This review contains spoilers
The reason why you never see successful horror movies try to mix the tropes of Slasher Films, Monster Horror, and Historic Criminal Conspiracies into one plot is because that's too much shit to cram into a film and keep everything on track. Ghostface can't ALSO be chasing people around in the background of The Thing.
UNTIL DAWN tries this juggling act and flops, while also failing at getting you interested in the fates of its mostly unlikeable cast. Seriously, when you start your narrative off showing 80% of the cast participating in a prank that hinges on sexual exploitation, why would I WANT to ensure that any of them live? It's like this game was initially set up to put you in the shoes of a horror movie villain, picking off the cast as you please, until someone lost their nerve and was like "Give people the choice, but ENCOURAGE them to save everyone!"
The world-exploration aspects are very slow, and not entirely satisfying. RESIDENT EVIL 1 level controls make moving around any of the areas a chore. Some sections, like the 2-chapter long hike to the second cabin, drag out so badly that I wished this was an actual movie I could fast-forward through. Said experiences are made even more excruciating by the AWFUL dialogue. These characters say cringe lines that seem to have been mixed by dumping bottom tier Joss Whedon clichés into a blender with mid-2000s MTV Reality Show attitude. "Could you not hear me over your sluttiness?!" was a spoken retort that made my wife lean in from the other room and ask "What the hell are you watching?"
And at the end of it all is the not really expansive choice system. A game that touts the possibilities of using "The Butterfly Effect" to change future events in dozens of different ways is kneecapped by the fact that this is a game with a set throughline of events. You don't get to pick IF you want to go to the unsafe looking emergency tower or not, you get to pick if you go to the tower with your girlfriend mad at you, or with her in a good mood. There's literally a point where I was like "Wait, I wanted to save that one character, give me that choice," but Until Dawn is like "NOPE, you need to be ushered along towards the "dark conspiracy of the past" section of the story, so you're not allowed to make the logical second choice." Possibility teased, freedom denied.
The funniest thought I had playing is that this is likely the only time in history that Hayden Panettiere would receive higher cast billing than Rami Malek.
UNTIL DAWN tries this juggling act and flops, while also failing at getting you interested in the fates of its mostly unlikeable cast. Seriously, when you start your narrative off showing 80% of the cast participating in a prank that hinges on sexual exploitation, why would I WANT to ensure that any of them live? It's like this game was initially set up to put you in the shoes of a horror movie villain, picking off the cast as you please, until someone lost their nerve and was like "Give people the choice, but ENCOURAGE them to save everyone!"
The world-exploration aspects are very slow, and not entirely satisfying. RESIDENT EVIL 1 level controls make moving around any of the areas a chore. Some sections, like the 2-chapter long hike to the second cabin, drag out so badly that I wished this was an actual movie I could fast-forward through. Said experiences are made even more excruciating by the AWFUL dialogue. These characters say cringe lines that seem to have been mixed by dumping bottom tier Joss Whedon clichés into a blender with mid-2000s MTV Reality Show attitude. "Could you not hear me over your sluttiness?!" was a spoken retort that made my wife lean in from the other room and ask "What the hell are you watching?"
And at the end of it all is the not really expansive choice system. A game that touts the possibilities of using "The Butterfly Effect" to change future events in dozens of different ways is kneecapped by the fact that this is a game with a set throughline of events. You don't get to pick IF you want to go to the unsafe looking emergency tower or not, you get to pick if you go to the tower with your girlfriend mad at you, or with her in a good mood. There's literally a point where I was like "Wait, I wanted to save that one character, give me that choice," but Until Dawn is like "NOPE, you need to be ushered along towards the "dark conspiracy of the past" section of the story, so you're not allowed to make the logical second choice." Possibility teased, freedom denied.
The funniest thought I had playing is that this is likely the only time in history that Hayden Panettiere would receive higher cast billing than Rami Malek.
Reviewed on Oct 06, 2022