Until Dawn - Not just ordinary American teenage horror

When it was first announced, Until Dawn felt like most ordinary survival horror. It is said to have a Hollywood teen horror-style story, you are treated to a story about a group of teenagers who gather in one cabin, criminals lurking, dense forests with shrouding mysteries. Very mainstream! But as soon as this game was released and then tasted it… Wow! Turns out this game is really good!! Not only from the graphics, which are really good, but also the story and games are really fun. So how exciting is it to survive while collecting mystery pieces in Until Dawn?

Butterfly Effects
This game follows the story of 8 teenagers who are reunited in a cabin in a snowy mountain, a year after the disappearance of their two friends, Hannah and Beth. The plan is that the eight teenagers will hold a party which also aims to commemorate the disappearance of Hannah and Beth. With the personalities of each character being different, there is a fight that makes them have to be separated from each other. And we know what happens to a group that splits apart in a horror movie, right? The teenagers are then trapped in terrible surprises that occur in the forest, ranging from a masked figure who continues to stalk, to a terrible creature that thirsts for blood.

In this game you will take turns as the 8 teenagers. Whoever you control, gamers must explore as often as possible in the area being tread. There are many collectible items that can be collected in each area to get a little bit of information about what happened a year ago or what is stalking the teenagers. Starting from newspaper clippings, photos with bloodstains to a number of totems. Uniquely, if you manage to find a totem, players will see pieces of events from a character according to the type of totem. If the totem is a death totem, you will see a brief scene of the death of one of the characters. This totem is quite helpful for you in making decisions. So for example, when playing a character who looks like he was burned to death in a totem, then you have to be careful when using things related to fire.

Each character has their own characteristics that can change according to the decisions made by you. An example is the character of Samantha who has great courage. When you are faced with a stressful situation and have to choose between a risky or a safe choice. By continuing to choose the safe path, Samantha’s courage will decline. Not only that, the dialogue choices you choose when communicating with other characters will affect your relationship with these characters. Each character also has its own storyline and the various choices you choose throughout the game will affect not only the storyline of the character you play, but also the storyline of other characters. This should make you smart in choosing various dialogue or action options in this game because it can determine whether the story of this game will have a happy or tragic ending.

Not only that can change the story. Later in each chapter gamers will visit a mysterious psychiatrist’s office. The psychiatrist will be “forced” to choose between snakes and spiders, knives and syringes, to ghosts and zombies. All the things you choose will determine the horror experience you will feel in the game. For example, when you choose a knife as a feared object, the attacking character in this game will use a knife when attacking and much more. And remember, once you’ve made a decision there’s no turning back.

Up and Down Emotions
The most interesting thing about this game is how the developer managed to scare the players into guessing what the opponent really is because it will not appear until the game is really over. Not only that, the developer has also succeeded in building various emotions that will be felt by the players. You will be invited to relax after the jumpscare scene and when you feel the game is calm, suddenly various jumpscares appear non-stop. This makes the players will always feel scared throughout the game because they can’t guess what will appear next.

Not only that, a surge of emotions will also attack the players when making choices that have an impact on the character being played. For example, when deciding between closing the door or running immediately when the attacker arrives. Does closing the door kill the attacker successfully or will it even give you time to run? It’s even more tense when you are only given a short time to make that choice and it will be very painful if your decision makes your favorite character who should be safe even die in a pretty tragic way.

Verdict
It has charming graphic quality, everything in Until Dawn looks very beautiful and detailed. Starting from the wood texture that is very visible in the cabin to the various expressions that emerge from the characters, it feels so amazing. This is then supported by the acting of the voice actors who also play a role in producing the facial expressions of each character. No half-hearted, famous Hollywood actors and actresses who play each character in this game. Names such as Hayden Panettiere (Heroes), Brett Dalton (Agent SHIELD) to Rami Malek (Night at The Museum) maximally give their acting in this game.

Until Dawn is a survival horror game that even though it has a story that is quite marketable in the world of teen horror films, it is certain that this game will still scare you throughout the game. Various variations of the storyline for each character to the ending variations in this game, make the players will continue to play this game just to find out all the storylines and their endings. It’s highly recommended especially for horror lover!!

Overall Score: 8/10

Publisher: Sony Computer Entertainment
Developer: Supermassive Games
Genre: Survival Horror, Adventure
Release: August 2015
Platform: PlayStation 4

Share :