Until Dawn is the latest PlayStation title to break Sony’s exclusivity barrier with a PS5/PC remake. And what a better time to drop this particular horror title than the month of October. Branching narrative games are a known quantity at this point, but when Until Dawn released back in 2015, it showed what high production values and meaningful decision making could add to the genre. Upon seeing the announcement that Until Dawn would be getting a remake, I admittedly thought, “Why update what was already fine to begin with?” But as we’ll see, the new additions substantially add to the original experience in exciting ways. Until Dawn isn’t just receiving a pretty graphical upgrade; the inclusion of a dynamic third-person camera along with new collectables and reframed cinematics make this a title worthy of being classified as a wholesale remake.
Before going over the additions and differences between the cult classic original and this PS5/PC remake, let’s briefly reminisce on what made Until Dawn so enticing. If you like horror flicks like Cabin in the Woods, you’ll feel right at home with Until Dawn’s premise and setting. The story follows eight teenagers who become ensnared in a web of horrific circumstances while staying in a cabin resort in the scenic Blackwood Mountains. Your goal is to keep as many characters alive by the end as possible, but It’s likely that you’ll end up killing all eight characters if your decision-making is poor. Quick-time events and narrative choices make up the gameplay, as well as good old atmospheric exploration. As we’ll see, the remake makes exploration even better by replacing the old static camera with an over-the-shoulder one you can fully control. And with that, let’s discuss the host of new additions this PC/PS5 remake is bringing us on October 4th.
The team at Ballistic Moon ensured this wasn’t just a lazy 1-to-1 PC port, and that effort is made immediately clear upon seeing the game’s prologue. There’s entirely new sequences here that didn’t exist in the original’s prologue, most of them providing additional context for the Washington family while filling in small details that expand the original’s narrative. The team assures us that they didn’t alter the story in any significant way, but there’s also some surprising twists in the way some scenes are shot and framed throughout that make this a more fleshed out narrative than the original.
Speaking of framing, the entire camera has been re-worked. You can now finally move the camera around the character in an over-the-shoulder perspective. Lest we forget, the original Until Dawn featured a fixed camera reminiscent of old PS2 horror games. It’ll be fun to explore the spooky environments of Blackwood Mountain and its cabin with full camera control now.
Facilitating the new controllable camera are a host of new collectibles sequestered throughout the environments. Hunger Totems are brand new collectibles which give the player new visions, either of future character deaths or something entirely unexpected. All the old Totem collectibles also return but are scattered in completely new locations. Being able to finally move the camera in any direction opens up a world of perspective, so it’s understandable why the team re-arranged all the collectibles from the ground up to accommodate it. I for one am looking forward to this new scavenger hunt that the controllable camera brings with it and seeing nooks and crannies within the Blackwood Mountains that weren’t visible with the old game’s static camera.
Until Dawn didn’t look shabby back on the PS4. The 2015 cult horror title originally utilized Guerrilla Games’ versatile Decima engine. Until Dawn marked a sort of graphical revolution in the genre of branching narrative horror games back in the day, and the remake looks to evolve all of that from the ground up. Yes, that’s right, Until Dawn’s 2024 remake ditches the tried and true Decima engine for Unreal Engine 5, and the results are about what you’d expect. As seen from the trailers, shadows project more realistically from surfaces and illumination from the moon and characters’ flashlights create a far more atmospheric mood than its PS4 version.
But the game hasn’t just been re-lit, the cast of characters are newly rendered as well as the environments themselves. There’s simply more detail this time around, with pores and beads of sweet easily discernable on characters’ faces and rich foliage looking three times as full. I’m especially glad that they kept the characters faithful to the original. We all know how companies these days just can’t help themselves with altering a beloved character design in ground-up remakes, but everybody in Until Dawn looks exactly as they did in the original, just enhanced with improved textures and emotional nuances.
What really brings these characters to life is the animations, and they too have been retooled and improved here. The PlayStation Blog post says that pre-rendering simulation techniques are being used to make the death animations as brutally realistic as possible. This remake won’t disappoint in the gore department; thanks for grossing us out even more, Unreal Engine 5! Even before the naive cast of characters meet an untimely end, they’ll be covered in cuts and bruises that progress with the story thanks to the updated injury mask system employed in the remake.
Another aspect that brings the experience to life is the newly configured DualSense functionality. You’ll be able to feel the tension of Until Dawn’s spooky moments through the controller’s haptic feedback and adaptive triggers. Being able to feel the rapid heartbeat of the characters through the controller’s weighted vibrations will surely make the experience that much more immersive. Likewise, I can already imagine scenarios where you’re slowly propping open a door to get a lay of the land while the triggers resist your push with weighted feedback. Jump scares are sure to be that much more impactful due to the heightened rumble featured in the DuelSense controller, so get ready to jump out of your seat if you’re playing in the dark.
If you don’t want to deal with the extra stress involved with quick time events and sections requiring you to halt all controller movement, this remake adds plenty of accessibility settings to accommodate. Of particular interest is the new Don’t Panic! feature which serves as an alternative to those Don’t Move! moments in the game. It’s specially made for peripherals without a gyroscope, but also can be turned on just to experience something more relaxed.
The final big change with this remake is the newly scored soundtrack. The original composer, Jason Graves, is replaced by composer Mark Korven. Graves’ original soundtrack set the Cabin in the Woods tone perfectly, so it’ll be interesting to hear how Korven’s new score adds extra ambiance and tension to the enhanced experience. Obviously, this choice to replace the soundtrack wholesale might be disappointing to a lot of fans. I’m hoping there’s an option to play the original soundtrack somewhere in the game and it’s not a paid DLC later down the line. If the original soundtrack is just ditched completely, the new score better be darn good to replace Graves’ great work.
But there is one positive that the re-scored soundtrack assures us of; Ballistic Moon’s work here is a true ground-up remake and not a half-hearted effort. Scoring a whole new soundtrack is no light addition, and the controllable over-the-shoulder camera changes up the gameplay and perspective in entirely new ways. Players returning to the horrors of Blackwood Mountain have quite a lot of new content to discover. And new players who don’t have access to PlayStation consoles now get to experience the cult classic with a fresh coat of Unreal Engine 5 paint, filled to the brim with new accessibility features and modern upgrades. Until Dawn may be a nine year old game at this point, and Supermassive’s choice-driven narrative formula has been tried and tested for nigh-on a decade, but Until Dawn still stands as a magnum opus worthy of an entirely new audience.
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