I discovered the lore of Until Dawn (a PlayStation horror game) last year and fell in love with the variety of endings and choices you can make throughout the game. Recently, I was able to play it fully through with some of my friends, and I was baffled at who I did and didn’t save at the end of the game. To preface, the game is based on a group of friends who visited their friends Josh, Hannah, and Beth’s family cabin on a mountain. A year prior, the group pulled a prank on Hannah, causing her to run into the woods; her sister Beth attempts to bring her back to the cabin, but they soon find themselves chased by something and end up caught on the edge of a cliff and eventually fall. A year later, Josh (Beth and Hannah’s brother) invites them back to the cabin to reconnect after his sister’s death the year prior. However, the group finds themselves spending the night attempting to survive until Dawn is chased by a killer and creatures until help arrives at dawn. The player gets to play as all the characters in the game and make choices offered in the game to keep them alive and change their relationship with the other characters.
In this game, there are a lot of moral and ethical dilemmas with the choices you make. For example, Emily gets bitten by a creature, and everyone believes she will change into one if they do not kill her. As Mike, you get to decide to shoot Emily or not. These decisions affect how the other characters will view Mike and how they move forward as a group. While it is a gruesome game determined to challenge the player, I think it’s very interesting to see how these events affect the characters and change their moral character.
During my play-through, I accidentally killed two characters, Matt and Jessica, which both were mistakes that I could have avoided…I first was playing as Matt, who was attempting to get help with Emily, when suddenly they were cornered by a herd of elk on a cliff. I was calm while walking past the elk without any problem, then a hit point popped up on one of the elk, and I didn’t realize that it meant I was hitting the elk with an axe and… the entire herd attacked Matt and he fell off the cliff. I know! I was stupid for thinking that it wasn’t going to hurt the elk, but I was panicking to get them out of that situation. With Jessica, near the beginning, she gets attacked by something and dragged into the mines; Mike follows and finds Jessica in a mine elevator, but when he goes to grab her, the elevator collapses, and she is left further in the mine. When I was playing as her, she woke up in the mines and attempted to get out, but she was chased by something. Instead of hiding, I chose to run. Obviously, being attacked, dragged into a mine, and falling in an elevator shaft did not make her a good runner, and she is attacked again and dies… One thing I learned while playing as most of the characters is that it’s better to hide than to make a run for it.
I would recommend this game to others if they are interested in a story that is drama-filled, involves character development and conflict, and want to learn the legend of Wendigos and Native American beliefs about them. For example, in the beginning, I didn’t really like Mike because it is suggested that he is cheating on Jessica with Emily (who is his ex), and he was honestly just a jerk. He also played a part in the prank on Hannah because she had a crush on him and thought he wanted to hook up with her. However, throughout the rest of the night, he helps protect the group, attempting to rescue Jessica and going to find the key to the cable car while the others are in the basement.
The butterfly effect presented in the game can change the events so much that it would make or break what happens next; one event I knew before playing is when Ashley is catching up to Sam, Chris, and Emily in the tunnels heading towards the mines to go find Mike, she hears someone calling for help. She thinks it’s Jessica, and if you decide to go help her, it turns out not to be Jessica but a Wendigo who is mimicking Jessica’s voice to lure her. it kills Ashley; however, if you decide to ignore it, Ashley can catch up with the others.
Recently, the movie based on this game was announced, and the trailer was released. However, Until Dawn fans have been quite upset with how the plot has been portrayed, because the plot is nothing like the game at all. In the game, the group is trapped on a mountain resort being attacked by a stalker and creatures called Wendigos. But the new movie adaptation has them stuck in a time loop where they are being attacked by different creatures and monsters in a house, and they cannot escape unless they make it Until Dawn. Since it has a completely different plot line than in the game, many fans of the game are questioning why they would make a movie adaptation when all that is similar between the two is the title.
If you are a PlayStation user and need a new horror game to play, I highly recommend Until Dawn; it is a well-done, versatile game that has lots of underlying concepts and plot points.