Game:

Until Dawn (2015)

Category:

Review

Duration: 16:17

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Until Dawn is a 2015 PlayStation exclusive horror title developed by Supermassive Games which gives you the ability to tailor the story to your will depending on the choices you make. There are actually 120 possible combinations to end the game with, which will give you different dialogue and cutscenes, as well as a special post-game interview depending on who survives . . . Until dawn.

A group of teenagers go to an isolated cabin in the snowy mountains for a getaway retreat. Two of the teens, sisters Hannah & Beth, go missing after a cruel prank was played on one of them by the other teens, and are presumed dead. One year later, the sisters' brother Josh reunites the group to return to the cabin to honor the lost sisters but strange things start happening and they think they're being stalked. A psycho and some cannibalistic creatures called Wendigos begin hunting them down one by one, and they must survive . . . Until dawn (How many times can I do that until it's no longer funny by the way?)

Until Dawn is an excellent narrative driven horror adventure that plays more like a movie than an actual game. However it is a particularly good movie since it's highly interactive and adaptable. This game features less amounts of "illusion of choice" compared to other titles in this genre, and it felt like what I said and do actually had an impact, especially due to the butterfly effect indicator. While the characters are obviously super cliché and stereotypical, I did ultimately like basically all of them as they were relatable and reacting realistically to their situations, and there was also one significant standout among them being Rami Malek as Josh not only because he is the most recognizable talent among them, but because his character is multi layered, has great motivation, and suffers from mental ailments that the others are not which changes his screen time sections significantly, (Dr. Hill was most likely a figment of his imagination, and he doesn't see Wendigos as real threats.)

Where Until Dawn loses some points is first of all the first half of the game; which is an intentional soap opera sort of throwback to 90s slasher films in which all of the dialogue is as tropey as possible and everyone is making stupid decisions all of the time (However luckily you as the player can try your best to take the less stupid route when presented with such option), while I didn't hate or loathe this first half, I just want to point out it's unquestionably the weaker half, as at that point you are in the dark and are unaware of the cool and creative things to come in the future and you are just left with a mediocre rip-off of classic films that became classic for being stupid, not good. I experienced a major audio issue in my playthroughs which resulted in muffled voices, I don't think this was a bug, it was either a default audio setting which I never found out how to change or it's simply the way it was designed for everyone, which is not good and I guarantee you will notice it immediately after booting up the game for the first time. The game definitely boasts tension and some great scares and kill scenes, but I'll say the jump scares are hilariously telegraphed and most are countered by an immediate follow up in a gameplay section such as throwing an object at the enemy that jump scared you or shooting it with your gun, which also contributes to killing the scare attempt. On the topic of guns, Michael having an infinite ammo double barrel shotgun that never has to be reloaded was pretty funny, and it was also funny how at least two characters don't get hypothermia from being dressed in either their underwear or a towel, and two or more others survive potential hypothermia when they straight up go swimming in ice cold water during a snowy storm.

Until Dawn starts off generic and underwhelming and then evolves into something really great and unique. The amount of choice and variability in who dies and when is also super impressive and this might be the only choose your own path game which lets you either save or kill off every single character for the most part.

#rainynights #gaming #untildawn

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