Until Dawn (2015) is a slasher-type horror game where every decision you make can be the difference between life or death for 7 main characters. Created by Supermassive, it had and continues to have a cult following-myself included- and many are excited for this remaster, coming October 4th!
The game was originally released as a PlayStation exclusive and remained that way until now, where the remaster will be available on PC and PS5, and remains to be seen if it would get an Xbox release.
The company behind this remaster is actually not Supermassive, but Ballistic Moon taking charge, and aside from the game being reconfigured to Windows and PS5, It’s received a big overhaul on graphics and camera movements. The game already looked great for its time, having been released in 2015, but PlayStation released a comparison trailer that really highlights these changes.
The graphics have vastly improved an already great game, and they even implemented camera controls that makes the game a more traditional third person perspective. In the original game, the camera shots and movements are meant to mimic shots from a captivating movie, with some angles being quite far from your character, or in trees like a movie shot would be. You can also turn the camera all the way around in the remaster whereas it was limited perspective in the original.
Another addition I’m very excited for as an OG fan of this game is new scenes in the prologue that further contextualizes the relationship drama you witness and take part in with the characters. This is mainly in the prologue, but I wonder if there’s any subtle changes to other dialogue throughout the game. I also heard they revamped the dialogue of Beth in the prologue, which I’ll be glad for if they did because her dialogue always felt clunky and out of place compared to everyone else’s. However, since she’s only in the prologue it’s not very distracting throughout the game. Considering the trailer boasts a new soundtrack and audio design, I can only hope that’s the case.
Now, that’s all the confirmed changes to the game, and I have a few personal changes I hope they made to the game.
In Until Dawn, you follow many characters, namely Sam, Chris, Mike, Ashley, Matt, Emily, Jessica, and near the end, Josh. They’re all in a cabin in the snowy mountains owned by Josh and his family for a get together one year after the disappearance and presumed deaths of Josh’s sisters and their friends, Beth and Hannah. However, things quickly go haywire as there’s a crazed killer in the house, and eventually, a supernatural element comes into play, but it’s hinted at throughout the game that not all is what it seems. The goal as the player is to play as each character and save as many as you can. It’s a choice based game as well and your decisions can mean life or death for these characters. You can kill everyone, save everyone, or a little in between.
Back to some hopeful changes I have. Without spoiling too much, I wish that Josh can be saved. Besides Hannah and Beth, who always dies and serve as the catalyst to everything that occurs in the game, Josh is the only playable character you cannot save. He either dies or survives but not in the way you want him to. I would love it if Josh can be saved like everyone else could be, especially since he’s probably the most tragic character. I suppose either ending he gets is part of why he’s so tragic but he’s more than that.
Another small complaint is that after a certain turning point in the game, you do not play as Jessica until near the end as she’s mostly gone from the plot for a while and most characters believe she is the first casualty in the events of the game. You play as her one more time very briefly so I’m hoping they added new scenes for her. I have a similar complaint with Matt but he gets a little more screen time compared to Jessica.
I’m also very curious how they’ve changed some fundamental game mechanics. As it was only a PlayStation exclusive before, it had a mechanic of keeping the controller as still as possible in some scenes or something bad happened. As it’ll be released to PC and therefore people would choose to play with either a different controller or a keyboard, I wonder how they changed this element and what would be a good replacement for this mechanic. I personally always hated it because I don’t have very stable hands. I also have a personal grudge as this mechanic is a big sequence in the finale and I got two of my favorites killed because I couldn’t keep still.
Either way, I’m so excited to see this game get a remaster and hope new fans will come to the scene and see how fun and intriguing this game is. I’ll be eagerly awaiting its arrival in just a month.
