Until Dawn
If you are a Playstation Plus member, and haven’t played Until Dawn before you need to download it now. This is one of the few games that I had no reservations about preordering. I absolutely love choice and consequence style games. Heavy Rain is still one of my favourite PS3 games. Until Dawn takes the Heavy Rain system, and improves on it in every way.
Until Dawn puts you in charge of deciding the fate of a number of interesting characters. In classic 80s slasher movie style. The characters find themselves in an old house in the woods being pursued by some unknown evil. It’s your job to get them through a night filled with incredible danger. Each character is well represented, and their personalities are quickly identifiable. How each character is connected to one another plays an important role in the development of the story as well. While playing the game, you will begin to develop favourite characters quickly. This is one of the more interesting aspects of the game. As potentially sacrificing one character to insure the safety of another can become an option. Do you sacrifice a physically strong character you have grown to hate? Just to save another character you like, but freezes up at the first sign of trouble? These are questions you will ask yourself during the course of a game.
The graphics for Until Dawn are excellent. It makes watching the game just as much fun as playing it. Actually one of my favourite ways to play this game is with three other friends. Each of us pick two of the eight characters to play. We have a mini draft and pick characters one by one. Whichever character is in control of the situation. That determines which Player gets the remote at that time. You’ll learn a lot about your friends over the course of a game of Until Dawn if you play it that way. If there’s ever a Zombie apocalypse. I know which friends of mine I wouldn’t want to be trapped with. You might be surprised how many of your friends wouldn’t take the smallest risk to save both of you. They’d rather sacrifice you to guarantee their own safety.
Once I completed my first play through. Everyone and their dog was asking me the same question. Is it scary? This game is based on classic horror films after all. Until Dawn does have it’s moments. It depends on the individual of course, but I’m sure it will catch everyone off guard a few times. Play it at night with the lights off, and the volume up to get the most out of it. I’ve seen people watch me play Until Dawn while clutching a blanket. Just in case they needed to cover their eyes at a particularly suspenseful moment.
Another appealing aspect of the game that I wasn’t expecting, is the mystery surrounding what occurs. If you are like me you will find yourself trying to figure things out all the way through the game. I expected a straight up Jason Voorhees slasher style game, but it was so much more than that. Real attention was given to the development of the story, and motivation of it’s antagonist.
Obviously I absolutely love this game, but like the majority of choice and consequence games it suffers from the same pitfalls. The most obvious of which is replay value. Once you’ve completed Until Dawn once. The appeal of the game is significantly diminished. The unexpected moments, and sudden scares are gone. The mystery behind the story, and it’s antagonist is already known. The only motivation you will have is to finish the game without allowing any character to die. Alternatively you could also play it to see how quickly you can get them all killed as well. 😈
That being said, replay value isn’t as much of an issue when you can download the game for Free! I paid full pop, and I wasn’t disappointed. I promise you, if you set aside a day to play Until Dawn with a few friends. You won’t be disappointed.