Was it worth getting scared again? Until Dawn Remake review

Until Dawn (Remake) is an interactive film with horror elements that will leave you with a pleasant experience. The game has been heavily updated, so gg' s editorial team couldn't pass it up. The story about 8 teenagers trying to survive in a godforsaken place, although it looks cliché, has interesting plot twists, an exciting lore and a tense atmosphere that successfully keeps the player's attention. And the redesigned visuals thanks to Unreal Engine 5 constantly make you look at the wrinkles of the characters and the detail of objects. Add to this an extended prologue, new collectibles, and an improved camera, and you get a pretty good remake. The only thing I want to criticise is the lack of 60 fps on the PlayStation 5 and a few crash issues, but the most important question is whether this remake was really necessary. Yes, but it should have been more heavily advertised and not released in October.

Synopsis.

Eight young people meet in a remote mountain lodge a year after a tragic accident claimed the lives of two of their friends. As night falls, the group is trapped and hunted by mysterious forces. The game is based on the "butterfly effect", where every decision of the players, from the choice in the dialogue to the speed of your actions, changes the story and determines who will survive until dawn

5 reasons to buy Until Dawn

• An opportunity to get acquainted with the interactive film genre for those who have not played the original version of the game
• You like a non-fiction story where the future depends on your choice
• You like mystical stories
• Visually, the game has been radically updated, which makes it much better
• Star cast with Rami Malek, Peter Stormare, Hayden Panettiere, and others

2 reasons not to buy Until Dawn

• You're not ready to pay $60 for a remaster
• The Silent Hill 2 remake appeals to you more

Fast forward:

• What I learned after reviewing Until Dawn
• Plot: a prank that got out of control
• Gameplay: more watching than playing
• The technical side of Mount Washington
• How Until Dawn will be remembered
• Five things you need to know about Until Dawn

What I learned after reviewing Until Dawn

Ballistic Moon has a good remake. You can't expect Resident Evil 2 or Silent Hill 2 levels, but after completing it, you are left with a pleasant experience and thanks to some hints, you are now looking forward to the sequel. Of course, a lot of credit goes to Supermassive, who gave us this interesting story in 2015, but Ballistic managed to modernise the game and even add something of their own. However, there is one problem behind all this. Without proper advertising, the game simply did not see massive discussions and high sales, so Sony, if it releases remakes/remasters in the future, needs to do a better job of promoting this product so that players have a better understanding of why they should buy it.

I would also give the owners of the original game the opportunity to upgrade for $30 and definitely not release it 4 days before the release of Silent Hill 2. If the game was released, for example, in December, when there are not so many releases, and gave it more attention, the remake would be much better received by the public and people would talk about the game more actively.

The plot: a prank that got out of hand

February 2014, 10 young people: Josh, Samantha, Michael, Jessica, Chris, Ashley, Matt, Emily, as well as Beth and Hannah Washington (Josh's sisters), gathered on Mount Washington in the estate owned by Josh, Beth and Hannah's parents to have fun.

Hannah is in love with Michael, and the friends decide to play a prank on the girl, where Michael will seemingly agree to be together. However, the company's evil plan is quickly exposed, and Hannah runs away into the woods on emotion. Beth tries to catch up with her and calm her down, but it all ends in a tragic ending for the girls, as someone or something starts hunting for them, which leads to their deaths.

Exactly one year later, Josh decided to invite the company back to his estate to remember Beth and Hannah and have a good time. However, the company had no idea what had taken the lives of the two girls, so they found themselves trapped, where rescue would appear only at dawn, and the heroes had to live for 10 hours, hiding from a maniac, mysterious forces and trying to figure out what kind of cursed place it was.

The story turned out to be quite interesting. Elements of mysticism often make you not look away from the screen, but look for answers to all this mystery. Some plot twists can easily surprise the player, and sometimes the game can really scare you either with a screamer or tension, or all at once.

The most important thing in such projects is not to quibble with logic, because most horror games cannot exist without clichés. Why does Michael shoot a double-barreled shotgun 10 times without reloading, and why does Ashley wear short denim shorts and tights in February? There is a lot of this in the game, but I think there are projects where you have to forgive such things. And this applies to Highlanders the most.

The cast also helps the plot a lot. Rami Malek (Mr. Robot), Peter Stormare (Constantine), Hayden Panettiere (Remember the Titans), and others are a pleasure to watch. They all act really well, especially in the tense moments.

So together, all of this creates a memorable story that can be surprising and frightening at times. And after completing the game, you go to YouTube to watch videos on the game, because this world can really interest and attract the attention of even horror "fans" like me.

And although 95% of the plot remained unchanged in the remake, Ballistic Moon expanded the prologue, which was only good for the game, and added a new scene after the credits, so now we have a hint of a sequel.

Gameplay: more watching than playing

The peculiarity of the interactive cinema genre is that you constantly have to make a choice. And this choice will affect all the characters and the story in general. So it's up to you to decide who will survive until dawn and who will die.

Usually, you have to choose between option A and option B, but sometimes the best solution is to choose nothing at all. That's why Until Dawn pays a lot of attention to the "butterfly effect" - a concept that describes how small changes can have big and unpredictable consequences later.

And the biggest advantage of such games is that your playthrough and the playthrough of your friends will be very different. So it's always interesting to discuss how you acted in a given situation.

In addition to choices, you will also constantly have to participate in QTEs (Quick Time Events), when you need to press the right button quickly. Often, the lives of the characters also depend on it. So even one wrongly pressed button can mean death for a character.

And sometimes, in tense situations, the game will require you to not move at all. In this case, you have to hold the gamepad in one position, and if your hand shakes, the gyroscope will work and you will be noticed. And as you can imagine, this will also have its negative consequences, so at such moments you have to stand like a statue.

However, thanks to the accessibility options, you can make sure that QTEs always end successfully, and instead of holding the gamepad steady, you just need to deflect the gamepad stick in the right direction.

Time for collecting

In addition, most locations also have collectibles. Players can collect totems that give hints about what might happen next in the story. This can be a warning about the death of a character or a hint on how to proceed in the story.

You can also collect collectibles about a mysterious man who lives in the area, items about the events of 1952 that reveal the history of the world, and items about two sisters. A small spoiler: the life of one of the characters depends on collecting the latter.

Due to the fact that the locations are small, I collected 90% of the items myself without the help of YouTube, and it's really interesting to do this because they help you better understand the game's lore and answer many questions, so I don't advise you to run straight all the time. You just need to look in all possible nooks and crannies, be careful, and you will get the items.

What have you improved in the remake?

In the updated version, new Hunger totems were added, so the game has additional small areas to explore.

It is very important that the camera has been redesigned and now most of the angles are "over the shoulder" (as in 3rd person games). Personally, I find it much more enjoyable to play this way and it helps me to immerse myself in this world.

They also added DualSense features, such as adaptive triggers. The phrase "it's a small thing, but it's nice" is appropriate here.

How does Until Dawn play in general?

Ballistic Moon decided not to reinvent the wheel, but only to improve some aspects, and it was the best decision. Until Dawn has a good understanding of the interactive film formula. Your choices really affect the plot, QTEs force you to react quickly, and moments when you don't have to move create tension. And in between, you're allowed to explore different locations where you can find all sorts of interesting things. Thanks to all of this, Until Dawn is one of those games that can be recommended both to people who were not familiar with this genre and to those who have experienced fiction cinema for the first time.

The technical side of Mount Washington

However, the game is not so good with optimisation. Twice on PlayStation 5, it crashed for no reason. It's good that it happened a couple of seconds after I saved and I didn't lose progress, but it was still an unpleasant experience when the game decided it was time to stop working.

I also didn't like the fact that the game only runs at 30 fps on PlayStation 5. I understand that this is not so critical for interactive cinema, but I would still like to have a choice. Especially when the publisher of the game and the console where it is released is the same company.

I didn't encounter a single bug during the entire game, but the game clearly needs at least one more update to fix the crash issues.

Unreal Engine 5 is refreshing

The visuals of the game have undergone the most changes. The remake was created using the Unreal Engine 5 engine. The game has updated character models, environments, objects, visual effects, and animations.

One of our key visual enhancements for Until Dawn was the improved character models. From now on, a screenshot of the characters from a distance may seem like a still from a film. They have better animation, movements are more realistic, cuts, bruises, tears, snow and water are better visible.

Visually, I have 0 complaints about the game. And although some people don't like the fact that the game has lost its blue colour filter, I like the new version of Until Dawn better visually. The remake has a very beautiful look, where you just stop to look at everything around you, so the developers can only be praised here.

Audio has been changed

The game has also undergone changes to the music. For example, there is no longer an O' Death track. Instead, Out of The Shadows sounds. Although some players didn't like it, I like both tracks equally.

As for the rest of the sounds, I have no complaints either. All the characters sound good, as does the environment. At the same time, there are enough sounds that cause tension, scare and enhance the atmosphere well.

How Until Dawn will be remembered

Until Dawn will be remembered as a good remake, where they decided to leave the already good story and gameplay almost untouched, but only adjust these elements, but the authors worked hard on the visuals and the game looks very beautiful. In general, I got a lot of emotions while playing the game. It was scary, interesting, sometimes there was a lot of tension, and you worry about some of the characters and try to do everything you can to save them.

So can I recommend the game? If you like horror and interactive cinema, yes. If you've been watching the game since the original release and you only have a PC - yes. If you're a fan of Until Dawn in general, but find the PS4 version outdated, then of course yes. However, if you're not ready to pay $60 for the remake, which is understandable, especially given the busy October, it's better to wait for discounts and then dive into the mysterious story on Mount Washington.

Five things you need to know about Until Dawn

• Until Dawn is an interactive film game
• The remake of the horror game was made not by Supermassive but by a new studio Ballistic Moon
• The game tells a mysterious story about strange events on Mount Washington that a group of teenagers is trying to survive
• Even a small decision you make can have large-scale consequences for the plot later on
• The game has been greatly modernised visually thanks to Unreal Engine 5

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