Until Dawn Review (PS4)
Story
This game takes place at a mountain. A group of friends went to a mountain for a vacation. Unfortunately, two of them went missing due to a prank. Years later, they come again for another vacation at the mountain, unknowingly encounter several horrors that may have something to do with their two missing friends...
The story is well-crafted, with more interesting plot than other interactive cinematic drama games like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. Less plot holes, more proper character developments, and more impactful decision making. However, the story is not perfect, as the plot of the second half of the game is not as interesting as the first half of the game.
The characters personalities are rather stereotypical, yet interesting in a way that you can influence their personalities with choices. Not only the choices change perception and the relationship status between different people in this game, they also impact the game's story in a rather meaningful way. I like all of the playable characters as they have memorable personalities.
Gameplay
The game plays most similarly like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, which is an interactive horror and drama game where you control your characters and explore areas, while also making split-second decisions during events and conversations. Many decisions affect many things in the game, such as who lives and dies, the future events, and the endings. Not only that, decisions in the game may also affect characters' relationships positively or negatively, which in turn will lead to different events in the game.
The game's story and progress are most carried out in long cutscenes, but there are certain sections in the chapters where you can explore in the limited areas. During cutscenes, you may have the choice to give response to another person's question, which affects your relationship with him or her. Doing certain actions in action scripted sections may also affect a character's fate in the game. Choices made in the game may also affect routes and endings in the game. For example, a certain route can only be played if a certain character lives until a certain point in the game. This is called the Butterfly Effect system, where choices made in the game will impact certain consequences in the game as you progress.
At certain sections in different chapters, you can control your character freely to interact with objects, find collectibles, or interact with other characters. You can only progress in the game after you completed certain tasks, such as finding your way in a room, exploring, and other tasks.
Quick time events (QTE) are used in this game, during many gameplay sections. Some of the QTEs may affect a character's fate in the game, whether you fail or successful in completing the QTEs. Although the standard QTEs involve regular button presses, some of them also include aiming and throwing objects at enemies, as well as events that require you to not move the DualShock 4 controller for a certain period of time.
Collectibles play a major part in this game, as they provide interesting background information to players such as certain events happened in the game, as well as giving future predictions to players on certain character actions.
The gameplay is decently good, as I greatly prefer this game's ganmeplay over Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls' gameplay systems. More involved decision making, intriguing collectibles, multiple endings, more explorable areas, and a bit more variety of Quick Time Events make this game superior over those two games. However, this game still has some issues. The movement controls are limited, with no option to run freely. Camera angles during exploration can be restrictive as well. Regardless, the gameplay is still decently good.
Graphics
This is one of the best looking games on PS4. Incredible environment designs, and special praise to the character models. The character models resemble a lot of their voice actors, who I presume they also provided the motion capture for the characters. No technical issues encountered while playing the game.
Sound
The voice acting is amazing. All actors in the game performed greatly, thanks to good yet cliche dialogue and motion capture performances. The performances are believeable, with different emotions shown in their character models and actions, which is great.
The soundtrack is good, with many creepy and ambient sounds that reflect a horror game amazingly. Sound effects such as jump scares are done well, too.
Replay Value
This game has moderate replay value. You can attempt to collect all collectibles in the game, unlock all endings in the game, or deliberately choose different choices in your new playthrough. While this game does not have more replay value on other interactive drama games, the Butterfly Effect feature and the plot-related collectibles make the subsequent playthroughs to be more interesting or drastic from your initial playthrough.
Conclusion
This is my favourite interactive drama game, and I greatly prefer it over Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain because of two reasons: story-related collectibles and Butterfly Effect feature. Many of the game's collectibles are story-related, and also expands the lore and mysteries surrounding in the game. The Buttefly Effect is a neat feature as it determines who will live and die in the game due to your choices and their relationships with other people.
However, the overall gameplay is basically similar to Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, and the only real thing separates between these three games is the story. This game has issues, such as restrictive camera angles and limited movement during exploration sections, as well as slightly disappointing tone shift in the middle of the story. Regardless, this game is worth playing for any players who are interested with interactive horror drama, and this game is good in building suspense and jump scares to players.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 8.5/10 or 32/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting storyline.
- Good story pacing.
- Multiple endings.
- Clever use of jump scares and horror atmosphere.
- Greatly likable and relatable characters.
- Decent controls.
- Interesting Butterfly Effect feature.
- Good variety and clever use of QTE sequences.
- More impactful decisions.
- Good use of story-related collectibles.
- Great voice acting and performance.
- Amazing graphics.
Cons
- Hit or miss tone shift in later half of the game's story.
- Somewhat restrictive camera angles during exploration sections.
- Not much replay value if you don't like the game's story and style.
**Images are from official PlayStation game page and GamePressure.
Control eight different characters.
This game takes place at a mountain. A group of friends went to a mountain for a vacation. Unfortunately, two of them went missing due to a prank. Years later, they come again for another vacation at the mountain, unknowingly encounter several horrors that may have something to do with their two missing friends...
The story is well-crafted, with more interesting plot than other interactive cinematic drama games like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. Less plot holes, more proper character developments, and more impactful decision making. However, the story is not perfect, as the plot of the second half of the game is not as interesting as the first half of the game.
The characters personalities are rather stereotypical, yet interesting in a way that you can influence their personalities with choices. Not only the choices change perception and the relationship status between different people in this game, they also impact the game's story in a rather meaningful way. I like all of the playable characters as they have memorable personalities.
Gameplay
Make your decisions carefully.
The game plays most similarly like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, which is an interactive horror and drama game where you control your characters and explore areas, while also making split-second decisions during events and conversations. Many decisions affect many things in the game, such as who lives and dies, the future events, and the endings. Not only that, decisions in the game may also affect characters' relationships positively or negatively, which in turn will lead to different events in the game.
The game's story and progress are most carried out in long cutscenes, but there are certain sections in the chapters where you can explore in the limited areas. During cutscenes, you may have the choice to give response to another person's question, which affects your relationship with him or her. Doing certain actions in action scripted sections may also affect a character's fate in the game. Choices made in the game may also affect routes and endings in the game. For example, a certain route can only be played if a certain character lives until a certain point in the game. This is called the Butterfly Effect system, where choices made in the game will impact certain consequences in the game as you progress.
At certain sections in different chapters, you can control your character freely to interact with objects, find collectibles, or interact with other characters. You can only progress in the game after you completed certain tasks, such as finding your way in a room, exploring, and other tasks.
Quick time events (QTE) are used in this game, during many gameplay sections. Some of the QTEs may affect a character's fate in the game, whether you fail or successful in completing the QTEs. Although the standard QTEs involve regular button presses, some of them also include aiming and throwing objects at enemies, as well as events that require you to not move the DualShock 4 controller for a certain period of time.
Collectibles play a major part in this game, as they provide interesting background information to players such as certain events happened in the game, as well as giving future predictions to players on certain character actions.
The gameplay is decently good, as I greatly prefer this game's ganmeplay over Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls' gameplay systems. More involved decision making, intriguing collectibles, multiple endings, more explorable areas, and a bit more variety of Quick Time Events make this game superior over those two games. However, this game still has some issues. The movement controls are limited, with no option to run freely. Camera angles during exploration can be restrictive as well. Regardless, the gameplay is still decently good.
Graphics
Impressive graphics.
Sound
Great voice acting and creepy soundtrack.
The soundtrack is good, with many creepy and ambient sounds that reflect a horror game amazingly. Sound effects such as jump scares are done well, too.
Replay Value
Moderate replay value.
Conclusion
One of the best interactive drama games, but not without issues.
This is my favourite interactive drama game, and I greatly prefer it over Beyond: Two Souls and Heavy Rain because of two reasons: story-related collectibles and Butterfly Effect feature. Many of the game's collectibles are story-related, and also expands the lore and mysteries surrounding in the game. The Buttefly Effect is a neat feature as it determines who will live and die in the game due to your choices and their relationships with other people.
However, the overall gameplay is basically similar to Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls, and the only real thing separates between these three games is the story. This game has issues, such as restrictive camera angles and limited movement during exploration sections, as well as slightly disappointing tone shift in the middle of the story. Regardless, this game is worth playing for any players who are interested with interactive horror drama, and this game is good in building suspense and jump scares to players.
Score
Story: 8/10
Gameplay: 7/10
Graphics: 10/10
Sound: 9/10
Final Score: 8.5/10 or 32/40
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Interesting storyline.
- Good story pacing.
- Multiple endings.
- Clever use of jump scares and horror atmosphere.
- Greatly likable and relatable characters.
- Decent controls.
- Interesting Butterfly Effect feature.
- Good variety and clever use of QTE sequences.
- More impactful decisions.
- Good use of story-related collectibles.
- Great voice acting and performance.
- Amazing graphics.
Cons
- Hit or miss tone shift in later half of the game's story.
- Somewhat restrictive camera angles during exploration sections.
- Not much replay value if you don't like the game's story and style.
**Images are from official PlayStation game page and GamePressure.
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