Best of its Kind
Let us remember games like Heavy Rain, Beyond: Two Souls, and LA Noire. Now, let us scoff and raise our noses up, for Until Dawn trumps them all. In cinematic QTE focused experiences, Until Dawn definitely takes the cake. It is, definitively, the best of its kind so far. Long after a genre seems to be dead or only left up to the work of Telltale Games, it swooped in out of nowhere and made a name for itself.
You may have overlooked it because of Metal Gear Sold V: The Phantom Pain, or precisely because you’re so sick of the “interactive drama” genre. However, you really need to give it a chance to see just how well-made these kinds of games tend to be, and what they could possibly mean for the melding of the video game and movie industries.
Story Grips You
For those of us that were huge Scooby Doo fans, into mysteries (or at the very least into B-horror movies) Until Dawn is a treat. For those not into horror games, don’t fret, it’s not that scary. If you’re a fan of Cabin in the Woods, you’re all set with this tale of a group of totally different teens spending a frightful night in a lodge in the middle of nowhere.
Why are they together when they seemingly don’t share anything in common? Because High School. Why are they getting haunted? Because they’re assholes. Why would they play with an Ouija board, leave the lodge at night, or open thumping doors? Because they’re idiots. Without spoiling anything, though, the story gets much deeper and creepier than what’s initially apparent on the surface. And, even though they’re insufferable teens, the dialogue never once feels like a 45 year old trying to write a script for 19 year olds.
Acting Is Actually Good
For Until Dawn’s cast, they hired actors to not only do the voices, but the faces as well. When was the last time you remember really good acting in a video game? If you played Until Dawn, you’d instantly think of it. The entire cast absolutely kills it with their performances as the faces match the emotions and tones in their voices, as well as the necessary gravitas for every scene.
Genius Gameplay Moments
Besides the player choice (which gets a section of its own here), there’s a significantly genius gameplay mechanic that Until Dawn utilizes whenever a character is in hiding from imminent danger. An outline of the Dualshock 4’s light becomes your safe zone, and you must keep your controller extra still within those lines. You’re essentially made to feel the same intense feeling of trying to keep absolutely still and quiet as your character is hiding. It’s perfectly executed during already overwhelming moments of fear in the game.
Oooooooooh, Preeeeeettyyyyy
Until Dawn is a seriously beautiful game. The characters already approach creepy levels of looking human, but the world around them also manages to be gorgeous, albeit a little eerie at times. The snow dropping, the lighting, the cinematography practiced, it all combines to make one of the prettiest experiences on the PS4 this year. The graphics can be a bit too good when there’s gore involved, though. That could definitely have been toned down to appease our poor tummies.
Player Choice!
Everyone loves options. Everybody likes to feel like their decisions in a game matter and change the story in some magnificent way. Although it’s been greatly exaggerated how many endings and changes one can make in Until Dawn, it’s still very cool that they took the butterfly effect and worked it well in the game. Many different choices do change something in the story, maybe not as drastically as one could imagine, but enough so that players can find something new in different playthroughs.
Not only that, but how you play and the way your character acts changes their base stats, too. You might find that you’ll turn Mike into the biggest coward, or Chris into a grade A liar. How you play actually affects who these characters end up being by the end of the game thanks to how you made them react to situations.
“Understand the palm of my hand, bitch.”
Enough said.
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