The Haunted Hoard: Until Dawn (PS4)

Slasher films very rarely try to make the audience care about more than one or two of the regular human characters, most of the cast there to serve as victims to the movie’s much more interesting antagonist. Whether this is a problem or not really depends on what you go to see the movies for, but the stakes of a film could definitely be higher if the audience was invested in every single potential victim. It could be difficult to squeeze character development into a slasher film while still being a reasonable length for its action, but Until Dawn realizes the way to pull this ambitious idea off is by adapting the horror movie formula to a video game where the player not only gets to know the cast well before the murders begin, but they are actually the one in charge of trying to keep everyone alive until the end.

Until Dawn frames the survival of its core cast as a gameplay objective, something that not only influences the story but reflects on the player’s ability to react appropriately at key moments during the plot. There are endings for everyone surviving, everyone dying, and plenty of mixes in between, and with eight characters the player takes control of over the course of the main storyline, there are plenty of do-or-die scenarios on top of situations that can influence later situations. However, the game starts off at a pretty leisurely pace, spending time to introduce each character individually so the player can further be invested in the cast beyond their roles as gameplay objects. A tragedy takes place atop a snowy mountain near the Washington family lodge, but a year after, Josh Washington, portrayed by Rami Malek, invites his friends back up to the lodge in what seems like an effort to overcome the grief of the previous year’s incident. Rami does an excellent job portraying the strange young man who’s clearly shaken by the previous year’s events, and while there is some corny dialogue at times, most of the cast does an excellent job portraying these young adults in both social and horror situations. Hayden Penettiere is the other big name attached to the game, although horror movie alumnus Larry Fessenden is present in a writing capacity to ensure that the plot feels authentic to horror cinema. Hayden plays Sam, who is pretty much portrayed as a paragon of virtue in that she’s usually doing or saying the right things, but the rest of the playable cast is more mixed. Chris and Ashley have a mutual unspoken crush on each other and are fairly nice but prone to panic and negativity, while the last four cast members are all linked by relationships. Emily is Mike’s ex, Emily now dating Matt and Mike dating Jessica, and early parts of the game definitely allow for some drama between the four, although it does recede somewhat when the action really starts, only influencing interaction instead of dominating it. Mike is essentially the male lead, capable and confident despite not being as morally pure as Sam, and his girlfriend Jessica appears to be energetic yet insecure, but our last two cast members seem to have gotten the short end of the stick. We don’t really get to learn much about Matt in the time we spend with him and Emily is almost always portrayed in a negative light, but while the player might not miss certain characters if they die, everyone is at risk of having a bad ending, making moments where the likable characters are in jeopardy even more tense.

There are multiple threats to the lives of the eight core characters on the snowy mountain, the action taking the cast out of the lodge to explore the woods, an abandoned mine, and an abandoned mental institution as they begin to encounter threats like the masked psycho and are stalked by strange things in the woods. Along the adventure, the player will be asked not to just move characters around to make their way forward, but make plenty of decisions that can impact future outcomes. Decisions will crop up many times throughout the game, and depending on the situation, there may be a time pressure to choose the route you want to go with. Some are as simple as who to side with in an argument, and other ones are cruel, seemingly no-win scenarios. Character friendships can be strengthened or strained, but definitely the most important moments in Until Dawn are the action scenes. Making the wrong choice in a high pressure scenario can lead to an untimely end for the characters involved, and while there are only certain moments a character can die, the plot is able to mold itself around the absence of these characters to still remain thrilling and engaging even after an important player has dropped out. You are still following one core plot no matter how things go for your band of protagonists, but entire segments of it can be dropped if the characters necessary for it are no longer present, and with the optional side objective of learning more about the mystery around the mountain by finding documents and objects, you can miss out on the extra lore despite always being assured a full bodied plot no matter how poorly you’re doing.

There are a few interesting quirks to the path of the plot, the first being routine visits with a psychiatrist between chapters. The player will be asked to answer question about their own fears, who in the cast they like, and other details that alter certain aspects of the story. It’s an interesting break away from the story to give you some time to ruminate while also allowing the game to adjust itself to be more effective if you’re honest with it, but the game isn’t always working against you. Areas in Until Dawn can have hidden totems that show you premonitions of possible future outcomes, these being glimpses at potential deaths, ways to avoid them, and other little warnings of what might be up ahead. While your path forward is ultimately set somewhat in stone, you can try to cater your actions and choices to better react to the trials you face based on these totem clues, but since Until Dawn is constantly autosaving to try and avoid you undoing your choices with a quick reset, your actions can seal your fate all the same. One odd choice though is, even after clearing the game, you cannot restart a run without erasing the previous one, making getting all the collectables a chore and most likely guide-dependent unless you just wish to play the chapters individually without seeing your choices pay off in new ways.

Until Dawn definitely has a thrilling plot with high stakes and a cast of characters you mostly want to keep alive, but there is a small stumble in how many of the deaths are executed. Timed button presses are often used for the game’s action segments, meaning that quick-time events will often determine whether a character lives or dies. Needing to press a button to keep someone alive is a pretty harsh pass/fail system for survival, but there are a few things that keep it from being too annoying. You usually have ample set-up implying a quick-time event is about to occur, and while the buttons sometimes appear in odd spots on the screen, buttons are limited to X, circle, triangle, and square, the buttons not repeating if they were just pressed. Some deaths require consecutive button fails as well or bad choices to get to the quick-time event, but having reflexes play such a huge role in a game that seems to try and emphasize the consequences of your choices does hurt the interactive horror movie experience a little despite making some degree of sense. After all, being chased by a killer in real life would require quick action, but having difficulty options might help, and there are better moments of timed button presses as well. At some points time will freeze, the player needing to move a cursor into the right area to execute an action, and sometimes these moments even have decoy areas you don’t want to move your cursor to so they aren’t completely straightforward either. The most imaginative version has to be the Don’t Move segments, where the PS4 controller’s motion sensing will pick up your movements during tense moments, the player needing to remain still to avoid detection. It has been suggested you just set your controller down for these moments to cheese them, but being able to anticipate these rare moments would be required since otherwise moving the controller to a flat surface might be too much motion. These Don’t Move segments ask you to keep a cool head while in danger, since if you let the game get to you and scare you too much, you’ll be shaking too much to pass these segments, further heightening the immersion in this involving horror game design.

THE VERDICT: Until Dawn is best described as an interactive horror film, but it manages to do things a horror movie would struggle with. Until Dawn gives you time to get to know the eight cast members so you get involved in their fates, and while deaths are a bit too often the result of failing quick-time events, there are still plenty of choices that guide the hand of an overall interesting plot filled with twists and tense moments. Ideas like needing to keep your controller still further immerse the player in the action and make them feel a sense of dread any time a character’s life is on the line. While 8 hours is certainly too long for a movie, it’s an excellent length for a game that keeps you on edge with its interactive plot and moments of exploration.

And so, I give Until Dawn for PlayStation 4…

A GREAT rating. Until Dawn is on the cusp of something Fantastic with its premise that can be easily understood by most anyone familiar with horror movies. The idea of having the survival of the cast be the gameplay goal is such a natural fit and one that ensures the stakes remain clear and weighty. If they were a bit more tied to the meaningful choices instead of pressing the right button at the right time Until Dawn might be a much better story, but the timed button presses don’t kill the experience either. The core cast gives you plenty of people to latch onto and want to see make it to the end even if Matt is underserved and Emily is unsympathetic, but even they have their roles in helping others and exploring more of the plot to justify their presence. Until Dawn wouldn’t have to strip out the action either, since the Don’t Move segments are a creative integration of motion controls and the time freeze for the cursor movement feels like the proper adjustment to make these timed button presses meaningful without overly punishing. The important details are definitely the plot’s structure and tone, and Until Dawn continues to keep the player along for a roller coaster ride of reveals and danger with the proper breaks to search for clues or speak with the psychiatrist for diversions from heart-pounding action.

Interactive stories are an interesting style of video game, one that tends to emphasize player choice in determining plot outcomes, but Until Dawn takes that to its logical extreme with having characters die if the player chooses poorly. More emphasis on that angle and more nuance to it could make the plot more interesting, but the weight of the consequences enhances every scare, every chase, and every moment of unease, your success being akin to you making the decisions a character must make in a slasher movie and taking the actions necessary to survive a much more powerful antagonist. It’s a bit surprising this is Supermassive Games’s first brush with such a gameplay approach, but having quality actors, experienced writers, and a strong idea ensured that Until Dawn made its concept work excellently.