It has been years since Until Dawn first scared us in 2015, but here we are in 2024-reminding ourselves of this horror classic. If you missed it the first time or you’re just a horror junkie looking for a new scare-fest, then this is that game that brings sleepless nights, jump scares, and high-stakes drama. It’s more than just a generic slasher game-it’s a choose-your-own-adventure nightmare set in a cabin in the woods.
Till Dawn is a rare blend of interactive storytelling, horror moments, and difficult decisions that could change everything- and who lives or dies?
The Setup: Classic Cabin Horror, But With A Twist
The premise of Until Dawn might sound like your standard horror movie setup: a group of friends heads to an isolated cabin in the mountains to unwind, reminisce, and remember two of their friends who vanished a year ago. Naturally, everything goes differently than planned.
What seems like a typical party to begin with soon turns into an all-out survival fight as the characters you’re stuck inside within this cabin of horrors that’s genuinely supernatural, yet perhaps too honest, pin their destinies and fates on you, the player, whose choices will decide the outcome of every one of them. Will you make the right choice to save them?
The Characters: Classic Tropes with a Coating of Flesh
Embracing the clichés: Until Dawn starts with a sense of blunt warning until DAWN is indeed embracing its horror clichés. No one thought you would want your classic character stereotypes – the jock and the cheerleader, the nerd and the lone wolf. You know, the ones who always die in the horror movies first? But until Dawn makes them and how they interact with each other, they live differently in a way that is both old and fresh. Each character has layers; how they portray them or act with each other constantly shifts depending on your choices.
Then there’s cocky leader Mike, who is bound to surprise you with some moments of vulnerability. Then there is Sam – the “Final Girl” type, who turns out to be the most level-headed and pluckiest in the lot. As the story progresses, you get to know each character better, and relationships shift through your choice. Whether they turn out to be clichés or break out of the mold is up to you.
Gameplay: Choices Matter – Big Time
Now, the heart of the game is in the butterfly system. Every choice has a ripple effect throughout the game, affecting relationships and dialogue between characters and culminating in how they survive or do not survive at the end. Do you investigate that creepy noise in the woods? Do you stand up for your friends or let them fend for themselves during an argument? Your choices will dictate not only what the narrative feels like but also the fate of each character at the end.
Of course, the kicker is that anyone can die. Bad choices, a wrong move at the wrong time, or missing that elusive QTE when it needed to be executed will all cost someone their life. You’re sitting there thinking you’re playing it safest, but no one’s safe in Until Dawn. By the end of your first playthrough, half of your crew might be dead, all through a combination of your decision-making and reflexes.
Gameplay-wise, Until Dawn is a storytelling experience. A lot of walking, talking, and quite some decision-making is expected to be done in this game. Yes, action scenes are present, but they are QTEs, requiring good timing with buttons for the success of any particular scene. The QTE system may be a pain, but it is fantastic to increase the tension if you know that one slip-up can be fatal for a character you have grown fond of.
Atmosphere: Your Horror Movie
The atmosphere is something that Until Dawn gets precisely correct. Tension hangs over the game from start to finish, keeping you on the edge of your seat as you walk across the darkened mountainside and through the unnervingly creaky cabin. Visuals still impress for 2024, character models sharp, and environments effectively spooky, enough to draw you into the film’s horrors. Shadows, aural effects, and camera angles all level the game into a cinematic horror experience, only making it scarier.
The game utilizes perspective in a very excellent way. The camera angles are reminiscent of those used in horror movies from an age long past. So, each shot looks cinematic, like it should be in a film rather than a video game. Every hallway, every creaking door, every shadow is set up to keep you on the edge.
And trust me, the jump scares are still there.
High Stakes: Survival Not Guaranteed
One of the most thrilling aspects of Until Dawn is that only some of the survivors are guaranteed. Any of the eight main characters can die, depending on your choices, conversate options, and, yes, how well you manage those tricky QTEs.
As we mentioned, QTEs? Some of them are brutal. One wrong button press or allowing the controller to jostle when ducking from the monster brings sudden death. These are thrilling and infuriating moments in the game. It’s one thing to fail a QTE and lose a character, but in a different place when death feels cheap or undeserved. Some players even complained about its sensitivity, such as how easily it gets you to kill one of your characters because of some twitching during a hide-and-seek moment. Hey, that’s part of the fun, though.
The unpredictability of Until Dawn is where the tightness lies. Knowing a mistake could spell doom for a character, you’re always on your toes.
Flawed, But Still Unforgettable
For all its faults, though, the thing is, Until Dawn isn’t flawless. The writing needs to be corrected some of the time. Often enough, the dialogue is a trifle hackneyed. It’s cringe-worthy at times, even if not significantly so. The pacing drags early on as the game spends what feels like an eternity introducing you to characters and setting up a scene. And then there’s the QTE-heavy action sequences that are only for some.
And yet, until that point, Until Dawn is a robust and enticing experience. It’s a game that aches to be played multiple times with more varied decisions than one could ever imagine and wildly different outcomes. One playthrough might leave half of your characters dead, and another one – everyone might survive. With that replayability and cinematic atmosphere, it’s one of the most memorable horror titles of the decade.
Summary
Of course, Until Dawn is no Halloween, but it does a fine job weaving together horror, story, and choice elements. It’s well worth your time if you’re a genre fan.
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