Until Dawn Review (Spoiler Free)

Supermassive Games has come a long, long way since their previous game releases — Until Dawn could not be more different than Tumble. This dramatic survival horror entry really does portray the potential Supermassive brings to the table, and they’ve certainly made themselves known because of it.

Until Dawn‘s story holds true to the typical 1980s teen horror movie, setting up a simple plot with a plethora of outcomes. Eight lives lay in the palms of your hands as the game unfolds, and nearly every minute bears an incredible amount of weight. Mike, Sam, Josh, Chris, Matt, Emily, Ashley, or Jess can die at any point in the game, so making even the simplest and most menial decisions come with the burden of future effects. Character control switches too often to determine a lone main character; however, certain characters like Mike and Sam have the protagonist’s air about them.

Each of the eight characters have their own statistics for both personality and relationships, ultimately molding the characters into exactly how you want them to be. Matt can be a badass who doesn’t take backtalk, or he could be a spineless beta male. Character traits are organized in six categories: Honest, Charitable, Funny, Brave, Romantic, and Curious. These characteristics will determine how each character responds to people and events, but they don’t seem to have the same impact on the game like relationship status.

How a character feels about another will determine how well they respond to their friends. If Jess really hates Mike, she probably won’t listen to his suggestions (and possibly do the opposite as he/you suggests). This feature imbues the characters with a sense of life, creating a lot of unexpected results that often seem nearly too realistic. Until Dawn‘s dialogue is easily regarded as cheesy, however, and the story’s first couple chapters drag a little in order to set up the plot. These aren’t uncommon traits when it comes to older teen horror movies, so the game’s nature blends both blotches into the very fabric of its core.

Narratively speaking, Until Dawn weaves an intricate web of possibilities throughout the entirety of the game. Among the first of many curve balls is the introduction of Dr. Hill, a therapist who breaks the fourth wall in the game by talking directly to the camera. These scenes are filled to the brim with cryptic intrigue, making the gears turn for players still trying to decipher the story.

Until Dawn is kind enough to play a quick recap after each scene, as well, allowing players to watch a montage of important events from the previously played section. Between Dr. Hill’s role and an array of storytelling techniques within the game itself, the narrative becomes the perfect catalyst to support the game’s most touted feature: the Butterfly Effect.

Until Dawn focuses almost entirely on the decisions you make, giving players the illusion of full control over the story. Not all outcomes will affect the story as heavily as others — a good amount of them can lead yield the same result. Seeing how each choice plays with the characters and environment is always entertaining to watch, however, and can lead to some pretty unforeseen happenings.

Each decision is finalized the moment it’s made as the game utilizes a strict auto-save feature to prevent players from trying to change their choices, but there’s often too much happening in the game to lament over the past (totally a compliment). Most decisions to be made come with two options that depend on directional input for choosing. Timed decisions that must be made quickly, however, present the player with a third option: doing nothing at all.

Until Dawn iterates that sometimes doing nothing is the right decision to make — if given the choice to shoot a squirrel or a bean bag, the player can be safe and patiently wait for the squirrel to move along. There is no right or wrong paths to take in this game, but the characters are far from immortal. Their lives depend on your ruling, a realization both terrifyingly stressful and ultimately rewarding.

Until Dawn employs an entire menu (accessible at any point in the game) dedicated to the Butterfly Effect. The game’s more important decisions are recorded here in a flip book format. The cause (your choice) is on the left, while the effect of your decision appears (when it happens) on the right. Butterfly Effects can be difficult to interpret — some choices resolve almost immediately, while others can take hours of gameplay to see the results. Effects become future causes which lead to future effects, and it really is wild to see how each player’s own story concludes.

Until Dawn‘s narrative linearity is masked by subtle hints of exploration, but the small restriction helps maintain the pacing of the game. Camera angles urge the player to head in a certain direction; however, players can go against this intuition to discover helpful clues and items to piece the story together. Debatably the most important among them are totems that offer a glimpse into future possibilities, and when construed correctly, how to avoid or ensure them. Totems come in five flavors:

• Death (Black): Black butterflies prophesied the dreamer’s death.
• Danger (Red): Red butterflies warned of dangerous events.
• Loss (Brown): Brown butterflies foretold of tragedy affecting friends.
• Guidance (Yellow): Yellow butterflies offered visions to help and guide.
• Fortune (White): White butterflies brought dreams of luck and good fortune.

There are thirty totems in all, and each one offers a small snippet of a possible outcome. Scenes found from discovering totems are most helpful when studied since the identity of the portrayed character is often shrouded. Reading into the clothes each character wears and the environment they’re wearing them in can offer helpful insight to help better prepare the player for what could come next. Death totems are obviously situations you want to avoid at all costs, while Guidance and Fortune totems inform the players on benevolent possibilities (as rare as they are).

Even once the events pass, there still lies a layer of enigmatic curiosity that can only be satiated from progressing through the rest of the game. Enacting or avoiding an event can trickle down the vine, leading to a huge, irreversible consequence. Until Dawn has an innate atmosphere of constant danger, often converting the feeling of safety into a trap of despair. Totems also unlock a snippet of The Events Of The Past, a narrated short film within the game that contains a wealth of information about the story.

Clips are rarely unlocked side by side — white noise fills the blank spaces between unlocked parts of the movie, and the construction of the film’s presentation as you unlock each piece is horrifying. Sentences start halfway through (eventually becoming complete), montages of bloody faces jump out of the static, and the tone of the narrator switches between informative and emotionally disturbing. Pair this with the truly frightening atmosphere of the game and players will find not even the menu screens are comforting.

Quick time events (QTE) emerge quickly within the game and present the player with even more of a burden to bear. Now not only does the player have to choose what to do, they’re graded on how well they do certain tasks. These QTEs are unforgivingly quick — the patterns of buttons to press seem oddly familiar, but the game certainly does not give you much time to press them. Time allocated to hitting the correct button in time is small, urging the player to pay full attention since these seemingly pop up at any time.

Sections that require the player to stay perfectly still come into play shortly after, utilizing motion sensing technologies to track the controller. These segments test the player’s ability to stay calm in stressful situations by physically controlling your body, so shaky hands do not bode well. Wiggle room is nearly nonexistent here — there’s only a few pixels separating the icon on the screen from the border surrounding it. If the two collide, be prepared for the worst. The dread felt in these situations is palpable and continues to maintain a level of intensity from start to finish.

Various QTEs call for the same accuracy that the “Don’t Move!” sections demand, forcing the player to aim at a specific point on the screen (within a limited amount of time) before hitting the button. Time slows down for these instances, visually exacerbating how terrifying the current situation is and not giving the player an ounce of time to think about what to do.

Smaller gameplay features persist throughout the game that really add to Until Dawn‘s already chilling mood. The game allows the player to control the movement of the character’s dominant arm which usually holds some source of light (flashlight, lantern, etc). This minor feature gives the player the power to control which part of the environment is most brightly lit, invoking feelings of both autonomy and fear of what lurks in the darkness.

Until Dawn instills fear in a unique manner thanks to the high caliber of its visuals. Lighting is the game’s biggest proponent for its naturally creepy environment — Until Dawn utilizes multiple sources of light to add a realistic sense of depth to both characters and scenery. Atmospherically speaking, the game starts playing the mood music before it begins; even as Supermassive Games’ name appears before the main menu, tense music builds and builds while the visuals become all the more eery.

Facial detail in the character models is immediately noticed as the main menu has a character’s face in the background. Everything from the animated movements to the structural accuracy of each character’s facial features makes the game (and subsequently story) all the more believable. Character models are pinpoint copies of their respective voice actors, bestowing a sense of familiarity as each character’s voice genuinely suits them.

Scarce as it is, the lighting can paint the character’s eyes and teeth in a way that seems unnatural, but the models are so convincingly animated that it’s not terribly jarring when it happens. One of the more notably precise graphical qualities is the game’s synchronization of each character’s mouths with their speech. This is most apparent when Dr. Hill appears on the screen, mainly because of his tendency of being close to the camera as he speaks. It doesn’t take long to realize how the unbelievably detailed characters models, multi-directional sources of light, and realistically mouthed dialogue combine to create a visceral harmony of believability.

Cinematography comes natural to Until Dawn, as well, and it employs the right camera angles to further intensify the game’s atmosphere. Whether it’s drawing the player’s focus to an object or area of interest or providing a closer shot for more emotional scenes (in both gameplay and cutscenes), the camera ensures players that they’ll experience exactly what Supermassive Games intended.

Some may despise the lack of control over the game’s camera; however, Until Dawn constantly draws from the motif of helplessness while it supplies players with illusions of control. The camera is just one of these subconscious facets.

Unfortunately there are a few graphical buffering issues that arise every once in a while. This isn’t horribly noticeable when the game’s played in short bursts, but over long periods of play it can remove the player from the game’s high level of immersion. When this issue occurs, it only takes a couple seconds for the game to fully load its textures and a couple more seconds to forget about it, but it’s a long enough timeframe to bring the player back to reality.

Minor graphical issues aside, the game’s soundtrack easily diverts the player’s attention. Backing tracks fill the air with ambience, exacerbating the already disturbing atmosphere with movements of building dissonance. When synced with the visuals, this combination offers a harrowing experience for even the most minor events. Subtle sound effects like footsteps in the snow are abound — even the weather has its own ambient noise that fill the void of silence. The only memorable musical piece is the game’s theme featured during the credits, but the layers of various sounds offer a particularly realistic backdrop that drips with ominous nuances.

Voice acting is commendable and honestly spot on 90% of the time; however, each character has a few lines that sound a bit too forced and scripted. Cheesy dialogue and the rare instance of poor voice acting lend credence to the game’s similarities to classic teen horror films, so neither of these necessary affect immersion negatively.

No negative aspect of Until Dawn deters the player from enjoying the story, and Supermassive Games crafted the game in such a curious way that an urge to replay the game curses the player even before the credits start to roll. Choices made throughout the game weave their own unique web for each playthrough, but the core of the story remains constant. No matter what happens in between, the game seems to begin and end in a very scripted manner. Until Dawn focuses more on the journey than the destination, and even those who don’t appreciate that ideology can still find it extremely entertaining to see the consequences of possible actions.

Until Dawn doesn’t rely entirely on jump scares to freak out players, but it does make up a solid amount of its terror. The game loses some of its nightmarish grasp when the scares are anticipated; however, the various outcomes for each Butterfly Effect can keep players guessing for a quite a time. Numerous combinations of character traits and relationships further expand on the game’s replayability, helping to ensure enough content to prevent buyer’s remorse.

After completing the story, an episodic variant of the game is unlocked. Being able to play through any episode to witness the multitude of Butterfly Effects becomes ridiculously convenient and allows the player to add to their collection of totems and clues. Because of the nature of the game some collectable items can only be discovered when in the right environment with the right character, thus necessitating multiple runs through episodes to satisfy the everyday completionist.

Until Dawn is undoubtedly impressive, but it’s not without its flaws. Supermassive Games’ first foray into such a complex project contains a remarkable amount of unexpected quality, hopefully inspiring other developers to up the ante when it comes to their own projects. For the typical price tag of $59.99, Until Dawn has enough entertaining content to be worth every penny.

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Until Dawn is a dramatic survival horror game with a focus on decision making, cinematography, and cryptic storytelling.

Originally published at www.entertainmentbuddha.com on September 7, 2015.