Looking back over the releases of 2015 it was a great year for gaming. I spent many hours walking the wastelands of the commonwealth and taking down super villians in gotham city. The thing is these are things Ive done time and time again but I cant remember that last time I controlled a computer generated avatar of Hayden Panettiere in a towel? But the wait was finally over in 2015 as Supermassive Games developed the PS4 exclusive Until Dawn.
The game tells the story of 10 friends who meet up at a lodge in the Blackwood Mountains in Alberta Canada which is owned by the parents of Josh and his twin sisters Hannah and Beth. The games prologue shows the friends getting very merry. Whilst Josh is passed out drunk the other friends prank Hannah into thinking she is going to sleep with one of the friends – Mike. When the other friends jump out she is humiliated and runs off into the woods. Her sister Beth goes after her and they are then chased by someone or something which eventually leads them to go toppling over the mountain side to their deaths.
The story picks up a year later with all the friends being brought back together at the same lodge by Josh who wants to remember his sisters by having a drunk sexy dancing party or so it seems!! The premise of the game is heavily built upon the idea of the ‘butterfly effect’ which is the theory that even the smallest action can have huge reactions the most recognisable example being a butterfly flapping its wings on one side of the world leading to a hurricane on the other.
Throughout the game you control the 8 remaining friends whilst they make their way up to the lodge and you make decisions on seemingly small things such as throwing a snowball at someone or going through a friends bag. Every decision made in the game effects something and its one of the first games I have played that this has rang true.
Once at the lodge that’s when things start to go wrong and every single slasher movie cliché occurs from false jump scares to the teenagers falling over and telling their friends to ‘go on without them’ but this isn’t a bad thing and it’s a great rollercoaster ride through the surprisingly lengthy game. It really is a fun well told story with twists and turns throughout and the game has a unique feature in that every single member of the group can make it to the end, they can all die or a mixture of the two meaning multiple playthroughs is a must.
Another reason why I loved playing this game is the fact that my wife played it with me. Now my wife is definitely not a gamer and the most she stretches to is candy crush saga but due to its realistic depictions of the actors playing the roles, the voice acting and the horror movie theme she loved it and it was great to share my gaming passion with her. To wrap up if you want a game that is funny, scary, great to look at and most importantly fun then I would definitely recommend Until dawn. It is a single player game but I feel its much better when played in a room full of your friends just make sure you have a PlayStation eye set up as it records certain jump scares and they are great to look back on!
Score 8/10
