You know what Hollywood has really been missing in the last fewyears? A high brow slasher flick, something like Scream and Cabin inthe Woods. Something that when looked at on the surface it's yourtypical punt at trimming down the population of unlikeable, hugelystereotypical youths that really deserve nothing more than to havetheir innards pulled out of them and paraded around by a madman whosimply only kills helpless, sexually charged adolescents for thesport of it all. But underneath it all is actually an incrediblyclever and well executed definition of the genre that pulls the rugout of underneath your feet to reveal things you never quiteexpected.
Though British developer Supermassive Games cannot deliver us aslasher worthy of silver screen status, they can however give us oneof the PS4's finest exclusive games to date and a extremelyrefreshing revival of classic Silent Hill style survival horror mixedwith cinematic choice based gameplay popularised by games such asQuantic Dream's PS3 crime thriller Heavy Rain.
Set in the Canadian mountain ranges, Until Dawn tells the tale ofeight college friends Josh, Chris, Ashley, Mike, Jessica, Matt, Emilyand Sam.
During an annual retreat to Josh's parents lodge, the group decidesto play a prank on one of his sisters, Hannah. Humiliated Hannah runsout into a blizzard followed by her sister Beth and the two are neverto be seen again. One year later, Josh now struggling withpsychological problems, invites the group back to the lodge out ofremembrance to his sisters and to try to reunite the group aftereveryone having gone their separate ways after last years incident.
However, the friends are not alone on the mountain and are slowlyfalling into a trap laid out by a sadistic psychopath who the groupbelieve may have had something to do with Beth & Hannah'sdisappearance.
Until Dawn is not your typical horror game however. With each andevery decision causing a 'butterfly effect', one wrong move couldcause anyone to die at any moment. This fear ramps the tension up toeleven and produces one of the most atmospheric, edge of your seatclassic horror games we have seen since Silent Hill 2.
Though it's story is never quite as revolutionary or original asSilent Hill 2, it still provides a gripping tale that will satisfyhorror fans of both the jump scare and psychological variety.
The biggest thing holding the story back from being truly great isthe sheer lack of explanation in the final quarter of the game, it'skind of hard to describe what I mean without ruining the game but theplot suddenly shifting from straight up slasher into something elseis not only poorly explained but also extremely ham fisted andjarring. It doesn't ruin the story by any means, but it can leave youpuzzled as to what on earth is going on.
Until Dawn's gameplay can best be described as a AAA Telltale game.It's got modern episodic adventure game written all over in both inhow it plays and how it's delivered. The story is split into nineepisodes with recaps at the beginning of each one, yet it's providedas a single experience much like how Alan Wake or Alone in the Dark(2008) delivered themselves.
The player controls one of the eight friends around fixed cameraenvironments to search for clues or to reach a destination. Combat iscontrolled by quicktime events and gameplay is frequently punctuatedwith decisions that dramatically change the outcome of the game.Trying to get the whole group to survive until dawn requires fastfingers, steady hands and quick decision making, but no matter whodies you'll never get a game over or a restart, the story simplymoves onwards and their death will send waves of fear through thefriends, altering relationships, attitudes and raising the tension.
All of your decisions can be viewed at any time by pausing the gameand looking at the butterflies. Obviously some sections of the gameare completely locked out if you have made a particular decision andsome will only open up if you make particular choices. People'sattitudes to you will also change depending on what you decide to doand each character has particular strengths such as strength orpersuasion.
You can collect totems throughout your journey, these totems willshow you a short video clip giving you a hint that will be usefullater on in the game, the type of hint depends on the colour of thetotem. Black will show you a possible way the character you arecurrently playing as can die, Brown shows a way that a friend candie, Yellow is used to help guide you through a particular section ofthe game, White will show you ways to deal with tough sections of thegame without people dying and Red will give you a glimpse at upcomingcombat sections.
Beyond that there is no other real gameplay to speak of. Much of theenjoyment of Until Dawn is watching the lives of these young peoplefall apart before your eyes (A little morbid, but true).
The biggest problem with Until dawn's gameplay I found was that thescares never happen outside of cutscenes, though the game seamlesslychanges between gameplay and cutscene, as soon as a scare is about tohappen you will have control wrestled away from you. They are alsorarely clever scares, relying on cheap jump scares and having thingsfly onto the screen with a screech of music. There's no doubt thatit's effective, but after just a few hours with Until Dawn, you cansee when the next scare is coming a mile off and it lacks the gutpunch of the tense first hours.
Visually Until Dawn is superb, a true current gen game. Characterslook almost identical to their real life actors and the mo-cap is sospot on that in well lit scenarios you could be forgiven for thinkingyou're watching a live action film. There are very few frame ratehitches either, only ever having significant slow down during somemore dramatic choices and the occasional hectic chase scene, thoughthese instances are few and far between. Until Dawn is beautifullydeadly, stop and stare at the gorgeous vistas too long and you'll endup another victim.
The orchestral score is also top notch, providing some of the mostchilling original music in a game for quite some time, really givingthat vibe of classic slasher flicks. The voice performances are alsosolid, with only a few awkwardly delivered lines, these are alsomostly towards the early stages of the game.
Until Dawn is a must have game for PS4 owners. It's revival of theclassic survival horror is something that the industry has beenmissing for a very long time. Though it's blended with more moderncinematic choice based gameplay, it's a match made in heaven and oneof the most refreshing new IP's to arrive since the launch of the newconsoles. Hopefully this wont be the last we see of this style ofgame from Supermassive, though I feel a direct sequel would not bethe best way to go. We don't want a Blair Witch 2 incident on ourhands after all.
UntilDawn – 9/10
+ClassicTeen Slasher Story
+UnpredictablePlot, Mixing Jump Scares and Psychological Horror
+CreepyFixed Camera Angles
+GorgeousVisuals & Excellent Sound
-ChoicesAre Slightly More Limited Than They Seem
-ThatOne Awkward Plot Twist
