Until Dawn: One Man’s Journey

After debating on whether or not to buy this game due to mixed reviews that I had read after a couple of days of this game being released, I made my first Butterfly Effect choice and purchased “Until Dawn”, a choice that you could say would change the outcome of my entire night…

The recent batch of releases of next-gen games have left me rather unfulfilled. Either due to short gameplay, receptiveness, or too simple of controls, has made me wanting something new, something different. When I first heard about “Until Dawn”, and saw it’s all-star cast: Hayden Panettiere (Heroes), Brett Dalton (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D), Rami Malek (Mr. Robot), and Peter Stormare (Prison Break) I was extremely intrigued as to what the game would entail. I heard about the concept of “all your choices will alter future events”, which is nothing new to video games, however the plot of the game really grabbed my attention. To sum up the idea, “Until Dawn” is basically a horror movie, which involves eight friends and a killer, in a secluded cabin during deep winter. Each choice you make in the game will not only shape the plot, but it will also make your relationships closer with each member, or rip them apart. The goal to “beating” the game (I use quotes as the replay value of this game is ridiculously high seeing as you could play a second time with a completely different Act 2 and Act 3) is to survive the night….ahem…until dawn, with all cabin goers alive and well. My first go at the game…I survived with three, and here is that story (will mostly likely have spoilers, but maybe not, if you chose your adventure differently).

**Possible Spoilers Ahead**

After the intro, I found myself walking along a path with a typical in-game tutorial of all the controls. It wasn’t long into the game to where I had to make my first decision, snoop through a friend’s cell phone, or leave it be. OF COURSE I LOOKED!!! WHO WOULDN’T?? As a result, my friend caught me and felt violated by me invading his privacy. During a later dialogue amongst a bigger group, he then called me out in front of everyone, making some of my individual character stats drop. This is a small example of how the Butterfly Effect works in this game.

A few more hours into the game, (after a lot of bloodshed and deciding how deeply rooted my morals should play a part in my decision-making) I find myself as another character strapped in a chair with my crush sitting across from me. You see, earlier in the game I chose to save her from dying rather than my best friend, because you know…vagina. Anyways, she is begging me to shoot her and not myself, so I say ok (since I found her annoying as a character) and pull the trigger. Come to find out the gun had blanks and she wasn’t all to happy with my decision. A little while on, I am running from something in the game as this same character. I make it to the cabin after some intense, quick reacting, button mashing only to find the door locked. My character asks the girl I tried to shoot to let him in and she just stares at him, all pissed off like, until what was chasing me catches up and BOOM! Decapitated. I sat there for a minute thinking to myself, “Yep, how typical is this? This chick tells me to shoot her and so I do, only for it to not work and she ends up killing me instead because women like to hold grudges.”

Obviously I don’t want to give too much of the story away because it is amazing to be a part of, but damn is this game unforgiving. Since it uses the PS4 motion control ability in it’s controller, there are cut scenes where you literally are not supposed to move. To me this enhanced the tension that was built-in the game, especially when I was hiding from the killer. Having said that, it almost made me throw my controller across the room near the end of the game. I had spent nine hours playing this game straight through, doing everything I could to save Hayden Panettiere’s character (Because you know…the fappening), and I find her voice caused my inner teenager to get giddy thinking she’s talking to me….. Anyhow, I’m playing as her,  hiding behind this pillar with the camera focused on my left when the “Don’t Move” icon appears on my screen. I steady my breathing; make my muscles stiff, all to ensure that I do not move, and BANG! My dog jumps up on the couch and causes me to move. At that point, my dear sweet Hayden gets found, is knocked down, and a finger is shoved through her eye, into her brain, killing her instantly. I wanted to cry.

All in all, if you love games that are ever-changing, are a fan of horror movies, or want one of the most unforgiving experiences with a new re-styled gameplay, you definitely need to at least play though “Until Dawn” one time. If you are as addicted to as me once you start playing it, to where you do nothing for an entire night but play it from start to finish, then you need to buy it, like now. To be fair there are a few issues, which take away from the tension, but they aren’t deal breakers by any mean. Once I walked through a cement pillar in a cutscene another time my knee somehow managed to bend through rebar, but hey, what games don’t have these issues from time to time? Whether you have played it already, or play it in the future, make sure to comment with who in your group survived “Until Dawn”.

UPDATE: I recently went through the game a second time, well started to, and made the mistake of just replaying the episodes instead of starting a new story. For about three hours, everything was going right! I even got the character of Jess to be in her skivvies and was setting up the story to save everyone this time around. After making a certain decision I decided I wanted to do it another way and restarted the episode. As soon as the episode started over, I could tell something was just not right….Jess had her clothes back on. Apparently when replaying episodes, it picks up from your original save file, not the file that you have been rewriting as you go, so take heed, if you get a girl in her skivvies, don’t ask for a do over because those clothes will be back on in the blink of an eye…and then she will die. So save a naked women and stick to your choices.