Until Dawn is the Kind of Horror Game David Cage Would Create - Preview

by Nick Pantazis , posted on 18 June 2015 / 7,521 Views

Have you ever sat through a horror movie and thought “this is stupid, no one would do this in real life?” Good news! Until Dawn is here to let you make your own choices in a horror movie, and it is more a horror movie than a horror game. That’s not necessarily a bad thing; indeed, as an experience Until Dawn is both enjoyable and interesting.

The choose-your-own adventure style here is evident early on. In the first part of the demo the two characters I was controlling were approached by a herd of zombie-like deer, which were slowly pushing them toward a cliff. I had a choice here, I could fight my way through them, or try to push past gently. Choices like these present themselves throughout the demo, and the fates of characters hang on your reaction.

Gameplay largely involves minor puzzle-solving through exploration and use of quick decision making during tense moments. The atmosphere is oppressive and dark, and the environments even in the short demo ran from cliffs to radio tower to mine. I suspect horror movie tropes will be aplenty, and that’s perfectly fine.

The two characters in my demo were archetypal horror movie characters, and included a snarky, self-involved woman and her jock boyfriend. Their relationship and interaction was part of the choice of the game as well, and how you responded to the other character affected both the outcome of events and the way the two communicated.

My demo was pretty short and it ended with my violent, scripted death (likely to give the demo a natural stopping point), and I had a blast the entire way. With a couple of legitimate jump scares and an intriguing design, I’m looking forward to seeing if I can survive… Until Dawn. Sorry.

You can play Until Dawn on pS4 on August 25^th this year.

9 Comments

dirtylemons (on 18 June 2015)

Every time I read about this, it sounds better and better. Why haven't I heard more about it? I was disappointed that Sony relegated it to a clip during the big montage, considering it is a full-on exclusive for them.

estebxx dirtylemons (on 18 June 2015)

YEAH, they also didnt show Ratchet and Clank at the E3 press conference

Zackasaurus-rex dirtylemons (on 18 June 2015)

Sony always run into this issue of having so much to show that they leave off some stuff that really also deserves a spotlight.

I vote that they just start doing four-hour conferences...

I mean, that was the E3 Conference Where Dreams Came True, one of the most astounding moments in gaming history. And they were still failing to show off so much of their own exclusive content, such as Ratchet & Clank, Until Dawn, Tearaway Unfolded, The Tomorrow Children, a big list of really interesting Morpheus games they've been showing off on PlayStation Blog, and more.