One of the more surprising announcements to come out of Sony’s
Every character in the game can be killed, with the story adapting around the remaining characters. There’s no right or wrong way to do things. While you’ll be asked to make some tough choices–abandoning your partner to investigate a distant noise, or deciding to shoot yourself in the head to save your partner’s life were just two examples I was shown–there’s no hard and fast moral compass other than your own to guide you. There’s also the option of simply not making a choice at all, or taking too long to do so, in which case an entirely different event plays out.
Not all Butterfly Effect interactions have dramatic consequences, though. Some interactions with objects only results in an instant response, while others might only affect a particular scene. Regardless, you’re encouraged to poke around as much as possible, which is helped along by a clues system that tracks your progress into uncovering the mysterious events surrounding your friend’s death and your current predicament.
Until Dawn is first and foremost an adventure game, so rather than being armed to the teeth with weapons shooting bad guys, interactions are of the Heavy Rain style, where you pick up objects and examine them, tiling the Dualshock controller to do so. Motion also controls the flashlight as you wander around the suitably dark and creepy backdrops. Sometimes, you might pick up an object that can used as a weapon, but it only comes into play during a particular scene and you make a moral choice whether to use it or not. An example of this was show during the demo, where the character Ashley picks up a pair of scissors, and a butterfly icon flashes on screen. Later, as she and her partner Chris encounter a sadistic psycho in a creepy clown mask, you’re given the option to defend yourself with the scissors, or back down entirely.
Given the focus on storytelling and character interactions over all-out action, the success of Until Dawn depends largely on its voice actors and believable animations, as well as excellent writing. On all fronts, Supermassive has drafted some impressive talent, including Hollywood writers for the script, and actors Hayden Panettiere and Rami Malik for the voice acting and motion capture. Indeed, it was hard not to get sucked into the drama between Chris and Ashley as they explored a dilapidated hotel. The game also features some impressive facial animation technology running atop the Killzone: Shadowfall engine, which gives each line of dialogue an impressively convincing feel.
That’s all well and good, but what you’re probably wondering is, “is it scary?” I’m a bit of a horror fanatic, but there were definitely some moments during the demo that made me jump; others in the room let out some terrified screams. If you’re a sucker for scares, this is on game I’d definitely keep an eye on.
