermassive game thus far. All you have to do is survive long enough to enjoy it all.