Until Dawn Review

thesixthaxis.com:

Until Dawn is a classic tale of a cast of young beautiful characters getting killed off in horrifically gory ways by something lurking in the woods. It’s a modern horror game classic, packed full of twists and red herrings, and if you have not played the game in it’s original incarnation then you are in for a treat. With the PS4 original still very playable on PS5, you might be wondering what this remake brings to the table after less than a decade.

The characters are tropes of the genre with the jock, the nerd, the bitch and – thanks to the Hayden Panettiere’s casting –  the cheerleader, all present. You get to play as all of the characters at various points throughout the game and make decisions that radiate out in a Butterfly Effect: What seems a simple decision may have a drastic impact later on, so much so that you might not even get to play large sections of the game if you manage to kill off a character early in the story.

Like all the ‘best’ horror movies the cast can be incredibly stupid and act in completely irrational ways. After screamed conversation about how no-one should go outside due to the murderous things roaming around, a character will then decide they must go, unarmed, into the heart of danger. Two minutes later the rest of cast, who were hysterical just moments ago, trot off happily to follow them. After a good half an hour of terror, a character in the second group chirps “I’ll take it from here the rest of you can go back” and off they trot. It makes no sense whatsoever and while the ‘stupid but beautiful people’ trope is clearly being played on, in 2024 it does just feel like bad writing. I also noticed that Hayden Panttiere’s character takes the longest bath ever. Girl, I know you got to look beautiful, but over two hours soaking in the tub while your friends are being diced in to bits is just not on!

The core gameplay will be very familiar to anyone who has played Supermassive’s original or any of the more recent entries in The Dark Pictures