House of Ashes is another solid entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology. These games are great to play alone during Halloween or with friends thanks to the co-op modes. They’re great for any time when gamers are feeling like they want a good spooking though.
As story-heavy games with a lot of branching paths, there are always a lot of questions left on the table. Will these questions ever be answered in a direct sequel or are they meant to be left alone for group discussions with friends? Whatever the case maybe it is time to spoil the short little adventure that is House of Ashes.
8 Lady Bradshaw And The Humanoid Vampires
Later in the game players can discover a secret about the Hodgson expedition and the secrets of vampires in general. Mr. Hodgson reveals that Lady Bradshaw transformed from a human into a creature. Based on this entry players can assume she looked like the humanoid versions of the creatures with the buckteeth fangs.
Does that mean she was immune to sunlight or did she just gather the Hodgson’s during the night? Even if she isn’t immune to the sun the question remains how many other vampires could transform back and forth between their forms. Can Kurum, the ancient shaman from the prologue, do it as well?
7 Where Did The Parasite Originate?
There is no conclusion as to where this parasite originated. Based on context clues it seems like these aliens were perfected healthy until they crashed into Earth. Contact with the parasite turned them into monsters.
The question is did they pick up this virus in space which led to their crash on Earth? Maybe there was another reason why they crashed and the place they landed just so happened to give rise to these sporadic parasites on Earth.
6 Were The Shepards Vampires?
The farmers above the ruins of Akkad seemed to know more than they were letting on. It can’t be a coincidence that they had weapons and were sitting on top of these ancient ruins. They also had those weird crosses hanging in their domain.
They could have just been superstitious farmers who believed in the legends. However, a more original story would have them be sort of like guardians. They needed to make sure nothing tried to get into, or out of, the ruins.
5 Did Those Crosses Do Anything?
On the subject of the crosses in the farmer’s house, did they do anything? There is a scene that can trigger toward the middle of the game wherein Nick can choose to ward of Kurum with his Christian cross. This does not affect Kurum but that does not mean the more ancient crosses are useless for protection.
Logically it would stand to reason that the other crosses won’t affect the vampires either. Their weakness to sunlight can just be a coincidence to the legends. There are diseases that make humans weak to sunlight in real life and the parasite might accelerate that mutation.
4 How Did Everyone Catch Up To Jason And Salim?
Depending on who is saved and who isn’t doesn’t matter toward the later chapters. At some point, Jason and Salim will team up and head into the depths below. Eventually, the others will join their quest in stopping the alien vampires.
No matter who is saved, there will not be an extra playable chapter for Eric, Rachel, or Nick. They will just magically join Salim and Jason scratch-free. How did they get down there unscathed? Maybe there was a cut scene in the game to explain this adventure.
3 What Exactly Did Kurum Want?
When Kurum appears in the middle of the game this is a big shocker. It shows that he survived the events of the prologue chapter and is a more intelligent and less mutated version of the vampires. What does he want though? It almost seems like his goal is to toy with the military team and not kill them.
Kurum’s go-to move is to choke people. Why? As a vampire with superhuman strength and speed, he could presumably punch a hole through their chests instead very easily.
2 Did The Aliens Kill The Dinosaurs?
There is another question about the aliens' crash on Earth. It is theorized by the journal entries and characters in the game that these creatures were here for millions of years. The alien ship looked a lot like a giant meteor in the flashback scene.
Earth, also in this scene, looked like it was one big chunk of mass like how it originally was as Pangea. This might indicate that these aliens were the reason why the dinosaurs were killed off. That might be just a theory as no one in the game comes to that conclusion. If that is the case then it would be wild. The game is nice and short with a moderate pace. However, it would have been nice to get some more answers in regard to the aliens.
1 The Ending
No matter who survivors by the end of the game, the final scene played during the credits will almost always be the same. The survivors will give testimony as to what transpired but almost all of the two lead scientists’ dialogue will remain constant albeit with a few tweaks.
It seems that the military wants to make sure no one finds out about this. Are they going to kill the survivors anyway in order to keep this snafu a secret? Are they going to harvest the alien technology and then nuke the ruins? There are so many unanswered questions that can plague players by this ending.
The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes was released on October 22, 2021, and is available on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.