This article originally ran under a different banner/website in September of 2019 and is now being here re-uploaded for purposes of convenience and consolidation. Please enjoy.
HEAR YE!!! HEAR YE!!! LADIES AND GENTLEMEN, I, THE VIDEO GAME DOOMSAYER, OFTEN FIND THE UNIVERSE LOVES PROVING ME WRONG. I am, of course, not referring to publishers slowly destroying the media in the name of the almighty dollar. The video game industry continues its slow arduous march to its death as always. If you were to ask me in 2015 if I consider obtaining a PS4, I would have scoffed at the idea. I was an advent PC gamer. With the flexible range of options and no online subscription service, I thought PC gaming was the pinnacle of gaming while consoles gaming was a peasant activity. It wasn’t until I noticed the increasing number of single-player story-driven games coming to the PlayStation 4 and the Nintendo Switch, that I opened my mind to console gaming. With only the recent shift in attitude in console gaming, I often experienced these exclusives through Let’s Plays, a style of video that depicts a personality playing through a game for entertaining effect. The PS4 exclusive Slasher-style interactive story, Until Dawn, was one of my first Let’s Play that I could remember. With the table turned and being a proud owner of a PS4, it would be remiss of me to actively take a part in Until Dawn rather than a passive one.
Our story begins with a handful of teenagers partying at a snowy mountain top mansion. After pulling a prank on one of the girls, the poor prank victim and her twin sister run off into the dark woods and go missing. Fast forward one year and their brother has invited everyone back “in honor” of his missing sisters. With the natural uneasy tone draped over the white-laced mountain peak, all the young teenagers take turns pulling pranks on each other ranging from jumping out behind cover and chasing each other with a mask on. If you are anticipating Jason Voorhees subtly walking into frame, you wouldn’t be far off from what happened.
The Slasher movie aesthetic shines on through when you learn Until Dawn has a list of actors and actresses doing motion capture and voice acting for the cast of young teens. Most notably Rami Malek of Bohemian Rhapsody and Mr. Robot fame and Hayden Panettiere of Heroes and Nashville fame. Peter Stormare also arguably steals the show with his wily performance as Dr. Hill, a psychologist who appears to be talking with the player. One could almost confuse Until Dawn as a B-level horror film if it wasn’t for all the moving parts that make it an interactive story.
So with the pieces in place, how does one play this game? Until Dawn has been copying off Quantic Dream’s cheat sheet to the point where fans of David Cage will feel right at home. The gameplay is split between searching for clues and high octane quick timed events. While the combination of the two might sound unappealing, the slasher film aesthetics acts as the proverbial glue. One minute you will be rummaging through the dark lodge, eerie mines, or abandoned asylum, and another you will trying to avoid tripping over roots while running from the masked murder. Combine that with fixed camera angles that are seen in older horror games like Resident Evil and Silent Hill and Until Dawn has some really tense moments for a game trying to capture the magic of movies like Friday the 13th or Halloween.
While walking to the next jump scare, you are encouraged to wander around your surroundings to pick up any object you can. If you have played any detective game recently, you will recognize the gameplay that consists of picking up objects and twirling them around until one of the young teen’s comments on it. While I have no issue with piecing together the Scooby-Doo-like mystery, the characters controlling like they are riding skateboards tests my patience. I will walk up to a knife that the killer dropped only for the clueless teen to take two extra steps put the knife out of range. This is a trend developed by Rockstar Games in the name of realism that causes me to dry heave. I am all for games attempt to simulate real life, but when realism interferes with gameplay, it has the opposite effect. Immersion continues to be shattered when you hear a scream from off-screen and your can only calmly scoot around like it was the first time riding the skateboard. While not making Until Dawn unplayable, a movement system that works with gameplay rather than against it would be appreciated.
Luckily, Until Dawn ditched the skateboards once the chase scenes kick-off. Like your traditional Slasher film, you are often asked to evade perusing killers looking to add another check to their murder checklist. Until Dawn will wrestle control of the character away from you and have you do quick-time events. Often it will be something like press triangle to leap over fallen debris or line up the cursor with the crosshairs. Now, I understand the idea of quick-time events being part of the core gameplay loop isn’t stimulating. I often have recurring nightmares of that quick-time event knife fight from Resident Evil 4. Constantly failing the last quick time event only to start the whole game of Simon Said all over again. Thankfully, Until Dawn isn’t as strict with its quick-time events and is even ok with you failing these quick-time events. However, the quick-time event, that requires you to hold the PS4 perfectly still succeeds at trying my patience.
Until Dawn has been carefully designed to allow you to lose characters and still continue with the story. Naturally, completing all the quick-time events will save all the teenagers, but what if you didn’t want them all saved. If you have watched Nightmare on Elm Street or Scream you will know there is that one character. The character that you want to reach through the screen and just throttle. Until Dawn does have a handful of these same characters and they are all disposable. The game actively encourages you to take chances with their life. Often you are asked whether you want to take the safe path or the riskier path while running from the knife-wielding maniac. Sometimes the risky move pays off and other times it won’t. I recall one of the characters chasing after his kidnapped girlfriend. I was offered quicker dangerous paths or slower safer paths. I went with the safer path because I frankly, wasn’t a big fan of the girlfriend. When we caught up she was dead. No game over, no restart from a checkpoint, no game condescendingly telling me to try again. The game said my choices had consequences and pressed on. Scenes went on without her. While this might seem like trial and error would rule Until Dawn with an iron fist, totems that you find through the game will give you hints towards future events keeping trial and error in check. Until Dawn captures the feeling of being a director of a slasher film, orchestrating who dies and who lives by the skin of their teeth.
So Until Dawn translates the slasher film so well into video game format that I come prepared to recommend? Well, I did enjoy it, but I have a few caveats. Halfway through Until Dawn, the game started to test my patience. It became apparent that Until Dawn was starting to repeat itself to draw out the full playtime. Numerous times I would walk down a hallway with nothing happening. Until Dawn is clearly trying to build suspense, but there is a difference between suspense and boredom. I soon became bewildered. How did I spend hours watching a playthrough of Until Dawn, but I struggle to get through the game on my own? Then it hit me like a freight train; the Let’s Play I watched was between four people playing together. Not a second of silence passed through that playthrough. I began to question whether my lack of memory for these slow bits was due to age or the constant banter between the four friends playing the game. Much like Slasher films, Until Dawn might be more enjoyable with company I hypothesized. I decided an experiment must be done. FOR SCIENCE!!!
I grabbed a straggly hobo off the street and promised him twenty bucks if he could survive playing the game with me. While he initially refused claiming he was no backseat gamer, we were able to come to an agreement as long as we switch off playing in-between chapters. We eventually bonded over our love and hatred for certain characters. Hardy laughs were had at chanting “Save the cheerleader, save the world” as we attempted to ONLY save Hayden Panettiere’s character. We both looked for opportunities to kill off characters we loathed, and laughter was had when we accidentally failed to save a character. It became apparent that even though Until Dawn claim to be a single-player title, it was a co-op game at heart.
While Until Dawn was not the most mind-numbing experience I have played this year, it certainly feels like the most niche game. Naturally, your enjoyment will hinge on your love for low-budget slasher films. If you are a slasher movie connoisseur, then you probably feel right at home. If you enjoy watching these movies with friends, then playing through Until Dawn with friends or random vagabond will be a must. While it is easy to stand here and be hopeful that Supermassive Games will make their next Slasher-style interactive story shorter and includes co-op, I know it is a bit of a cheap move knowing that was a goal with their next title, Man of Maden. Nonetheless, I can say Until Dawn has convinced me to avoid Let’s Plays of games I haven’t played through. Even if they are on consoles I wouldn’t imagine myself owning them. Certainly, a relief to know I can stop watching that dreadful Let’s Play of Ryse: Son of Rome.
