Maroc - 3RD-STRIKE.COM - A La Une - 30/Oct 04:09

Until Dawn – Review

It has nearly been a decade since Until Dawn was released on PlayStation 4, and it’s needless to say that the game was a huge success. The combination of survival horror elements with an interactive drama formula allowed veteran gamers and casual gaming enthusiasts to enjoy this creepy gem. Now, Sony has decided to release the game, albeit with some updated visuals, minor story changes, and of course, brand-new content for players to experience. That being said, with so many other games clamoring for the remaster or remake treatment, was this a title the fans truly wanted? As this is a decade-old title with a new lick of paint and additional content, we’ll mainly focus on those items for this review. Unexpectedly, this remaster of the 2015 title with the same name is in essence pretty much the same game. Graphical updates have been done, some gameplay elements have been slightly reworked, and content has been added. Other than that, you’re still getting pretty much the same experience as you did nearly a decade ago. Until Dawn is a survival horror game with a heavy focus on its narrative and giving the players the choice to shape the story as they see fit. This means that no two playthroughs will be the same, and this simply adds so much replay value to the experience. If you missed Until Dawn when it came out in 2015, then you can easily compare it to The Dark Pictures Anthology games or The Quarry. This means that gameplay comes second to the story, and this is also noticeable when having to work with clunky controls and segments that rely on QTEs (quicktime-events). Even with the clunky controls, Until Dawn has a lot to offer, especially if you haven’t played the original yet. Even this early in the review, we can easily already tell you to perhaps look for a secondhand copy of the original PS4 title, if you don’t want to dish out full price for this remaster. We personally feel it will probably provide you with nearly the same experience. As we mentioned before, the graphics have been updated to give gamers a real PS5 experience of this bonafide classic. For the most part, it was great to see how certain backdrops looked even crisper, and even the characters sometimes looked lifelike, albeit with some uncanny valley features. Even though it has been a while since we last played the original, we also noticed a few flaws here and there. Some facial animations still looked extremely janky, and this stood out even more with the updated textures. Lighting also received a bit of a downgrade, where some areas felt a lot darker while others felt somewhat overexposed. These issues were only minor, but we also noticed a few frame drops here and there, which was a shame for a cinematic experience such as this. The problem doesn’t lie with the fact that Until Dawn isn’t a good game, as it clearly withstood the test of time and is still an amazing title to play through. It’s even a great title to simply replay every few years in order to see what different scenes you can unlock and perhaps what different endings you can get. We can commend Sony for releasing this title with a few more modern features and some additional content, but this was one of those titles that didn’t really need a remastered version. Other games should be higher on the list to receive a remaster or remake treatment. With our Horizon Zero Dawn Remastered review on the horizon (no pun intended), it seems that Sony is focusing on bringing a few of their fairly ‘recent’ heavy hitters to modern platforms. While this is nice by itself, we would probably love to see a few other and older titles get a second lease on life first. We felt that this wasn’t exactly a high-priority title to remaster. Conclusion Until Dawn’s new lick of paint and layer of varnish make it undoubtedly shine for the current generation of gamers who missed this gem nearly a decade ago. The original, however, stands just as tall on its own. Because of this, the remastered version will only cater to an audience that didn’t own the original when it came out or gamers who want to play a dedicated next-gen version of the game. Even so, Until Dawn is a great game through and through, even with a few technical issues popping up here and there. If you don’t own the 2015 version yet and don’t mind paying the equivalent of a triple-A release, however, then we can easily recommend getting the new and improved version, and you won’t be disappointed. If you already own the PS4 version, it’s just as much fun playing through the original again.