Like a lot of people my age, I grew up watching gameplay videos and was immensely invested in YouTubers. On top of that, I was equally invested in horror and thriller stories, so it became a large hobby of mine to watch videos of YouTubers playing horror video games—I had no gaming consoles and was more interested in watching someone play the games instead of playing them myself. I became invested in video games such as the “Outlast” series, “Five Nights at Freddy’s,” and story-based video games that I would treat as films.
That’s why the recent news of the infamous interactive horror video game “Until Dawn” having a movie in the works, as well as moving to PC, had me incredibly excited and eager to see how the choice-based game will translate on the big screen. After “Five Nights At Freddy’s” was released in 2023, I’ve been grateful to see the video games that were transformative to my younger years follow me into my 20s. On top of that, seeing the video games show up again on social media piqued my interest in the games itself, so I decided to revisit “Until Dawn.”
“Until Dawn” is considered a paramount horror game with its intersecting characters, narratives, and tense moments that leave the player on the edge of their seat throughout the entire playthrough. Released in the fall of 2015 on PS4, the game follows eight friends with a dark shared past. At a cabin in the mountains, one friend, Hannah, was humiliated by the others and tragedy struck when she fell off a mountain cliff side. After the presumed death, Hannah’s brother decides to reunite the group at the same cabin where the incident happened, but it comes to light that they are being stalked by something—either human or otherworldly. Things take drastic turns when the group gradually gets separated from each other, and it is up to the player to see where the story unfolds.
“Until Dawn” was released during a time where story-based video games was at their peak. Within the 2010s, other infamous video games, such as “The Walking Dead” video game, “Life is Strange,” “Outlast,” and “Detroit: Become Human” incorporated the butterfly effect for their characters. Essentially, players were given gameplay choices that would impact the storyline later in the game and the availability of other choices. Perhaps the most memorable part of this gameplay mechanic was that the games would have several viable endings, resulting in players having a different overall story and being able to compare their endings to each other. “Until Dawn” allowed players to play as several characters and choose their actions, resulting in different storylines among the characters. There are disputes on which ending is the “true” ending, though there are a total of 256 different endings solely based on which characters survive or not.
I found the various characters in “Until Dawn” to be incredibly interesting and personable. All of them have different relationships with each other, which gives the game more drama and personal investment. I also found that while certain characters have negative traits, I wasn’t able to hate any of them fully. Playing as all of the characters at some point or another makes you put yourself in the characters shoes, and understanding their limited point of view is enlightening to how and why they react. They also influencing your own choices, such as saving certain characters or not.
One of my favorite aspects of the video game, besides the butterfly effect, are the overlapping stories that leave both the characters and the player unsure of what is really going on. The game’s main antagonists are cryptids called wendigos—supernatural creatures that were previously humans. A person, according to folklore and the game itself, transforms into a wendigo if they eat another human. Within the game, you are only able to understand the prevalence of wendigos through a series of short story snippets, which are only possible to see if you collect parts of totems within the game. The cuts and the background story, incorporating other unnamed characters, add more depth to the game and overall backstory that makes the game more interesting and terrifying. Throughout the game, there are series of red herrings and narrative dead-ends, further allowing the player to try and solve the overall puzzle.
I believe that “Until Dawn” is best enjoyed if you go into it with as little detail as possible. If you’re interested in drama, horror, and thrillers with complex storylines and many intriguing characters, definitely consider getting into the lore and story of “Until Dawn.” With the film adaptation officially in the works, it will continue to fascinate new and old fans, as it has definitely stood the test of time as an amazing horror story.