I’m going to start this review of the Until Dawn remake with one sentence: Deep down, I don’t understand it. The original was released in 2015 and since it is a supermassive project revolving around a narrative horror story, the gameplay, graphics and performance are stable and working well to this day. This isn’t a title from the early 2000s that looks very dated compared to modern alternatives, but rather a game that works well and is easily accessible and has been remade for some reason. The fan in me hates that this happened because it means resources and time were spent creating a project that no one really wanted or needed, but here we are. Aside from that: How does the “Until Dawn” remake actually present itself?
As expected, at least in the PS5 version, quite good. Developer Ballistic Moon has taken arguably the best story from Supermassive and rebuilt it from the ground up in Unreal Engine 5. This means that the door has been opened to some truly impressive and impactful visuals, enhanced and supported by cinematic efforts and immersive elements and much more detailed designs that make Until Dawn a truly immersive experience. The graphics are more realistic, vibrant and detailed than ever before, the environments and level design have a depth that didn’t exist before, the camera angle has been adjusted to provide a wider viewing angle, and the lighting has been significantly improved to create shadows more precise and darker areas even more eerie and claustrophobic, and the soundscape has been adjusted to be even richer, making the screams of the wendigos in particular even more frightening.
Whether you’re crawling through abandoned mine shafts as Emily, running through a ruined asylum as Mike, running through the snow as Matt, or enjoying a hot bath as Sam, this enhanced version of Until Dawn has a complexity and depth that brings it closer to home ever before to a film. Facial and character movement animations are more emotive, quick sequences are less frustrating, the use of camera angles and different aspect ratios create a cinematic feel, all in addition to new content such as reworked narrative elements and rethought scenes to increase the fear factor and increase the emotional complexity of the game. If the game wasn’t limited to 30fps and still experienced occasional frame drops, this version of Until Dawn would be a high quality remake in terms of performance.
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One aspect that left me a little less impressed, however, is that despite being a full-fledged remake, Ballistic Moon still hasn’t solved the movement dilemma that Until Dawn faced and that players are struggling with in general . You often feel like you’re fighting against the movement and control scheme to get the characters to do basic things, and this is particularly noticeable when wandering the narrow corridors of the lodge. In addition, there are tight mechanics “Don’t move.” This attempts to make the most of the DualSense’s motion elements, but can fail and die by its sword if desired, as the controller’s haptic capabilities often cause it to “cannibalize” and register movement when you’re not physically moving. Of course, this last problem is minor and can be avoided by resorting to the analog stick format for mechanics when necessary.
When viewed as a standalone game, Until Dawn Remake has a lot to offer. Its 4K graphics and improved lighting, smooth action between scenes thanks to the PS5’s SSD, use of all immersive DualSense features, improved audio profile, adjusted camera angle and retouched scenes – all make it a high-quality horror experience and confirm Until Dawn as supermassive so far best project. However, the original game is no slouch in many of these metrics. The improvements don’t make it a must-buy and the original a relic to avoid at all costs, because honestly, Until Dawn isn’t a game that felt like it needed a full-fledged remake… yet.
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If you have the original in your library and have £10 to spare for this update, there’s a lot to love, but if you have to choose between the 2015 original and this one, don’t think the new price of £70 is every penny worth it, is still a title that you can find online and in many video game stores for a quarter of the price and still enjoy easily.
