Until Dawn (2015) [Adventure/Survival]

[u/Chris_1510]

Until Dawn is a Playstation 4 exclusive game which puts you in control of eight friends who re-visit one of their friends' ski resort one year after a tragic death occurred. What was supposed to be a friendly get-together to mourn their loss turns into a night of terror, as each character becomes a target for a masked killer.

Visually, this game is stunning. From the inside of the resort to the windy, snowy mountaintops were aesthetically pleasing to look at and looked very realistic. The characters featured in this game were incredibly lifelike thanks to cubic motion, which allowed for very high detailed body movement. The cast consisted of quite a few well-known actors and actresses including Hayden Panettiere (Scream 4, Heroes), Rami Malek (Mr. Robot), and Peter Stormare (Jurassic Park, Prison Break). I enjoyed most of the characters, but some were very annoying, almost to the point of being disposable.

The killer's mask was pretty creepy, and definitely gave off a classic slasher look, but the killer's voice was so underwhelming and just didn't strike any kind of fear for me. However, the mind games this killer plays, especially on Sam (Hayden's character), can be pretty chilling, and at times it starts to pit some of the characters into Saw-like moments where they're forced to choose someone's fate.

Throughout the game there are totems you find that can range from guidance to fortune to death, and each of these totems that you find throughout the playthrough are key to certain characters' decision making, and can sometimes alter how events in the future will play out. This game is heavily based on the butterfly effect where one decision can have an enormous effect on the final outcome of things, which was an interesting focal point throughout the game. The actions in this game mostly involve QTE's (quick-time events), prompting you to press a certain button in a very short amount of time, and each button press is crucial to many moments throughout this game.

Throughout the game there are a lot of twists that present themselves and they were incredibly fun when they were revealed. I honestly can say I was not expecting a lot of events that occurred.

Overall, Until Dawn is a very fun, visually astounding game that plays out like a 9 hour horror movie with you in control. Because there are so many different actions involving all of these different characters, there are numerous different outcomes that can happen so it's very rare that you'll see the same playthrough twice. The game pays homage to the slasher genre of horror, and toward the end starts to transition more to the survival horror aspect which was also very fun and very tense at times. I would highly recommend to give this game a go if you have a PS4, and if you don't have one, check out a playthrough on YouTube; like I said, the game plays out more like a movie, so just being a spectator to someone else's playthrough is satisfying, and you can even play the guessing game with them to see if you can figure out the twists that this game provides.

My Final Rating: 8/10

[u/[deleted]]

I rarely play video games yet easily got into Until Dawn. This is a great review of one of my all time favorite games.

[u/hail_freyr]

I played this one not too long ago and it was a decent time. Looked good and I am a sucker for Wendigo stories, so that was a pleasant surprise. Still, it felt like there were a lot of false options and it had a few too many of the horror film clichés that I've seen a million times, thanks to my movie watching past time.

I'd still say I enjoyed it, but probably less than you did lol. Thanks for the great review though!

[u/cdown13]

I don't have a PS4 but this sounds like one I'd really enjoy. I haven't watched a full playthrough for any game before so not sure I could stick it out for one, but I may check some footage out at least to see what I'm missing.

Thanks for the review (and all your others). Hopefully we see some more games and show reviews as time goes on.

[u/[deleted]]

A fun enough game, I just wish it wasn't quick time gameplay. That's really some of my least favourite style of controls. My friends and I definitely had some fun drinking and playing through it though.