Man Of Medan's Friend's Pass is an oddly limited way to share the horror
Pass the popcorn
Like most horror flicks, The Dark Pictures Anthology - Man Of Medan is better with friends. Starting this week, Medan owners are getting a new Friend's Pass, letting you invite one special friend onto the virtual couch to share the scares together over the next two months. It's a one-time-use key, so you'll have to pick your partner carefully, but what better way could there be to plunge into Medan with a mate online?
Wait, doesn't Medan support Remote Play Together anyway?
Until "mid-late January", players who own or pick up Man Of Medan will see a special "Friend's Pass" version of the game pop up in their Steam Library. This one-time pass will let any of your non-Medan owning pals join in on the game's Shared Story multiplayer mode, letting two players sail through the seafaring horror together.
Here's the thing. Man Of Medan also supports Steam Remote Play Together, which lets folks play offline multiplayer modes through streaming shenanigans. The Friend's Pass only seems to let you play the Shared Story mode, limited to two players, while I believe remote play will let four more pals hop in for Movie Night's "build-your-own horror flick" romp.
I s'pose you're not at the mercy of video streaming with the Friend's Pass. But getting it up and running is a bizarre process. As demonstrated in this tutorial video, getting it running involves downloading a second copy of Medan yourself, acquiring a code from that version, sending it to your pal to activate and install themselves. It's a bizarre trade-off, particularly given the Friend Pass is a one-time deal, one that's only available for the next two months.
It probably makes more sense over on Medan's Remote Play-less console versions, carried over to PC for parity.
Weirdness aside, Supermassive have released the Curator's Cut version of Man Of Medan - previously a pre-order exclusive - as a free update. Available once you've pulled off one playthrough, Curator's Cut brings in alternative scenes and perspectives normally restricted behind a second player's screen in Shared Story.
While it's got its hiccups, Man Of Medan is a solid visual novel wrapped in an extremely polished horror flick wrapper. Supermassive's breakout Until Dawn might not be on PC for now, but Sin's Man Of Medan review left her optimistic for the Dark Pictures Anthology going forward.
The Dark Pictures Anthology - Man Of Medan is currently 40% off in the Steam Autumn Sale, bringing it down to £15/€18/$18.