Game Review: Until Dawn

I’ve played and reviewed a lot of Supermassive Games so far, but the one game I always wanted to get my thoughts down on was arguably their very best. This game actually served as the developer’s main debut into the mainstream and cemented their course as a cinematic horror producer. Even to this very day I still hear people talk about this game and how much of a fun and scary experience it manages to be while offering a core gameplay experience that never drags for one second. After my most recent replay, I can only concur with these sentiments and say that Until Dawn still remains Supermassive’s best showcase of interactive horror.

Until Dawn was released in August 2015 for the PlayStation 4. Originally intended to be a PlayStation Move exclusive on the PlayStation 3, Supermassive decided to change direction on the game after receiving initial feedback from players on how the Move controllers felt like they were ‘restricting’ their enjoyment of the game.  Over the course of its development the game continued to evolve into the final product we received today. It’s interesting to look at the earlier concepts for what this game could have been. If you go to YouTube, you can see a lot of the earlier builds for the game and while the horror tone was always present, the step into the next generation and change of gameplay looked to have really given the game it’s best opportunity for the studio to make an impression.

The story of Until Dawn follows a group of Canadian teenagers out on a mountain in Alberta called Blackwood Mountain. On the eve of his twin sisters’ deaths, Josh Washington invites all of his friends who were there on that tragic night back to the Washington estate to mourn and remember their loss. This reunion ends up being way more than any of these kids could have expected however, as tensions and relationships have majorly shifted over the course of that year and these characters aren’t all on the same page anymore. As they all settle into the cold and barren surroundings on the mountain, the gang soon find out there’s someone or something stalking them out in the dark. As the night proceeds the teenagers soon realise their lives are at stake and they must pull together until dawn if they wish to survive. 

In a lot of ways Until Dawn does a fantastic job in utilising your typical horror movie set up while also being consistently unique in its approach. The primary blueprint is all there, a desolate environment, a bunch of teenagers; each with ranging personalities and a primary danger which is out to kill them in the most brutal of fashions. These are all concepts you have seen time and time again in most horror movies, but Until Dawn never relies on these concepts, but instead uses them as a foundation to build upon.  Blackwood Mountain is a fantastic setting for this story, the writers gave it so much personality and history with a multitude of locations which you will be expected to explore. The teenagers all have unique characteristics which go a long way in individualising them and giving players a good enough impression to latch onto. The core threat of the game is anything but predictable and I appreciated how original a concept it ended up being.  My only gripe with it is that it felt like there were two great horror stories in this story and in the end, one had to be cut short to set up the other. It’s not a big detractor because I think the story in itself is fantastic and everything, I love about the horror genre, it just felt like Supermassive could have capitalised on the initial horror element way more; but I’m hopeful they realise that one day and make that concept into its own game.

Gameplay is the other showcase of what Supermassive were capable off. As I noted earlier, this game was initially intended to be a Move-focused experience, using the motion control gestures as a means of traversing and overcoming obstacles. The developers soon changed those controls to focus on the PlayStation 4’s controller scheme, which utilised both a basic button layout but a range of touch and motion controls. This control scheme is simplistic in its nature, but I think that works to invite the player to never feel restrained and gives them the best opportunity to get lost in the sequence.  Prompts are simple but quick, added along with the tension of certain scenes it makes the pressure to get your responses correct or risk the death of your character, it’s the best way to keep the experience cinematic but also interactive.  I also enjoyed the explorative element of the game too. Environments are littered with details and clues to find and the use of a fixed camera angle helps add a cinematic element to the gameplay even as you explore. What I enjoyed about clue collecting is while they serve as your standard collectable, they work to piece together an underlying backstory to the events of the game and your characters will pay attention to these details and recall them at relevant moment. I appreciate the extra effort to make even the most tedious of gameplay chores feel tied into the games core experience, it’s all very clever.

The game wins a lot of points with me in the visual and technical area too. Until Dawn looks sickeningly beautiful in all the best ways. The volumetric lighting and particle effects really add a cold and eerie atmosphere to all of the game’s horrific locations. You can tell this game is using Guerrilla Games’ Decima engine too, as it manages to render so many intrinsic details that look majorly impressive to this day. The character models are all top-notch and capture the actors motion performance really well. This is made even more impressive when you consider how many ways the developers animated these characters being killed. As a horror fan I wish to praise the commitment to horrific detailing the developers went for when producing some of these deaths, they’re so gory! There’s just a great sense of style and substance littered all around the games overall image and it reinforces the horror element fantastically. If you find yourself playing it on a PlayStation Pro or PlayStation 5 you also benefit from the enhanced resolution and framerate which is another added bonus.

Until Dawn still holds up remarkably well to this very day. It gets the whole concept of interactive horror in a way I wished move developers would. It’s writing, gameplay and technical elements all present you with an experience that is so easy to get lost in. In a lot of ways, I am more forgiving on the other Supermassive games for not truly reaching the same impact as this game because Until Dawn came out of the gate swinging and it may be near impossible to meet or even beat this game’s overall experience; it’s simply that good!