Until Dawn

2025-04-13
Until Dawn is a fun bait and switch. It starts ploddingly slow and excruciatingly boring. The opening moments as you move the uninteresting, trope-y, one-dimensional, teenage characters around with their molasses controls and minimal interactivity ("press R2 to hold the door handle, move the right analog stick up to open the door"... really?) filled me with loathing. Even my boundless love for Peter Stormare couldn't treat the malignant cancer of hate growing in me. I decided quickly I wanted the game over and I was going to purposefully kill off this cast of clowns.

And then an hour or two later things start picking up. You realize these characters have layers. Mike, the Cocky Asshole Jock, quickly became my favorite character as he turned out to be a real human with empathy and a good moral compass hidden beneath the bluster and bravado. And Emily my second least favorite character instantly vaulted into the Hall of Heroes during a 5 second bit that made me cackle and that I've watched over and over since then. And without realizing it I'm nailing every quicktime event and the whole cast has survived. And I'm happy and also scared I'm going to make a choice and kill one of these kids or, more importantly, the story's true hero, Wolfie. It's been a while since I 180'd on a game this hard but I'll be damned if I didn't have a good time accidentally saving all their asses. Well except Josh, who died. Get fucked, Josh.