Video game taps into classic horror

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I love horror. I have read many horror books and played a lot of horror games. I’d go as far as saying that a third of my collection is dedicated to the horror genre, and I have a very large collection and I’m excited to at Until Dawn.

It is not very often that something new or interesting comes out in the horror game genre. The last thing I would consider to be that is P.T. and that is a teaser for a game that unfortunately got cancelled, so when something interesting is announced, I pay attention. Until Dawn falls in this category.

Until Dawn is a horror game from Supermassive Games, the guys behind the Little Big Planet series. Don’t be fooled. This horror game is not about a small sack child but is instead about eight kids who go to a cabin in the woods to remember their two friends who died there the year prior. As the night goes on and they are mercilessly picked off one by one, they soon realize that is is a desperate fight to survive until dawn (pun intended).

What makes Until Dawn so interesting is a game mechanic called “the butterfly effect” named after the old saying that a butterfly flapping its wings in america can cause a typhoon in japan, meaning that every action has a consequence.

The game uses this idea as a means to tell a story. At seemingly random moments the game will provide you with a choice. Most of these seem trivial at the time, like whether or not to pick up and play with a bat, but they can have real effects like by playing with the bat, you move it and later the character can use the bat has a weapon against the killer.

This system gives the user a lot of control over the eventual outcome of the story, and I have confirmed that everyone can survive. That did not happen for me though, personally only two characters made it out physically unscathed but I guarantee that they will have mental problems after the traumatic night they went through.

I don’t normally talk about graphics or visual fidelity in my game reviews but it should be stated that, to my knowledge, every character in this game is played by an actual talented actor and it shows. Gone are the weird days of games like L.A. Noire that had real actors, but the faces were deep in the uncanny valley and creeped out more than they gave good performances.

This games one major flaw lies in the first hour and a half. From early on in development, Supermassive told the press that they were going for a teen slasher movie style. Even from the premise of the game (8 kids in a isolated cabin in the woods) is incredibly reminiscent of the 80s horror classics. They however go to hard with this in the early game and not enough in the later. The first hour and a half is the kids arguing about boyfriends and drama among the group. This evens out in the middle when creepy stuff starts to happen but it feels like forever for that to happen. This is unfortunate but is one of my few problems with an otherwise amazing game.

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Classic horror fans will enjoy this game for it amazing atmosphere and great overall tension. I do recommend it to anyone whose interest is piqued, and those of you on the fence about getting a PS4, I think this and BloodBorne are both very good reasons to finally get one.

This writer can be reached via Twitter and e-mail: @EthanNathe26 and [email protected]

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