Until Dawn | My Prayers Have Been Answered

Growing up, I always had an insatiable fascination with experiencing a horror movie in an interactive fashion. Whether that be being cast as an actor in a horror film or experiencing a true horror story in video game form. I don't mean supernatural or undead like The Evil Within or The Walking Dead; I mean a gritty, serial killer-esque thematic on par with the Halloween franchise. As a younger version of myself, the closest I was able to get was through Clock Tower, being chased around an abandoned university - or was it a library? - by a humpbacked freak with enormous shears, before finally hiding in a restroom stall only to be found and cut to pieces. In the present, the closest I've gotten was the Taxidermist add-on for the PS3 exclusive, Heavy Rain.

A few years ago when I finally decided to join the ranks of the PC gamers, I stumbled upon an article while searching for some top PC games to experience. It was in that same day I discovered Amnesia, Lucius, Among the Sleep, Slender and more importantly, Until Dawn. When I first discovered Until Dawn, rumours were floating around amidst speculation that it was a PS3 exclusive; a fine sentiment, considering that exclusives were my primary reason for having purchased a PS3 prior (I'm looking at you, Heavy Rain, you marvel, you.) Until Dawn managed to capture my interest within the first fifteen seconds of the trailer.

Until Dawn introduces eight friends, all playable, who are trapped on a remote mountain retreat; in typical horror fashion, things quickly turn sinister and are being hunted by a lunatic in a malevolent-looking clown-ish mask. It all seemed to good to be true at the time, until I learned recently that the game was well under development since 2012 and had a scheduled release for sometime this year in 2015. I've spent the past few days doing some research to learn more about the game and spent some time watching the latest trailer and gameplay from E3 or PAX East or something of the sort. Regardless, I'm unbelievably excited and I haven't felt this particular way for a game since Beyond: Two Souls was announced.

Until Dawn, at face value, looks like a generic Hollywood blockbuster in terms of narrative. The eight characters - Sam (Hayden Panettiere; Scream 4), Josh (Rami Malek; The War at Home), Jessica (Meaghan Martin; Camp Rock), Mike (Brett Dalton; Agents of SHIELD), Emily (Nichole Bloom; Model Minority), Matt (Jordan Fisher), Ashley (Galadriel Stineman; Glee) and Chris (Patrick Mölleken) - are a cast of Hollywood actors who manage to perfectly portray the horror genre stereotype we've come to expect in modern film. Young, naive and sometimes stupid teenagers, some of whom manage to survive on pure luck alone, are presented with both seemingly insignificant choices as well as huge moral dilemmas that will question our sense of fairness and good versus evil. It seems that these choices can have major unforeseen consequences: in one scene, Ashley can find a pair of scissors which can be used to her advantage later. In mostly every modern horror story, there seems to be that one generally intelligent character, usually the main one, and that would be Sam, portrayed by Hayden Panettiere, who ironically played a rather intelligent, teenage victim in Scream 4.

What appeals to me the most about Until Dawn, aside from the fact that it's a dream come true, is that while some characters may seem more idiotic than others, their behaviour and survival depend on the player. If you want a certain character to die, by all means, have her run around and trip over nothing like the cliche she is. Should you want to actually get somewhere in the story, make the choices you would make in the situation, or the choice you think is the wisest; instead of running up and down the same flight of stairs or hiding under the bed in an empty room, beat your attacker over the head and hide somewhere legitimate while he's distracted. Just watching gameplay alone, one can easily attempt to determine the outcome of certain actions. Did a door just open on its own? Avoid it like the Black Plague. Until Dawn is like a more advanced version of Heavy Rain's choice system; there's some linearity, but only where it counts to properly progress the narrative. The game doesn't appear to make you walk into the room where you clearly just saw a shadowy figure pass through; you can choose to investigate, but it brings up that common thought of, "No, if this bitch goes in here, she's going to die. I'm going this way," and it's brilliant. It seems like we're no longer forced to take the linear route in which we've already figured out what was going to happen long before it did.

In the embedded gameplay video below, such dynamics can be witnessed firsthand.

Until Dawn reminds me a lot of Heavy Rain, but I have to admit that it comes off as what Heavy Rain could have or should have been and I agree. Until Dawn boasts a similar emphasis on character movements and facial animations as well as utilising a choice system in terms of both dialogue and action. It's almost as if the team at Supermassive Games played the Taxidermist add-on for Heavy Rain and said, "Hmm...let's turn this single concept into an entire game." Praise the Lord, as my prayers have been answered.

In addition, Until Dawn's graphics look utterly brilliant; the environments, the lighting, the textures, the animations...it's positively unreal. In the below video, everything good about the game seems to show itself in a mere eight minutes and I haven't seen anything I didn't like yet. Visuals: check. Believable and wonderful voice acting: check. Eerie setpieces: check. Suspense: check. Jump scares (without being OTT): check. Choice system: check. I'm positively thrilled.

Until Dawn honestly looks like a brilliant experience and a different take on the horror genre we've seen lately. It breaks away from the supernatural and the undead themes and brings us back to the classic, serial killer thematic complete with a few cliches that simply add more depth and volume to the experience. I couldn't be more excited.