Yahoo News Hayden Panettiere's Until Dawn remake sets up a sequel, but is it worth playing?
Before The Quarry, Supermassive Games made Until Dawn. Released in 2015, the interactive horror featured a cast that included Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malek, Nichole Sakura, and Brett Dalton. It followed a group of friends meeting up at an isolated cabin in Blackwood Mountain. When they find themselves being hunted, they must survive until the morning.
At the time, it was a highly impressive thriller, and used its format and structure to great effect. The remake, coming nine years later and developed by Ballistic Moon, keeps mostly everything intact.
With the group often split up, different chapters give you control of different characters.
A bulk of the gameplay is exploration, as the stranded leads try to find a way forward while picking up clues that relate to the truth behind the horrors that stalk them. Then, there are action scenes, often revolving around at least one character being chased, with quick-time events that can determine a character's ultimate fate.
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The fates of the characters are also impacted by decisions you make during conversations and other pivotal 'butterfly effect' moments. Characters can die well before the end of the game based on your previous actions, and the story will continue regardless.
The end result is a game that can be described as an interactive movie. The story flows pretty seamlessly no matter who lives and who dies, and you're always on alert. It's pretty amusing that a movie adaptation is on the way and was filmed earlier this year. We're not sure how a live-action movie can set itself apart from the game, but we digress.
The game remake seems to be part of an attempt to expand Until Dawn as a franchise, and this is further evident by two post-credit scenes that weren't in the original game.
Setting up the possibility of a sequel, the two scenes centre on the fates of the characters played by arguably the cast's two biggest names – one for Malek's Josh, and one set years later for Panettiere's Sam.
"Until Dawn has been around for years and years now, and I think people love it," actor Panettiere says in a newly recorded bonus video included with the remake. "And the fact that they are going further with it says that there's a want for it."
So, a sequel seems likely, and that would explain the timing of this remake as well as its release on PC. After all, the original Until Dawn – being less than a decade old – didn't really need one.
That said, having Until Dawn playable on PC in any form is a welcome move. And once you accept that there is a remake, the question then becomes: is it an improvement over the original game? The answer is yes, but with a couple of drawbacks.
Two changes contribute in making the remake a more immersive and tense game. A new over-the-shoulder camera perspective brings the action closer to the character, which in turn helps to draw the player in. Meanwhile, the overhaul in graphics stands out; the lighting in particular does wonders in heightening the mood, and the improved animations are noticeable.
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But not everything is better in the remake. Interacting with the totem collectibles is more work than before. You're now required to more closely inspect the totem before the vision unlocks, which hampers the pacing slightly.
Then there are the soundtrack changes, which may be due to licensing issues but are a shame nonetheless. The new soundtrack isn't bad by any means, but fans of the original may lament the absence of 'O Death' over the opening.
If you've never played Until Dawn, the remake is a good time to experience this cult classic. It's as fun and thrilling as it was in 2015. However, while the remake improves upon the original in some ways, the overall improvement isn't vast enough to the point where this version is a must for those who've played through the game once before.
Platform reviewed on: PC
The Until Dawn remake is out now on PlayStation 5 and PC.
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