A buried temple and two hostile crews
House of Ashes is the third standalone entry in The Dark Pictures Anthology, a series of cinematic branching horror games where your decisions shape the story and the ending you get. At the close of the Iraq War, a Special Forces unit hunting for weapons of mass destruction opens up a buried Sumerian temple instead, and finds a nest of unearthly creatures inside. Your crew is split between two opposing factions that rarely see eye to eye, so part of the job is setting those rivalries aside long enough to fight your way out of the underworld together.
Playing it with friends
You can share the story online with a friend, or go offline and pass the pad around a group of up to five players. Since the game is built around choices and has multiple endings, what your group decides together is what the story becomes. There is also Remote Play Together for the same kind of shared session.
What carries over after the first run
Once you have finished the main story, the Curator's Cut unlocks. It shows scenes from the other characters' perspectives, with new choices and decisions to make, so a second playthrough is not a repeat of the first. Expect a nonlinear structure, a dark psychological horror tone, and a story that remembers what you picked.