This review was originally written on September 2nd, 2015.
Horror movies often come with their fair share of clichés: jump scares, serial killers, spirits, stupid teenagers, and ridiculous monsters. If horror movie clichés are not to your liking, I suggest that you stay away from Supermassive Games’s Until Dawn. However, for anyone looking for a fantastic interactive experience surrounding stereotypical horror clichés with a captivating storyline, I cannot stress how much I would recommend a purchase of Until Dawn.
With video games, players expect a certain caliber of game playability. It is important to note that Until Dawn does not focus on gameplay, but instead relies upon delivering an immersive story. Due to this, gameplay segments fall into two major categories: walking and quick time events. While walking, the player explores the environment, picking up intriguing clues (collectibles) and totems (another type of collectible which foresees future outcomes) which allude to the many mysteries found in the game. Walking sequences take up the majority of the game, but fortunately I found myself enjoying them at all times. My only complaint is the relatively slow walking speed, which even when sped up by holding L1 manages to feel rather sluggish. Although I understand that the slow pace was likely a design decision, it can impede on the desire to fully explore the larger environments.
The other major part of Until Dawn’s gameplay comes about in the interactive sequences. Walking sequences smoothly transition into cutscenes where the player must perform actions by pressing a button like a quick time event. Until Dawn manages to vary its quick time events by requiring different inputs. For example, more than simply pressing the standard Square, Triangle, and Circle buttons, players hold R2 to grab items and rotate them with the right stick. Doors are opened by pushing up on the right stick or by holding R2 and then dragging the right stick from the top to the bottom along the side, as if the player were turning a doorknob. Sadly, one of my favorite quick time events occasionally fails to function properly—the “Don’t Move!” prompt, which requires the player to hold the controller still. This event can be very tense, but I found myself missing them on occasion because of the vibration in the controller during these sequences. Regardless, they worked as planned for 90% of cases, but the few times I remained perfectly still only for the prompt to fail frustrated me.
One of Until Dawn’s key selling points is its Butterfly Effect system, which alters the course of the game depending on certain actions the player performs. Before launch, the developers hailed their game as having multitudes of outcomes and different paths. I should let you know that even though there are myriad options provided to you, all options lead to a converging path. To my knowledge, there are only three unique environments that can be explored based on certain outcomes; all others are required as part of the storyline. The amount of time and effort required on the developers’ end to produce extra dialogue, environments, deaths, and more would be astronomical to have as many unique scenarios as possible. I do not necessarily consider this a negative, but it is important to realize that your actions are not always as important as you would hope.
For all that is said about the Butterfly Effect not living up to its expectations, the story is phenomenal. Lasting approximately nine hours, the story remains tense from the beginning to the end. Although the early segments of the game rely on jump scares and other silly scare tactics, they act as a liaison for the player to accustom him or herself to the game’s controls and systems. These clichés fade out the farther the game progresses, focusing more on the true villains and inciting fear in the player. Until Dawn does not hold back in the gore department, either. Without spoiling anything, one choice involves the murder of a character by being sawed in half. This is shown in gruesome detail, and only led to my disdain for the antagonist even more, as I had hoped to save this character. The smallest events can unexpectedly lead to a character’s death, which helps to keep the player constantly engrossed in the story.
In terms of characters, Until Dawn primarily focuses on eight teenagers. These characters are reunited at a cabin where they interact with one another, instantly revealing their archetypes. There is the jock, the athlete, the nerd, the bro, the hot girl, the cute girl, the valedictorian, and the vegan. Despite their clichés, I was surprised to see how many characters managed to break out of their archetypes as the story progressed. Some characters I found repulsive near the beginning became some of my favorites by the conclusion. I did not expect to become attached to any of the stereotypical teenage characters, but within the final hour of the game I accidentally killed one of my favorite characters which left me stunned and depressed.
One of Until Dawn’s strongest aspects is found in its atmosphere. Combined with superb graphics, the snowy winter cabin of Canada feels instantly real. Alongside the characters whose facial movements and body actions were motion captured, the game is simply gorgeous to look at in all aspects. Dim lighting, harsh blizzards, and bloodied clothing all enhance the horrific night the eight teenagers must endure. Outside of the lodge and snowy surroundings, the underground sequences were narrow and intimidating, and the other environments which I will refrain from spoiling managed to elicit a disgusted response.
One of the most important parts of the horror genre is the sound design and direction. With most games, sound is an element that can be somewhat forgotten, but fortunatelySupermassive Gamesrealized the necessity for great sound direction. Jump scares work as they often do in horror movies, keeping the sound at a proper level then elevating at appropriate times. One of my favorite parts of the sound direction was the heartbeat which plays during quick time events and decisions where the player only has a few seconds to decide on an action. With the vibration and heartbeat sound, I swore I could feel my own heartbeat at times. Music also changes depending on how tense the situation becomes. Although the musical score in Until Dawn does not set new industry standards, it manages to precisely string along the player’s emotions as desired. It works well, and that is what matters most.
Sadly, where Until Dawn should feel strongest is where I think it falls short—replayability. As I mentioned before, the Butterfly Effect feature does not change nearly as much as one would hope it does. Despite this, the game can still change quite a fair amount mid-game through altered dialogue and events. With the shortcomings of the Butterfly Effect, there are a couple of design decisions that felt a bit odd. Not only does the slow walking mentioned earlier hinder replayability, cutscenes also cannot be skipped. Some chapters last around 45 minutes to an hour, and having to watch lengthy cutscenes to get to specific parts is inconvenient. Additionally, once the game is completed, the player can choose to start the game from any chapter with all of their previous choices from any prior chapters. However, the choices made during the first playthrough will always be there, no matter how many times the player replays chapters. The only ways to get around this are by starting from a chapter and playing to the end of the game (which temporarily keeps all choices from the selected chapter onwards), or by deleting the saved data, also wiping all collectibles. These decisions seem a bit odd for a game that heavily revolves around story, but fortunately the story is good enough that it did not bother me nearly as much as it sounds when I went through the game a second time.
Although Until Dawn may have a few flaws here and there, it nevertheless manages to be a fantastic journey and one of the most unique experiences in contemporary gaming. The mild gameplay takes a backseat as the intriguing story guides the player along one of many different paths, killing and saving as many characters as your choices influence. Excellent atmosphere, graphics, and sound design help complete the experience, wrapping everything up in one nice package. Characters are likely to be a mixed bag; I imagine some players will enjoy them and others will despise them. Luckily, the ability to save and kill them rests in the player’s hands, allowing any combination of saving and killing up to the player. Outside of some odd replayability design choices, I would highly recommend Until Dawn to anyone who enjoys horror movies with clichéd elements. If the lack of replayability is a worry, then I suggest waiting until the game goes down in price. For $60, I have no regrets in my purchase; for $40, I would say it is an absolute steal.
Score: 8/10