No First-Person Writing Please.
The ending of House of Ashes will subvert the endings of the previous two games.
Man of Medan and Little Hope both appeared to be supernatural horror stories that were revealed to be "mundane" by the twist at the end. It's fully expected that this game to appear to be going the same route, only to reveal that whatever otherworldly shenanigans occur are actually supernatural.
- Jossed. The seemingly supernatural monsters are actually aliens, which are simply paranormal.
- Also, it'll retroactively make the other games' twists supernatural, possibly explaining that the Manchurian Gold merely allowed you to see the monsters and that Anthony/Abraham/Andrew actually were stuck in a time loop all long, respectively.
- Jossed, there's no mention of it.
The threat of the game.
With the setting being in the Arabian desert and apparently taking an influence from Mesopotamian mythology, It's a guess that the enemy in the game will be:
- A Pazuzu-like demon that plays on the regrets and fears of the group. Although this would be a little derivative of the previous works in terms of having it revolve around the psychosis of the characters.
- Inverted. The demon shaped the concept of Pazuzu, not the other way around.
- An Eldritch Abomination. With the first two games teasing the supernatural a bit, it would be great if this one just went straight into it. If they're going to go with any specific god, my bet is on Nyarlathotep since he seems like the kind of god to screw with people just for kicks.
- Jossed, they are aliens from the Cetus system.
- A group of demons sent by Pazuzu to torment those that dare enter the temple.
- Jossed, they are actually aliens that have been under the temple for millennia.
The game will invert the dynamic of the previous games.
The last two games had seemingly supernatural events turn out to have mundane explanations. This time, however, contrary to the supernatural implications of the setting, the original threat will seem to be purely mundane-something more or less directly connected to the chemical weapons. However, partway through, this will be subverted and a genuine supernatural threat will emerge-kind of like in Until Dawn.- Jossed. The prologue makes it clear that there are inhuman monsters, even if it takes a while for them to show up afterward.
At least one character can conclude the events are a hallucination before the end.
But related to some previous theories, this will turn out to be a case of Wrong Genre Savvy, and the threat will turn out to indeed be genuinely supernatural. Furthermore, this choice can backfire and make getting the best ending impossible.- Specifically, it'll connect to how the US forces are searching for chemical weapons Iraq is suspecting of developing, and how playable character Salim IS an Iraq soldier. It'll be possible for one of the US protagonists to decide that the environment they're in IS the Iraq chemistry lab, and consequently decide that Iraq is the enemy through and through; refusing to cooperate with Salim for the rest of the playthrough and leading to a fight in which one of them will unavoidably die.
- Jossed. All of them believe the creatures are real, though Eric is doubtful until he sees one for himself.
There will be a bad ending where whatever is in the temple escapes.
- Given the seemingly supernatural nature of the monsters and the fact that two of the protagonists are Working with the Ex, not even mentioning that the American side of the cast is also forced into an Enemy Mine situation with the Iraqi forces, it could very well be possible that the monster is able to win the day and subsequently escape to continue its rampage elsewhere.
- Jossed. The parasite is always extracted from Rachel if she survives with it, and it is made clear that the government knows what to do with Jason should he inhale vampire fumes. This was sort of foreseeable, given that all the games take place in the same universe and the events of House of Ashes do not impact the world of the chronologically later installments Man of Medan and Little Hope.
There will be the option for players to deliberately kill other playable characters.
As noted above, with both the American and Iraqi forces fighting an unknown foe while also being on opposite sides of the same war, it's not impossible to imagine a panicked gunfight or a person being executed in the same style as Emily in Until Dawn.- Confirmed. Salim can choose to shoot Eric in the head in Shared Story or Curator's Cut.
The Winterfold incident will be covered in a future game.
This game gave answers to the missing archeologists mentioned in Man of Medan. It isn't out of the question that the Winterfold incident is also a set-up for another game.- Confirmed.
