Sitting back and relaxing on a narrative adventure is sometimes just what the doctor ordered. I’m a huge fan of a well told story and there’s no better way to experience that thrill of character and emersion than through video games. There’s an almost infinite potential to immerse us as players and take us through a story. If any genre relies on immersion and atmosphere it’s definitely horror. Jump scares are easy, creating genuine fear is not so simple and it takes time. Until Dawn has the potential to bring the fear to life through its narrative.
As with most games like this your decisions matter in Until Dawn. There’s very little in the way of actual gameplay so don’t expect to be running around with a weapon or finding cover and collectables. Most of your interaction is through choices, simple fixed screen action sequences and the odd quick time event. The way that Heavy Rain achieved emersion in a game which offers very little was through clever manipulation of analogue sticks to mimic the actions a character performed on screen. Sadly we don’t really see anything quite so sophisticated in Until Dawn.
Without much interaction at all you really do get the sense you are a viewer and not a player. Which in itself isn’t a problem, everybody loves a good film, but this isn’t a film it’s a game. It’s unfortunate that so much of the interaction potential is lost by making you feel this way when through mechanics that have been previously established it could have been so much more.
There are some simple character interactions during the opening of the game to introduce everybody’s motivations to you. When you first meet a new character you also get a few single words that give you an indication of who they are. There is absolutely nobody in Until Dawn that will in any way surprise you if you have ever seen anything even vaguely horror before in your life. Until Dawn even goes so far as to base itself around a group of teens escaping to a deserted log cabin for a holiday.
This is where Until Dawns giant elephant in the room of a problem becomes obvious – no more than 10 minutes in. By far the greatest horror in Until Dawn is the amount of tropes and clichés it clumsily inserts at will. There’s room for the odd one here and there in any film, TV or game but it’s like when they sat down to come up with the core story of Until Dawn they said “Right then, lets watch all the Scream films back to back, then Friday the 13th and why not Halloween? I reckon that should give us a comprehensive view of horror”. I suppose it would have to be back to back otherwise how else would you keep up with the plot? Yeah.
It’s hard to put to words how insulting a group of teenagers trapped in a cabin hunted by an impossibly invincible maniac is. It’s not like there’s any imagination here for me to have an opinion on – everything is just reheated horror conventions. I’ll be the first to admit that I’m not exactly the horror genre’s biggest fan and it’s because of just this kind of thing. Off the top of my head I could have made slight alterations to almost everything that would at least have made me briefly question if something original might happen.
Are men the only crazy people in the world? Why not make the maniac a female? Don’t have all the teenagers as beautiful sex crazed models? Actually include some girls that aren’t complete bitches? Don’t have the geek as the only nice guy there that turns out not to be? Don’t have the maniac wield a machete? There are other sharp objects out there. Don’t set it in a log cabin? Don’t set it in winter? OK so there are no strokes of genius in my ideas but any one of these would have shown some creativity rather than serving us warmed up clichés from decades ago and telling us it’s something new.
Luckily even given the complete absence of originality the game mechanics are competent and Until Dawn is fun to play. The decisions you make are weighty and you get a sense that they have consequence which of course they do. There are multiple endings for you to ‘find’ and enjoy but honestly I wasn’t all that enthusiastic to complete another play through after my first. The QTE sequences and other interactions are well crafted if not few and far between.
Visually Until Dawn is stunning. Environments are detailed and rich with some superbly utilised lighting on occasion. Some of the facial expressions lack subtlety but emotions and feelings can be clearly read on characters’ faces. Until Dawn is certainly a visual and mechanical masterpiece if nothing else. There’s also a competent audio track to underpin the narrative but horror relies so much on sound and Until Dawn isn’t always as respectful of the effects of silence as it should be.
Until Dawn was fun to play on a one time basis. There’s some awesome facial captures and motion work that is well worth watching. The big let down for me was that as a narrative experience Until Dawn told a very warn out set of stories held together loosely with generic characters that are far too easily dismissed emotionally. The odd jump scare really offered the only horror and I never truly felt afraid during my time in the cabin.
That fear created in horror games that you don’t want to go down the corridor but that you have to push yourself is what generates fear. It’s one of the reasons why horror games are so much more effective than horror films. In Until Dawn you really feel you are watching someone walking the corridor and not that you are taking the steps yourself. Some great features at work but without an original story and some characters I care about Until Dawn remains an average experience.
