House of Ashes guide: Everyone survives full walkthrough (Theatrical Cut)

House of Ashes – Theatrical Cut walkthrough (Part 1)

This is the second part of our House of Ashes Theatrical Cut walkthrough and guide. We’ll talk about the following chapters: Cursed (prologue), The Briefing, and The Raid.

Prologue: Cursed (Balathu)

The short prologue tells you of the Curse of Akkad and the fall of Naram-Sin’s empire. You control a general named Balathu as the basic mechanics are explained to you. There’s another Akkadian character here, Kurum, but you won’t be able to control him.

• Premonition: Arisen – Next to the helmet that Balathu examines.
• Important decision/deaths: Balathu can decide not to betray his new pal, Kurum. Unfortunately, both of them will still die here. There’s no way to avoid this.

Note: For the sake of convenience, this playthrough assumes that Balathu was the last one to die in the prologue.

The Briefing (Eric)

There’s not a lot you can do here. Still, I would suggest being nice/friendly to Rachel. Make sure to examine all the objects to add to your secrets tally, too.

• Important decision #1: Choose not to bring the white phosphorous.
• Important decision #2: You can decide to have close-air support or not. This affects the Air Support bearing. In my case, I decided not to call for backup at this stage in the game.

The Raid (Salim and Jason)

You’ll first play as Salim here. It looks like it’s his son’s birthday, but his commanding officer (Dar) says that the Americans have arrived. He has no choice but to join the fight. You’ll soon have control of Jason. There are Iraqi villagers who are being interrogated in a hut.

• Premonition: Disarmed – Inside one of the rooms in the villager’s house. You need to pick this up after the first interrogation.

If you head outside and to the second hut, a cutscene will trigger. It seems that Joey gets shot here, and he’ll bleed out.

• QTE – Jason will need to step over some obstacles, then there’s an aim-and-shoot sequence where you kill the enemy soldiers.
• Important decision – One of the shepherds will escape. Choose not to shoot the civilian and Salim won’t end up shooting you. This affects the Semper Fi bearing.

The chaotic firefights and explosions cause a quake. Several sinkholes open up and swallow the characters. Let’s go to the next part of our House of Ashes Theatrical Cut walkthrough to discuss additional chapters.