Join Liv as she shares one of her favorite horror games this spooky season!
Game: Until Dawn
Developer: Supermassive Games
Platform: PS4
Play Time: 27 hours
Until Dawn is the perfect horror game to play this year during Spooky Season! If you’re unfamiliar with Until Dawn, it’s a choice-based horror game where the goal is to survive the night. A group of friends return to a vacation home where one year prior there was a tragic accident. Something or someone, is out there in the woods. As the player, you switch between the groups of friends to experience different stretches of the night. Everything about the atmosphere is horrifying. Until Dawn doesn’t allow the player to relax even for an instant, sometimes you may be gathering intel and sometimes you think you may be in the game of Saw.
The cast of characters consists of the typical high school tropes that play into the group’s banter. You have the jock dating the prettiest girl and the nerd who has a crush on a girl but doesn’t have the courage to tell her. Everyone has their role and it’s up to you to determine if they reveal a different side of them. As stereotypical as the cast may sound, it is filled with familiar faces! Until Dawn stars Rami Malek and Hayden Panettiere to name a few, which may influence who your favorite character is!
I will never forget my first experience with Until Dawn. During my first year at college, I made friends with a person on the floor below me. He would regularly play games that had choices, so everyone in the room could decide which choice to make. This sparked a lot of debates during The Walking Dead playthroughs. Until Dawn was an entirely different beast. This game was my introduction to the survivor horror genre.
The atmosphere of Until Dawn is eerie on its own. The darkness of night shadowing the forest is spooky in itself. I remember how hesitant my friend was to move forward with the character in certain sections because of the uncertainty that was ahead. You never knew when there would be a jumpscare! Should you investigate the noise or ignore it? Should you block the door or hide? It is up to the player to choose which items to interact with as you weigh the consequences of your actions.
This was the first game that felt super interactive to me. With the TellTale Walking Dead games, it was a simple point-and-click with limited quick-time events for mini-games. Until Dawn allows you to inspect nearly everything in the environment. During your first playthrough, this may kill you. Just because you can click something, doesn’t mean you should. Curiosity may result in a few unfortunate events along the way, but after your first incident, you will have yourself thinking twice about every object for the rest of the game! The level of interactivity in Until Dawn leads to many jumpscares and questionable scenarios which is all a part of the fun!
This game is on another level of spooky when you’re playing alone. Depending on your choices throughout the game, various chapters may change. You will not see every scenario on your first playthrough of Until Dawn which encourages replayability. To this day, I firmly believe Until Dawn is Supermassive’s best game.
There may be a lot of spooky games to play this holiday season, but I highly suggest adding Until Dawn to your list! Whether you play alone or with friends, be ready for a night that you may never forget.
BIO: Liv writes for Podcasters United. When she's not gaming, she's watching sports! Looking for more of Liv’s video game and sports takes? Follow her over on Twitter: