E3 2015 Hands On — Until Dawn

Until Dawn

While At E3 I Was Able To See Until Dawn In A More Intimate Setting Than Just The Trailer. Here’s My Take On It

Not too long ago we were treated to the news that Until Dawn would be launching the on the PS4 on August 25^th. Not too long from now even though it misses the mark of the best month for horror titles. None the less it is and Supermassive Games was on the scene at E3 to show off more for Until Dawn and it wasn’t just a new character actor or short clip. In fact it was a whole new section for Until Dawn that takes place around chapter six of the game. Unlike the demos of the past we got to truly see a bit more on how the “butterfly effect” of the game will take place in not just the grand scheme of the game but even short little bits. All to make Until Dawn feel truly new for each player.

We were first treated to a “story up to now” that was generated for this demo of Until Dawn that showed a bit of what we saw at PSX as well as other events from chapters one to five. I think this is going to be how Until Dawn will load up when you continue play if you don’t dig right into the nine hours of gameplay and stick to it from start to finish. Either way it started off with two characters overlooking a cliff area and being cornered by a pack of deer. Well more a pack of bucks as they all had antlers and were being extremely territorial over said cliff. This of course led to a few choices to be made or ignored based on what you as the player of Until Dawn wanted to do.

My choice led me to being pushed off the cliff and struggling for my life as the male protagonist here in Until Dawn. After a few quick time events I was back at the top of the cliff and moving along with the herd completely dispersed. Re-watching this scene for other players is where I saw that choice does matter in Until Dawn. In fact there was a choice that could be made that would have allowed the group to pass the pack without incident. Or I could have failed the QTEs and the male would have fallen to his death and completely altered the ending of the chapter. Needless to say this showed off that Supermassive Games has made Until Dawn have a real cause and effect feel and outcome based on all of the choices.

As the rest of the demo continued for Until Dawn I did notice, even though I chose it at the beginning, that the option to not use the motion controls in the game made things feel just as one would expect them to be. I know at PSX this seemed to cause a lot of deaths and wrong choices as some of the motion controls didn’t sync up right or were just unnatural to perform with the controller. I am glad to see that this option is fully up and working as it made my Until Dawn experience multitude better as I didn’t have to struggle with the interpretive dance that on-screen controller was trying to get me to do. This also made it so I was sure both of the characters in this chapter made it to the destination alive and I wanted to keep it that way.

This of course leads to where those earlier choices I made came back in. Apparently had I not engaged the deer at the beginning both of my characters wouldn’t have fallen prey to the B-movie horror tropes that Until Dawn is aiming at and they would have found a few items to aid them along the way. Missing these meant that one of the character’s fates was completely sealed as there was no way to defend against the horror in Until Dawn. Also I missed out on what are being called Totems in the game. These items give the characters glimpses of their future which also trigger other events that could possibly save one or all of the characters in the game. Think along the lines of Final Destination and you’ll get what Until Dawn is going for there.

In the end sadly I was not able to save both characters in the chapter based on my poor choices and the consequences they brought with them. None the less though I was never made to feel like I lost Until Dawn but was only seeing the story I wanted to see in Until Dawn and that is what I see Supermassive Games going for here. If that was the end goal then it was completely achieved and I’ve only played a chapter and a half of the game so far. I can’t wait to see how many different ways each can be played so we can all see how Until Dawn plays out in every scenario available. In this chapter alone I saw a plethora so I can only imagine how the final game will be filled to the brim with choices as we wait Until Dawn… Sorry, I had to say it.

With the release of Until Dawn almost on us I have high hopes that we will get to see more on the characters and overall story we might get to play out here in short order. Of course we will have it all here on the site so keep tuned in here. As we were not able to capture this gameplay though our own means have a look at another’s play though of Until Dawn just below and note the differences between my play and theirs. There are so many options it hurts sometimes…