Until Dawn (PS4)

[daniel77733]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

I'm a few hours in. Creepy and consistent with the horror/slasher genre. Not sure what to make of these mini-games between chapters and how they impact overall story.

Mini-games??? Can you explain please?

[headzapp]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Mini-games??? Can you explain please?

Every so often you get a scene with this guy. He asks you questions and you choose the answers. Like what is more scary to you? and you pick a wolf or a snake then turn the page you pick between a clown or a scarecrow. It's cool, it's a nice little break from the game.

[Candyman5]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Every so often you get a scene with this guy. He asks you questions and you choose the answers. Like what is more scary to you? and you pick a wolf or a snake then turn the page you pick between a clown or a scarecrow. It's cool, it's a nice little break from the game.

I'm never picking the clown. Knowing the game it throw them at you everywhere.

[K0ZZ]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

I'd give this game a 7 or on a really good day an 8.

The story isn't the greatest, it lends to various horror stories established in the past to the point that you can essentially just call them out on it. When the story does pick up, it becomes so disjointed from the original story, I felt like it was just a cop out essentially, because it extended the story. I enjoyed the vibe the story had at the start through roughly the first half to three fourths but once the "twist" hits and the real enemies make themselves known, it's just.. kind of disappointing they went that route. I understand why they did it but it became a lot less tension because "at least for me" I just ended up feeling disconnected from the material. There's a lot of "suspension of belief" moments with this game. It is essentially like the 80's horror flicks where the survivors do just about everything wrong, and for what they were going for they did a good job, but it just didn't interest me.

Sounds were good and bad, the ambient sounds were awesome and well done but at the same time you can tell when a jump scare's coming, because the noise will be substantially louder than the rest of the game. For example, early in the game

Minor spoiler but still will tag it

Spoiler

Two characters are at a shooting range, the gun isn't very loud, but right after a crow lands on them, the squawking of the crow was significantly louder than the gun.

and it just detracts from the atmosphere that all of the ambient noises spend so much time bringing you into because certain objects, creatures, etc. making unnecessarily loud noises. It also extends to dialogue, certain characters got extremely quiet because a scare was coming so you couldn't quite hear what they were saying. I spent a decent amount of time adjusting my sound bar to different areas.

Voice acting ranges from horrible to decent. Early on, you could essentially tell they were just in a studio reading off lines, the words were delivered monotone and almost as if the VA's didn't even have the lines memorized, almost like they were reading off the page. I didn't notice it as much as the game continued, but I also played through this in a straight shot last night so I might've been too tired to notice.

Gameplay is.. well this is essentially an interactive story and while the QTE's are well done and keep you poised, a lot of times the searching elements of the game just killed the pacing for me. Not to mention, early on there isn't much direction and I spent a longer chunk of time than I should've just wandering aimlessly. Partially my fault of course but it doesn't aid the delivery when you're being chased by something, it breaks into a "search" area and everything just disappears while your character looks around. There could be a timeout where you fail during the search areas but I hadn't seen it.

The movement can be somewhat clunky at times, I got caught more than a few times on a small edge, or the camera angles it gives you aren't in a good position so you either walk in a circle, or simply cannot identify things in the scenery. My sister's boyfriend compared it to RE1/2 camera angles and while they aren't horrible, they could've been aided from reconsidering some of them. I understand limiting the gamer's view aids the horror aspect of the game and I wouldn't recommend giving 360 degree control of the camera but at the very least a little bit of manipulation would go a long way.

This game is entirely search events and QTE's, or cutscenes. So the gameplay is obviously where it falls short mainly due to a decent amount of the search events but they are a neccesary evil to eliminate this game from being a five to six hour cutscene. Obviously if you don't know that going in, thinking this is a TLOU or Evil Within than you're going to be extremely disappointed.

Graphics are top notch, wont' touch on them much but this game is beautiful and everything is well designed in this regard. Had no graphical glitches and the characters are well drawn and animated. Had a very few odd instances of weird looking animations but not enough to detract from the artistic style.

I really cannot recommend purchasing this one at ESRP [unless you want to support the developer for the POC], it took me and my sister's boyfriend around 5 - 7 hours to beat the game. There are branching story arcs and if I get the motivation before it's due back I'll make a few different decisions to see how it plays out but it doesn't really interest me much.

TL;DR
7/10
Great graphics
Great ambient sounds
QTE's are well designed and keep the gamer involved
Decent story
Cheesy dialogue and at times laughable VA
Story takes an odd turn that requires a major suspension of belief to stay immersed
Short run time 5-7 hours (slightly bloated by unskippable "recap" cutscenes and backtracking)

[oneamongthefence]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

I'm enjoying this one so far. Feels a lot like heavy rain which is a good thing. Interactive horror movie? I've been waiting on something like this for a while. While not perfect it's probably the most tense and stressful game I've played since Dead Space 1 speaking of which has the same composer and the music is on point here as well.

The exterior scenes are gorgeous and really convey the mood that you're isolated. The graphics are really nice and detailed even though some of the facial expressions are weird at times. Overall I found the voice acting good or as good as anything you find in most horror movies. It has multiple endings and paths so it has replay value. I got this game essentially for free when I won a free copy of Madden 16 and I don't think I would regret this purchase if I paid full price for it.

This is not a test.

[alifeincomplete]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

I'm never picking the clown. Knowing the game it throw them at you everywhere.

It absolutely impacts the game in minor ways. I picked spider on one of them. Sure enough, there was a part where a spider crawled across the screen. That can't be a coincidence.

[dickey1331]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

It absolutely impacts the game in minor ways. I picked spider on one of them. Sure enough, there was a part where a spider crawled across the screen. That can't be a coincidence.

Same here. I picked clown, needle and spider. I've already seen a clown and spider. Ugh.

[PhilliesFan13]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

I am interested in picking this game up as well after watching the trailer for the first time. I love choose your own adventure type games.

Best Buy GCU along with $25 in reward certificates should get me this game for about $22.99.

[MFLB410]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Is this game worth a purchase??

[dickey1331]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Is this game worth a purchase??

Yes I think so. Is it perfect? No but I've been enjoying it.

[pimpinpidgeon8]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Totally enjoying this game, but I'm already into Chapter 5 or whatever they're considering them. Anyways, this game feels like it's going to be quickly beat, but I really don't know if I'll play through it again. Not really fun to replay once I already know what happens.

[alifeincomplete]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Totally enjoying this game, but I'm already into Chapter 5 or whatever they're considering them. Anyways, this game feels like it's going to be quickly beat, but I really don't know if I'll play through it again. Not really fun to replay once I already know what happens.

Apparently there are numerous potential endings.

[K0ZZ]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Is this game worth a purchase??

Depends, it's a niche game and it depends on what you are looking for it to be. I'd say if you're a fan of 80's/90's horrors you'll probably enjoy this. It's definitely worth a rent to experience it at the very least. It wouldn't be a purchase for me but that's more a matter of personal taste.

[mestevo]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

I dont think he cares, he just spammed a bunch of threads so he could make his own.

[ExtremeGamer]

Re: Until Dawn (PS4)

Right now, the only better game I've played in 2015 is Bloodborne. But to be fair, this game is completely on my level of what I've always wanted, a horror game that feels like a campy 80's horror movie. Sure, Resident Evil and the like are great horror games, but they don't play out like I've wanted one to play out. This one requires less skill (which in this case is a good thing) and sucks you in story wise. Even playing the story multiple times to get the numerous endings will be a blast. Great game, very impressed.