Before you start reading, you should know that this review of the 2024 version of Until Dawn for PS5 is focused on those who have not played the original version released in 2015 for PlayStation 4. Although I will make some comparisons later, I will mainly dedicate myself to talking about the experience as someone who did not know this story.
Unlike the vast majority of horror games, we are not going to shoot enemies nor is it a stealth game in which we have to stay out of their sight. This is a graphic adventure in which the fate of the characters and the direction the story follows depends completely on the decisions we make at key moments. We are a kind of “screenwriters” who decide how the plot evolves and the best (or worst) way in which the distressed protagonists decide to face each situation.
The plot follows eight young people who travel to a cabin in the mountains to spend a few days of partying and fun. A year earlier, a terrible prank they participated in had terrible results. Two of her friends disappeared and this meeting is intended to be a way to get over what happened, but there is something strange about the place. Someone or something is besieging them from afar and soon they will begin to live a horrible experience.
Control the terror
Throughout 10 chapters we alternate control between the protagonists. We explore the scenarios looking for collectible objects that reveal details of the plot, we make decisions at specific moments and we participate in ‘quick time events’ (quickly pressing the button that appears on the screen). What we do can change the course of the plot. Some decisions will alter some dialogue or events, while others can determine which characters live or die.
The main strength of Until Dawn is his story, written by prolific screenwriter, actor, producer and director Larry Fessenden. This one kept me quite intrigued with its mix of subgenres and had some pretty surprising twists. On the other hand, its characters are very uncharismatic. The vast majority are annoying and selfish young people who only think about sex and having a good time. The ones that aren’t are stereotypes of the ‘final girl’, the ‘comic relief’, etc.
The decision-making part works quite well and much better than in other games with similar mechanics. The menus keep track of key decisions made, tell us what effects they had once they occur, and even give us statistics about important aspects of each character’s personality and how their relationship with others is going. Whenever we make a decision or fail a ‘quick time event’ we wonder how things would be different if we had done something differently, which prompts us to play again to see what’s different.
And here end the good things I have to say about this new version of Until Dawn in PS5.
An unnecessary “modernization”?
The impact that the realism of the graphics had on me was undone as soon as the characters started talking. The facial expressions and gesticulation are so exaggerated that they carry the uncanny valley effect to a new level. Some have a strange tendency to show their teeth in a way that looks unnatural and a little unpleasant. The direction of the ‘cinematic’ scenes may have a cinematic quality, but the “performances” destroy any impression they might give that this is a good horror film. This is a real shame considering that it has good level actors like Peter Stormare (Constantine
The Latin Spanish dubbing is mostly decent, but there are times when the chosen translations don’t fit well with the moment and are a bit embarrassing.
Controlling the characters is even more frustrating than watching them try to gesture naturally. Because of the simplicity of the scenarios and how basic the movements are—simply moving from one side to the other—it’s hard to understand why it’s so difficult to get a character to turn in the desired direction or stop to examine an object. As if that were not enough, many of the explorable locations are very dark and visually repetitive, making it difficult to know where we are going. I ended up getting lost several times.
Despite being a new version of an old game, this ‘remake’ of Until Dawn for PS5 it does not run at 60 fps (animation frames per second). It is true that this may be to maintain the “cinematic” style of the action, but it does not perform well with limited frames either.
At this point I started to wonder if the original 2015 version for PS4 had the same problems and why they didn’t fix them. Since I didn’t have access to a copy of that version and it can no longer be purchased digitally (PlayStation removed it when it released this remake), I started watching some walkthroughs on YouTube.
What I discovered surprised me quite a bit.
Until Dawn contra Until Dawn
The original version of Until Dawn Maybe it didn’t look as good as its ‘remake’ in terms of lighting and resolution, but it was a much more pleasant visual experience. The expressions and movements of the characters were much more natural and the problem of “teeth” had disappeared.
When playing the ‘remake’ it seemed to me that the camera behind the characters’ shoulders (in the style of Resident Evil 4) did not fit well with the exploration of the scenarios and made the already annoying control worse. I was surprised to discover that the original game had a completely different camera system and more similar to that of the classic ‘survival horror’. This is much more cinematic and allowed us to better appreciate the details of the settings. Since I didn’t play this version, I can’t know if the control system was better, but it seems so.
Those responsible for this new version of Until Dawn They surely thought that by making the game visually more similar to modern action and horror titles they could attract more attention. What a serious mistake. By trying to pass off an adventure title like this as a “shooting game” they ended up making it worse and unpleasant to play.
It’s a real crime that PlayStation removed the previous version from stores because that was definitely the superior version of this work. If you are interested in playing Until Dawn, I recommend that you look for the previous second-hand version which, in addition to being a better experience, will be cheaper.
This review is made using a digital copy of Until Dawn (2024) for PlayStation 5 provided by PlayStation. This game is also available for PC through Steam.
