History VideoGame / TheDarkPicturesAnthology

** [[spoiler: Confirmed in ''House of Ashes'' and implied in ''Man of Medan'' in the EverybodyLives endings of both games, as The Curator in the former claims that while none of the main cast died, they're all left traumatized by their experiences. In the latter's case, the achievement/trophy the player recieves for getting said ending is titled "That's something, I suppose", which suggests that the main cast will never fully get over their traumatic experience and that it will most likely take them quite a long time to recover]].

* SpiritualSuccessor: The entire series shares a visual aesthetic and gameplay mechanics with ''VideoGame/UntilDawn'', Supermassive's previous interactive horror breakout hit. To further underscore the connection, versions of "O Death" are used as the credits song for all of the games, starting with ''Until Dawn'' and continuing through every ''Dark Pictures'' game.

* ActionSurvivor: All of the playable characters in ''Man of Medan'' and ''Little Hope'' count. The former features a group of divers and the captain, and the latter features a college class and their professor. Averted in ''House of Ashes'', as all of the playable characters are trained military soldiers. ''The Devil in Me'' makes a return to form, featuring a crew of documentary filmmakers as the main playable characters.

** Man of Medan is based on paranormal horror and haunted location films (''Film/{{Poltergeist|1982}}'', ''Film/TheConjuring'', ''Film/TheEvilDead'').

** ''Little Hope'' contains a gag where Andrew finds a broken radio in the police station and wryly states he'd believed it would be their salvation. This is the only game in the series where you can't actually use the radio no matter what choices are made.

** The Devil in Me is a torture porn-styled slasher (''Film/{{Saw}}'', ''Film/{{Hostel}}'', ''Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft'').

* AnyoneCanDie: The [=USP=] of the entire series: every playable character has a number of potential scripted deaths, and if a character dies the story will continue without them. ''Man of Medan'' is so far the purest example: there are over 60 potential deaths for the five main characters, and StaticRoleExchangeableCharacter comes into play depending on who makes it to the final chapters.
** [[spoiler:{{Averted}} to some degree in the other three games, where one or multiple protagonists have PlotArmor for most of the game.]]

** Little Hope is based on folk horror, with elements of psychological horror as well (Film/TheBlairWitchProject, Film/TheWitch, Film/{{Psycho}}).
** House of Ashes is based on horror-action hybrids, with a sci-fi bent (Film/ThePredator, Film/TheTerminator, Film/EvilDead2).
** The Devil in Me is a torture porn-styled slasher (Film/{{Saw}}, Film/{{Hostel}}, Film/TheLastHouseOnTheLeft).
** The upcoming Directive 8020 is inspired by space horror (Film/{{Alien}}, Film/TheCloverfieldParadox, Film/TheThing1982).

* InksuitActor: Each game features one well-known TV or film star voicing a character whose appearance is based on their own:

*** Unlike ''Until Dawn'', which used relatively well-known Inksuit Actors in almost every role, ''The Dark Pictures'' games fill out the rest of their main casts with in-house character models that are frequently re-used between games, creating the impression of a returning ProductionPosse (even though they are in fact voiced by different people every game).

'''Spinoffs:'''

At least eight games are planned in total, with Supermassive initially aiming for two releases a year. However, due to various production hold-ups (surely not helped by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, but actually predating it), new entries have been released annually. To date four games have been released, making up the first "season" of the anthology. In 2022, the first trailer for ''Directive 8020'' released, referring to it as the "season two premiere." A spin-off for the PSVR2 called ''Switchback VR'' has also been released.

* DoingInTheWizard: Implied to be the direction the series is going: [[spoiler: the seemingly-supernatural events in ''Man of Medan'' are revealed to be the result of a WWII biochemical weapon causing hallucinations.]] [[spoiler: The mysterious happenings in ''Little Hope'' are revealed to be the combination of head trauma and SurvivorsGuilt, all happening in one character's imagination]].
** Averted in ''House of Ashes'': [[spoiler: No hallucinations this time, the monsters are entirely real. Though one could consider the eventual explanation for them to still adhere to this trope somewhat, as the monsters are not magically supernatural, but aliens from a crashed spaceship infected with vampiric (but technically natural) parasites.]]

** Some characters are this regardless of player choice, in order to get the plot moving. In ''Man Of Medan'', Conrad flaunting his wealth at the [[spoiler:pirates convinces them to rob the group, which causes them to get trapped on the Ourang Medan]]. In ''House of Ashes'', Eric [[spoiler:deciding to venture to Iraq in search of chemical weapons indirectly leads to the Iraqis ambushing them and causing the firefight that ultimately leads to the cave-in that traps them underground]]. In ''The Devil in Me'', Charlie [[spoiler:accepting Du’Met’s invitation and pressuring his crew into accompanying him, leaving them stranded on Du’Met’s island and at his mercy.]]

** Some characters are this regardless of player choice, in order to get the plot moving. In ''Man Of Medan'', Conrad flaunting his wealth at the [[spoiler:pirates convinces them to rob the group, which causes them to get trapped on the Ourang Medan]]. In ''House of Ashes'', Eric [[spoiler:deciding to venture to Iraq in search of chemical weapons indirectly leads to the Iraqis ambushing them and causing the firefight that ultimately leads to the cave-in that traps them underground]]. In ''The Devil in Me'', Charlie [[spoiler:accepting Du’Met’s invitation to his island and pressuring his crew into accompanying him, leaving them stranded on it and at Du’Met’s mercy.]]

** Some characters are this regardless of player choice, in order to get the plot moving. In ''Man Of Medan'', Conrad flaunting his wealth at the [[spoiler:pirates convinces them to rob the group, which causes them to get trapped on the Ourang Medan]]. In ''House of Ashes'', Eric [[spoiler:deciding to venture to Iraq in search of chemical weapons indirectly leads to the Iraqis ambushing them and causing the firefight that ultimately leads to the cave-in that traps them underground]]. In ''The Devil in Me'', Charlie [[spoiler:accepting Du’Met’s invitation to his island, leaving him and his employees stranded on it and at Du’Met’s mercy.]]

** Some characters are this regardless of player choice, in order to get the plot moving. In ''Man Of Medan'', Conrad flaunting his wealth at the [[spoiler:pirates convinces them to rob the group, which causes them to get trapped on the Ourang Medan]]. In ''House of Ashes'', Eric [[spoiler:deciding to venture to Iraq in search of chemical weapons indirectly leads to the Iraqis ambushing them and causing the firefight that ultimately leads to the cave-in that traps them underground]].

At least eight games are planned in total, with Supermassive initially aiming for two releases a year. However, due to various production hold-ups (surely not helped by the UsefulNotes/COVID19Pandemic, but actually predating it), new entries have been released annually. To date four games have been released, making up the first "season" of the anthology. In 2022, the first trailer for ''Directive 8020'' released, referring to it as the "season two premiere." A spin-off for the PSVR2 called ''Switchback VR'' is also upcoming.

* FiveManBand: Each game has five protagonists.

** Man of Medan is based on paranormal horror and haunted location films (Film/{{Poltergeist}}, Film/TheConjuring, Film/TheEvilDead).

** ''The Devil in Me'': [[spoiler:Mark cannot die until the final chapter, as Du'Met wants him to be the next ferryman like Morello. Either he gets his way and forces Mark to do just that by using Kate as collateral, or he nixes the idea when the police are signaled and tries to kill Mark on the speedboat.]]

** Charles from ''The Devil in Me'' is the director and showrunner of the ''Architects of Murder'' television show, as well as owning the production company that makes it. The other four characters work on the show in various capacities, but are all decades younger than Charlie and regard the show as an early-career stepping stone to greater success, while for Charlie it's likely to be the culmination of his life's work.

** John from ''Little Hope'' is a university professor, while the other four characters are his students. {{Downplayed}} though in that Angela is a mature student who's actually a few years ''older'' than John, so the divide is often between the older characters (John and Angela) and the younger ones (Andrew, Daniel, and Taylor). Notably, unlike Fliss or Salim, John is never regarded as suspicious by the others in his group. [[spoiler:TheReveal further shows that John and Angela's real-world equivalents were a married couple and the other three were among their children, with John in no way being the odd one out in that scenario.]]

** Charles from ''The Devil in Me'' is the director and owner of the ''Architects of Murder'' television show, while the other four characters are his staff.

** Possibly inverted for ''The Devil in Me''. The game never claims to have any supernatural elements, with the threat being a human serial killer. [[spoiler:However, Grantham Du'Met seems to have the power of teleportation, especially during the boat finale where he somehow catches up to a speedboat while swimming underwater. Additionally, he is an Invincible Villain, as he can never be killed no matter what the characters do to him. There are also multiple subtle hints throughout the narrative that he might be the literal reincarnation of H.H. Holmes.]]

** Possibly inverted for ''The Devil in Me''. The game never claims to have any supernatural elements, with the threat being a human serial killer. [[spoiler:However, Grantham Du'Met seems to have the power of teleportation, especially during the boat finale where he somehow catches up to a speedboat while swimming underwater. Additionally, he is an Invincible Villain, as he can never be killed no matter what the characters do to him.]]

* ''Switchback VR'' (March 16, 2023)