Ayo! This week we’re diving into the world of Supermassive Games and their unique brand of “interactive drama horror” video games! More specifically, we’re talking about the critically acclaimed “Until Dawn” for PS4 and, to a lesser extent, the recently released spiritual sequel “The Quarry” for the PS5 along with “The Dark Pictures Anthology” games. These games blend mystery, horror, and the supernatural with a reverence for horror cinema and lore. They all feature fantastic performances, a spooky atmosphere, real scares, deep lore, and an immersive gaming experience. They rule.
“Until Dawn” was released in 2015 and features a slew of famous faces that populate the motion capture cast including Oscar-winning actor Rami Malek, Hayden Panettiere, and Peter Stormare. It focuses on a group of playable characters who are all returning to a mountain lodge one year after a terrible accident. Of course, things aren’t what they seem and the group is thrust into a story of horror, betrayal, and survival. Your choices will decide who lives, who dies, and what secrets are revealed over one frightful night. There’s a freaky guy with a flamethrower, a serial killer, and some cannibalistic forest monsters… along with interpersonal drama, a nighttime snowstorm, some abandoned mines, a labyrinthine basement, an old sanatorium, and more. It’s a must-play for horror lovers.
In this episode, we discuss the game, our experience playing it, the lore, the world-building, the main storyline and performances, and a bunch more good stuff. Spoilers ahead. We also highlight a bunch of awesome features in “Until Dawn” including the lack of manual saving, immersive quick-time events, eerie atmosphere, and a system they call the “Butterfly Effect” that uses the Decimal system’s A.I. and your choices to change the plot of the game as you play. Each play-through, though linear, can and will be different depending on the choices you make. There are MANY different endings and certain sequences that are only available in certain circumstances. Even the music is based on your story and is changed to meet your situation depending on previous events, your relationships, and what you know. “Until Dawn” spawned a number of games by Supermassive Games including the "Dark Pictures Anthology" that follow in the same vein and play style but feature other ghoulish delights including witches (yes, they are in the witch zone), ghosts, devilish abominations, cults, and more.
This game really makes you feel like you are in a movie… so much so that Otis and PALMREADER accidentally keep calling this game a movie. This leads to a conversation about the future of movies, gaming, and where they intersect. In the end, we have no idea what is coming but we do know that “Until Dawn” is really dope and fun to play. We hope this genre is developed even more in the future and can't wait to see where they take it.
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