UNTIL DAWN Hands On Impressions - E3 2015
Until Dawn is a new horror game for the Playstation 4 that plays out like a slasher film. A group of teenagers out on a retreat in the woods on the anniversary of their friends' disappearance are being stalked and killed off one by one by a masked maniac. Throughout the game you’ll take on the role of each of the teens.
The game has a strong Heavy Rain vibe (which is a good thing). Every choice you make has a consequence, but there are also repercussions for the choices you don’t make. The game is absolutely gorgeous. The segment of the game I played put me in the role of two of the teens, Emily and Matt. The killer has already claimed a victim, and we’re tasked with going to the radio tower up on the mountain and call for help.
The demo started with Matt and Emily (his girlfriend who he saw flirting with one of the other guys earlier on the trip) on the side of the cliff cornered by enraged deer. Now, I know that sounds absurd, but anybody who has seen The Ring Two knows how terrifying insane deer are. I was tasked with figuring out a way out of this situation. Multiple times the option came up to kill the deer with my trusty axe, but I decided against it as I thought maybe that would just make them angrier. I was also given some dialogue options to either calm Emily or enrage her a bit. Even though she was flirting with some other dude earlier I decided in the name of self-preservation to just keep things cool. We made it out of that incredibly intense situation and the point of view put me in control of Emily. We make our way up to the radio tower. I discovered some missing persons flyers for our friends who went missing last year, I also found a flare gun (which I decide not to fire) and finally got the radio working to call for help. The park ranger on the radio said they would send help once the storm passed, which likely won’t happen… until dawn. Emily and Matt are incredibly dramatic, freaking out every minute, getting irrationally angry, and so on. Of course, this didn’t take away from the experience but enhanced it. They were both just dumb dramatic teenagers in the middle of a horror movie.
That’s what this game felt like… a slasher film. I was helping these events unfold in the way I see fit. At one point, while we were in the radio tower the killer found us. He tried get to where we were, but the hatch was locked tight so the killer went to the logical next step… cut the wires holding the tower in place. The tower fell into a mineshaft. Emily was hanging off the side and Matt was tasked with either saving himself or saving her. I was also given the dialogue option (while Emily is literally hanging on for her life) to bring up the flirtatious infidelity from earlier but I decided against it. I decided to try and save Emily, but alas it was all for naught as the tower fell further into the mine. Now I actually didn’t see Emily die, and if entertainment has taught me anything it’s that an off screen “death” is most likely not a death. But then it’s just Matt, alone in the mines. I literally took like five steps, and the killer grabbed me, dragged me through the tunnel, and impaled my face on a rusty hook hanging from the ceiling.
This game is gruesome in the best way. I’m excited to see the rest of the teenagers’ fates and, of course, see if I can change the outcome of Emily and Matt’s adventure. Until Dawn will be released August 25th, 2015, exclusively for the PS4.