Until Dawn is a flawed, but fun experience. Though an unfocused story means it falls short of greatness, it’s an otherwise entertaining homage to the curious traditions of horror movies which pays off your in-game decisions with occasionally shocking consequences.
While Until Dawn lacks complex gameplay, it counters with compelling characters, astounding visuals, and a though provoking storyline. A masterful fusion of art forms, Until Dawn is a refreshingly self-aware experience that no thriller fan should pass up.
Until Dawn exists within a strange duality. It's a game that's generic while being unlike anything else I've ever played. It's bad in some very evident ways, and yet I want everyone I know to try it. It's not a great game, probably not even a good one, but it does things I want every narrative-based game going forward to learn from. I'm still fascinated by it, still planning more playthroughs for myself, still wanting to recommend it to friends. Until Dawn's greatest mystery may be how it manages to remain compelling in spite of such huge flaws.
Until Dawn is a pleasant surprise, and something that fans of interactive stories will really appreciate. As a schlocky horror it's a success, but its fiction actually goes beyond simple slasher – even if it remains intentionally silly throughout. The sometimes sloppy controls will irritate, while the performance capture could have been better, but neither of these issues are nightmarish enough to pull you out of the popcorn flick plot, which is buoyed by the impressive, if not gigantically impactful, butterfly effect. A ridiculous romp is what was promised, then, and this one will keep occupied all night long.
I didn't expect to have so much fun with Until Dawn, and the depth with which my choices mattered and affected the final outcome encouraged repeat playthroughs. The visuals can be wonky at times, but in the end Until Dawn succeeds in being a thoughtful use of familiar mechanics, a great achievement in player-driven narrative, and a horror game you shouldn't miss.
After 30 minutes I expected Until Dawn to be a silly horror game that was mostly terrible but got pulled through thanks to the sheer idiocy of everything going on. That isn't really the game it turned out to be, with what's on offer being a lot better than I gave the developers credit for. In terms of gameplay mechanics it's incredibly simple, but that works in the its favour, leaving you to become fully engrossed in the thrilling and malleable storyline. If you fancy a gory treat that hits plenty of high notes, Until Dawn is highly recommended.
The simplest way of describing Until Dawn without in any way spoiling it, is to say that if you like Quantic Dream’s games and think the idea of that style mixed with an “I Know What You Did Last Summer” or “Scream” style narrative would be good, you’re probably going to really dig it. It’s a hugely cinematic experience that boils down to asking you to move, pick things up, and complete QTE events, but its player choice is so dramatic that you’ll really want to play through it multiple times to see what happens should you choose differently. While some of the characters are stereotypical, the voice work more than makes up for it, and it’s a beautifully directed piece of visual design. It won’t win many awards, but it’s destined to be a cult hit, and deservedly so.
Until Dawn knows exactly what it is, and it doesn't pretend to be anything more. In that process it allows for some predictable plotlines, hammy acting, and lack of meaningful choices, but I'm glad that it exists, and every horror fan owes it to themselves to play it at some point -- especially at a price cut.
Until Dawn will likely be forever mistaken as part of Quantic Dream’s oeuvre. That’s high praise, however, as the French studio has come the closest to making a game that truly feels like an interactive movie. The area that Until Dawn fails to measure up to Quantic Dream’s efforts, however, is in its plotting. Everything is rather straightforward and cliché and while it’s easy to care for the characters, there’s a noticeable lack of poignancy. It could have been a near masterpiece if not for the tonal shift halfway through and if Supermassive committed to either going in the over the top Cabin in the Woodsdirection or delivering a taught and intelligent slasher like the original Black Christmas. Still, Until Dawnis gripping through its nine-odd hour running time and never lets off the gas. It’s scary — although sometimes cheaply so — and does a great job illustrating the butterfly effect. What Supermassive has accomplished so early in their tenure is impressive and something all horror fans should experience.
As a result you end up shouting abuse at the on-screen characters’ stupidity almost as much as you would an ordinary movie. At which point you begin to wonder why don’t just… watch an ordinary movie. After all, there’s plenty of horror films we’d watch more than once, that don’t cost £50 for the pleasure. Those are two intrinsic flaws that Until Dawn can never escape from, and although the end result is far from horrible it’s still barely interactive.
The tedious beginning and unskippable reviews of previous chapters are annoying, even if they do have a purpose. Some of the scenes do seem unnecessary, and only show a few new things about the setting and characters. It’s not bad exactly, but could have benefitted from a little bit of re-thinking. Once you’ve finished the game, however, you can play single episodes to change the choices you made. So you don’t need to play through the first few episodes again if you don’t want to, and honestly, by the time you’re finished you won’t even remember the beginning being slow. With choices that have real consequences, Until Dawn is definitely a game to pick up. Especially since you can look back at what your choices did and try for a different outcome the next time you play.
Until Dawn is everything that Quantic Dream games have tried to be – unsuccessfully – for the past decade. It emulates horror movies while demonstrating a clear understanding of what makes those movies work, its focus on consequence is nervewracking and intricate, and its story is silly but strongly delivered. It’s the best David Cage game not made by David Cage, and it’s the best interactive horror flick you’ll play.
So it’s with a heavy heart that I say I wish this was cheaper, I wish this was episodic and I wish I could send you all to go and play it immediately. As it stands, the experience is tremendously enjoyable but flawed, with less choice than we’ve been promised. There is plenty of horror here and it’s schlockily, predictably brilliant but this is inherently an ultra beautiful Telltale game. It’s a terrifying ghost train at times but by the end you might just be able to see the cogs working behind the scenes and as such the toughest choice you'll face in Until Dawn is whether or not to pay full price for it.
The beginning of Until Dawn boasts that the decisions you make during the game will craft a unique and personal story. By the time the credits rolled, I was a believer. Sure, every player follows the same narrative skeleton, and a few of the more "expendable" characters aren't instrumental to the ending (I'd also kill for a way to fast-forward scenes on subsequent playthroughs). However, the script kept me entertained and feeling like my decisions mattered throughout my 10-hour playthrough. Thanks to some good twists, a few fake-outs, and limitless jump scares, Until Dawn would make a solid horror film. As a piece of interactive fiction, however, it's a remarkable experience that horror fans shouldn't miss.
