On my bingo card of ‘Games that will set the Internet on fire’, I had no idea that it would be the Until Dawn remake from developer Ballistic Moon. This game seemed like a slam dunk and no-brainer when it came to release and reception, as there are plenty of people out there who enjoyed the hell out of the first release.
Now, while Digital Foundry has a wonderful visual breakdown of what works and doesn’t with the remake, which I hope you will check out, this review will focus on a few things – whether the game stands up to the test of time and if the remade portion of the game was worth it. My beginning-to-end experience with it in eight hours had me appreciating the interactive horror story, while at the same time not understanding completely why a remake was necessary, especially at the asking price.
There was a bit more than I expected to unpack with this release, so we should get started right now.
Horror story
The first big plus of this entire package is the horror story that comes with it. While I admit the dialogue can be more sexually driven at times than not, as you will find more than your fair share of flirting and innuendos throughout, the horror structure underneath is quite strong and branching.
If you’re not familiar with Until Dawn, it involves a group of young adults celebrating life at a cabin in snowy woods. While life is good and grand for the most part, a small portion of the group plays a mean prank on one of the other members. This prank leads the hurt group member to meet their tragic demise, which fractures the group into pieces. It’s all good and fun until someone gets hurt.
A year or so later, the group decides to come together to make amends and sort out their emotions and feelings. Regretfully, they end up getting trapped in the cabin and hunted down by a maniac that has something to do with the tragedy from last time.
If you’re looking for a textbook horror structure, then look no further than Until Dawn. While parts of the story are not predictable, most of what you get you’ve seen before in a typical 90s horror film. Now, that might seem like a knock, but for a month like October, those types of films are always fun to watch. Anyway, my second go around with this story had me appreciating and enjoying what the story was trying to tell, even though the story ended up taking a hard left with what it was trying to accomplish with its antagonist. While that shift was a little awkward, the story made it work, even though the connection between the group and the antagonist feels a little forced.
Yes, I’m being very vague, and I’m sure other reviews will certainly ruin it for you, but if you’re going to give this a go it is always fun to go into a horror story not knowing anything. You never want to ruin it for first-time players. It would be like saying that Bruce Willis was a ghost the entire time. No one should give that away. It should be mind-blowing.
Gameplay integration
While the game is very much driven by storytelling, the interactive gameplay connected to it comes in three flavors. The first is the game’s branching narrative. When characters talk with each other, there is generally a dialogue crossroad in which one character must decide the path. For example, there is one character who can either get annoyed by his girlfriend’s whining and verbally tell her to get it together, or he can be empathetic. Choosing a response changes the complexity of the story. The branching response gives the player a choice to go one way or the other. By choosing a path, the story changes with the choice. This means that you must be thoughtful about how you respond to another character when the time comes, as it could mean a relationship is broken or someone is put in danger. Or both.
The branching narrative portion of the game is strong, as it leans into player choice on dialogue, direction, and reaction. While it certainly isn’t a Knights of the Old Republic, it is more thoughtfully put together than the average branching narrative. It is very ingrained into the story and shifts accordingly with player choice and action.
Quick Time Reaction
The second flavor of this game is the quick time events, which are scattered mostly through the game’s action sequences. The QTE moments are divided amongst the four main PlayStation buttons, triangle-square-x-circle, and flashed on the screen during intense times. This means that if the player is chased by a person or otherwise, they will potentially run into obstacles they will have to avoid by pressing one of those four buttons. The button-timing is key to success, as the player only gets a finite amount of time for the button to be pressed. During my eight-hour journey with the game this past week, I maybe missed 2 to 3 button pushes simply because someone popped into my office to ask me a question and I wasn’t paying attention. The other 99% percent of QTE moments were easily achieved correctly. They weren’t too complicated.
The QTE gameplay fits properly within the story. It works with the branching narrative and makes sense when it comes to proper gameplay structure choice. It works, it creates a small layer of intensity, and nothing about it feels forced. Maybe it is a bit too easy, but it is nonetheless fun.
Exploring the horror
The last flavor of gameplay with Until Dawn is the exploration and clue collection. I think in nearly half the game the player controls a character. The controlled character can explore hallways, collect clues, and find totem pieces that show the future. While you don’t get too much time, at least good time, with the characters to explore a lot of places in the game, it’s still a nice gameplay element that fits in with the overall gameplay package because it breaks away from feeling like a movie.
Overall, the gameplay of Until Dawn is restrictive because of story importance, as it doesn’t want to veer off its path, but also appropriate for the type of game it is trying to be. It isn’t going to break any gameplay barrier or create a new genre, but it is going to be entertaining. One last element to mention is Peter Stormare’s inclusion as Dr. Hill. He’s a mystery in the game, a character that asks you a lot of questions in between acts. Do those questions affect gameplay? Who knows, but they are interesting, as he is creepy.
The elephant in the room
Well, there are two elephants in the room. The first is the elephant that is carrying the visuals. Ballistic Moon is still working on updating the game (funnily enough there was an update dropped today), but according to Digital Foundry, there are still some issues with the remake. It has some frame rate flaws, motion blur, and it has some glitchy moments. I can confirm the latter, as the game crashed on me twice during my experience with it. Some pop-ups in the environments and just some visual imperfections need to be smoothed and sorted out. It still has a visual journey before it can pat itself on the back and declare itself a true upgrade from the 2015 title. Now, having said that the game does look visually better when everything is clicking. The character models and how they gradually are affected by the story as time goes on are gorgeous. I hope they can get that overall update wrapped soon to make this a true remake that works.
The second issue with this release is cost. I usually don’t talk about price points for games unless it’s necessary and this is one of those moments. The game is priced at $59.99 with no smaller price point for those who own the PlayStation 4 version. Typically, if there is an upgrade in this generation from last, those who own it can just drop small bills to get the upgrade. I’m not concerned with the $59.99 price point as much as I am with the lack of an upgrade price option. I think if Until Dawn went the way of Capcom’s Resident Evil series with its remake, then that’s a different story, and even that wasn’t the full release price. As it stands, the lack of a smaller upgrade cost for previous owners of nearly the same game needs to be rectified. Again, I don’t mind the $59.99 for new players but for existing players, they shouldn’t have to pay for the same game again.
On that note, let’s wrap this review up.
Conclusion
Until Dawn from developer Ballistic Moon is still a fun horror game to experience. It has a solid horror story, some great actors to bring that story to life, and enough gameplay that works properly within that horror story scheme. The technical issues and price point of the game are the only two issues holding up a fun experience.
