Hands-on with Until Dawn: it has potential to be something special

The odds are that even if you’d played something they’ve worked on, you’ve never heard of Supermassive Games, and there’s a good reason for that.

It’s not that their past works have been bad per se; they’re just a relatively small indie studio primarily responsible for a number of ports as well as a few other odds and ends. And who ever notices those guys – no offence Supermassive Games.

Now, however, with survival horror Until Dawn, they’re taking on an altogether more ambitious project.

Having had the opportunity to get some hands-on time with Until Dawn recently, I’m really quite excited for the finished product.

That’s not to say that it’s perfect, not by a long shot, but it’s something different. It’s a breath of fresh air… should you get the chance to catch your breath that is.

Until Dawn is a horror game through-and-through, and aims to scare as many of its players as it can. Heck, the marketing campaign for the game is based on frightening as many of us as it could and subsequently recording our reactions.

My colleague, much to her dismay, was pretty susceptible to Until Dawn’s frights, having leaped out of her chair a number of times, her headset and gamepad clinging on for dear life.

Rather unfortunately for Supermassive Games, I’m made of sturdier stuff and less susceptible to the array of jump scares the preview code had in store for us. It’s not that I didn’t get the odd fright or two, but they were fleeting at best and never quite got my heart racing.

The two factors that most detracted from the horror of Until Dawn was frustrating character movement, with characters often feeling rigid in their response to your actions and a little incomprehensible at times, and just way too many predictable “jump scares”.

It’s difficult to be frightened when, as a veteran gamer, you’re fighting with the controls, a situation that will quickly draw you away from what is actually a fantastically told and established atmosphere.

On the other hand, my colleague, who isn’t much of a gamer at all, didn’t notice some of the issues I was having, nor did she seem too bothered with the character control herself; she was entrenched in Until Dawn’s uncompromising atmosphere.

Set to release near the end of August, Supermassive Games has time to work on and tweak character handling, so I’ll give the early code the benefit of the doubt.

Moreover, in much the same way Quantic Dream’s Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls prioritised narrative over gameplay for the sake emphasis and telling the most compelling story they possibly could, Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn takes a similar route, so it’s hard to get too upset when it tells such an entrancing story.

Until Dawn really does tell a fascinating story, or at least it does during the parts I played.

Granted, a group of naïve, popular or otherwise well-to-do adolescents gathering at a spooky holiday cabin in the middle of the woods on a snow-capped mountain is far from original – it’s about as stereotypical as you can get, in fact. But there’s something charming about Until Dawn.

Supermassive Games’ newest endeavour ekes atmosphere out of every pore. It uses every established trick in the book to tell a terrifying tale, some being more effective than others, but it does a heck of a lot better than many of its contemporary horror counterparts.

And then it starts to mess with your head.

Throughout the game, you’ll uncover clues to the mysteries of the cabin and the events taking place. The interesting bit, I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that some of the clues are red herrings, purposefully put in place to keep you guessing and throw you off.

There are even totems of an as-of-yet undisclosed nature that show predictions of events to come. Whether those predictions, or glimpses of the future, play out as you’ve seen is up to you.

How you act in the game and according to the choices you make throughout, you may very well affect the outcome of a number of events. Characters survive or die, are injured or make it out of a situation nary a scratch by virtue of the decisions you make.

Many of the decisions you make will come down to selecting one of a few on-screen prompts and reacting to the conditions they then throw at you as a result.

Dialogue choices and a number of mini-games will depend on your choices, and they themselves will affect upcoming choices.

The jump scares, most of which I saw coming, threw me right out of the atmosphere and world Until Dawn tries to tell. They often feel forced.

For the moment, because this is a preview code of the game and I suspect Supermassive Games is trying to scare those who might write or talk about it, they’ve overdone it a bit.

Come the finished product, I wouldn’t be surprise if the story being told is the scariest aspect to the game – something I’m fondly hoping for. Otherwise, it’s potential wasted.

Until Dawn has a strange charm about it. It kept me smiling and engaged. Granted, I probably should have scared rather than smiling, but I enjoyed it just the same.

Here’s to its release for PS4 on August 26^th.