I go over what I really liked and didn’t so much about the interactive movie type game, Until Dawn!
Until Dawn
I go over what I really liked and didn’t so much about the interactive movie type game, Until Dawn!
35 Comments Comments RSS
No wonder their faces/movements looked creepy and unnatural. Fucking motion capture. Also, whoever-the-hell designed this game, maybe next time get some teenagers to play your teenage characters. If you’re going to base the character off the actual actor, don’t try to pass off a 35 year old as a teen.
I’m not a big fan of rotoscoping /motion capture either. It looked creepy as fuck in LA Noire & The Walking Dead, & don’t even get me started on the Prancing Pony scene from Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings. The harder they try to overcome the uncanny valley, the deeper they end up pulling you into it.
To be fair, they’re not really teens. They’re all supposed to be 19, meaning they can look more adult. It’s not like we’re dealing with 15/16 year olds who’d obviously look much younger.
On the other hand, Mike’s played by Brett Dalton, who’s in his mid-30’s. He does have a pretty youthful face, but obviously he’s a lot older than the role required. With the fact that it’s a CGI render, they can mitigate that by making the model more youthful, but it’s awkward to say the least.
Thought this game might interest you
As for Emily, she gets some character development during the end credit sequence, if you had a good relationship with Matt. During her final interview, she pretty much shows that she genuinely loves and cares about Matt
If her relationship with Matt is bad however, she’ll continue being a bitch
The story and characters here really just put me off entirely. They’re all miserable pricks no matter what, even in the version with relatively less-prickish decisions on the player’s part. The dialogue is just as annoying, with them being overly-reliant on “fuckitty-fuck-fuck, aren’t we shitting well likeable huh?” kinds of lines.
The motion capture also makes the characters unbelievably creepy to look at. They’re close to moving right, but just sort of don’t, and their eyes and upper face are creepy and frozen in one state, meaning a bunch of the emotion is trying to come about in the lower face… which is not where we perceive the majority of expressions.
I guess the gameplay and open story options make this worth it if you care about that kind of thing, but personally I can’t stand any medium of storytelling where the plot and characters are this annoying.
Have to agree. It’s like an Eli Roth thing with a cast full of unlikables. Though I’d probably say the same about most Final Fantasy games.
This seems to be a typical trope lately in a lot of modern horror movies and that just bored the hell out of me. I get that they make the characters awful people to cheer for the audience for them to die in some stupid way, but it gets annoying when that is the only trait everyone has is being a awful shithead to each other. At least have some depth to the character then teenager is asshole because they are teens. It makes a boring shallow story and really lacks any investment in the person viewing what is happening to the characters.
I do like some of the ideas and the basics of the story in this game and being able to capture a horror movie with all its dumb tropes intact. As a story it really fails, and really that’s the whole point of the game is to enjoy the story here. Maybe if you really enjoy a lot of how horror movies are made today you may get more enjoyment out of this then I did.
It comes across more to me like a prototypical Friday the 13th movie, making the characters really unlikeable and annoying so we WANT to see them die horribly and root for the slasher. Except in this case, we don’t have a Vorhees to contribute something more to the story, so we’re just stuck trying to rescue a bunch of characters we couldn’t possibly like or relate to. Hell, there’s actually a bit of a “I know what you did last summer” vibe to it, which just makes it suck all the more.
That’s the really frustrating part of this, though. The entire point of this type of game is specifically to get you invested in the story that you help shape. If the story’s full of stupid holes and the characters are ridiculously unlikeable, then there’s nothing to get invested in and it’s failed in its intended purpose.
It’s a shame, since this could’ve been something I’d potentially pick up. But with it being as annoying as it is, I just can’t.
Wait, I thought wendigos were spirits.
from wikipedia: “A Wendigo (also known as windigo, weendigo, windago, windiga, witiko, wihtikow, and numerous other variants including manaha) is a half-beast creature appearing in the legends of the Algonquian peoples along the Atlantic Coast and Great Lakes Region of both the United States and Canada. The creature or spirit could either possess characteristics of a human or a monster that had physically transformed from a person. Sometimes they had deer heads, sometimes they were described as they appear in the game.
Wendigos are spirits, spirits that possess people. It’s part of the game and stuff.
Anyway, I actually like that the teenagers aren’t played by teenagers. You know, this is a game built around horror tropes. That one is essential.
They were teenagers? They all looked to be about 25-30. Mmm, Then again, that’s usually the age of actors playing teens in movies. Or at least it was when I was a kid.
kind of weird how you have a PS4 and yet you still haven’t gotten Mortal Kombat X yet. not sure if the prices have gone down for it yet or if they have slightly gone down where you live, but I’m still curious whether or not you have any interest in the new game and if you like the features or not. I think it’s great that you are reviewing video games again, and you picked a rather peculiar game to review that I’ve never heard of before. but then again, I haven’t heard of Indigo Prophecy either. and the only “new” horror/survival game I want to pick up is Alien Isolation. in either case, I hope you’ll finally pick up MKX and review it. it’s long overdue if you ask me.
anyway, as of the game in question, I’m not a fan of the motion capturing style of animation since it makes the characters movements look kind of jerky and unrealistic. also, the Wendigo’s just comes across as an Arch-Vile reject based on their appearance. speaking of Mortal Kombat X, both games visually almost looks rather similar.
I don’t have a PS4, my friend Zack was visiting and brought his over so I was able to capture Until Dawn footage.
oh, well that makes sense. it’s too bad the PS3 & Xbox 360 versions were cancelled. well, I’m sure you’ll get it eventually, and a PS4 or a Xbox One. speaking of horror video games, I’ve been wondering. since you like Resident Evil & Silent Hill, do you also like Doom as well? I’m not sure if you’re a fan of first person shooters and/or if you’ve ever played any of the Doom games before, but I thought I’d ask. if you love games with a creepy atmosphere, then I recommend Doom 64 for the N64. along with the 2 PSX versions, Doom 64 was composed by Aubrey Hodges. instead of using midi version of heavy metal tunes, he used ambient music that gave it a dark & creepy atmosphere. there are moments where you can hear moaning, demonic chanting, and babies crying. he also composed for Quake 1 & 2 on the N64 as well as Offroad Thunder & Bio Freaks. it also had a pretty cool opening intro: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OuOqUAyup6M
I may get some hate for this, but besides the ultra-violence and fatalities, it’s still a Mortal Kombat game. Get past the gore and shock value, and it’s a mediocre fighter with a lot of poorly designed characters.
well, I agree with you that it pretty much is a mediocre fighter (which is why I preferred Killer Instinct Season 2 over MKX after playing both games). however, I think that while the series was awesome in the past, I think the problems with the series became worse as soon as John Tobias left Midway. because ever since MK9, I’ve noticed how lazier & full the holes the stories has become. it’s like if you take one of the most important people who made MK a great game in the 90’s, the series starts to suffer as a result. regardless on whoever created the MK series, I think John Tobias had a much firmer grasp on the story & characters which is why MK1-4 worked so well in my opinion. another problem is longevity. how do you keep the series going when the creators are slowly running out of ideas? to me, I think Mortal Kombat officially ended with the 90’s, and I don’t think it needs to keep going.
I think they’re also on a separate timeline thanks to MK:Armageddon.
they are. and to me, that’s only part of the problem. they went out of their way to create the first true finale of the series, and then out of no where, they decided to reboot it just with slightly different results. if you examine it closely enough, this all happened because Raiden was a sore loser. yes I know that it would suck if Shao Kahn won, but he did it fair & square for once. and even if he attempted to change things due to the events of Armageddon, it actually did more harm than good. and despite the issues I have with the story from both the recent games, MKX still has even more problems: the micro transactions, easy fatalities, pointless guest characters that serves no purpose to the overall story and are there just to be there because of “reasons”, weak characters that are way too OP and strong characters that ended up pretty weak, things happening in the story due to convenience or because they plot demands it due to them being the main characters, dumb logic, and a f***ing tea part with Sub-Zero & Scorpion (yeah, I’m not joking. look it up if you don’t believe me). even if MKX is currently popular, it just feels kind of mediocre. hell, I’ve played both Killer Instinct 3 Season 2 & Mortal Kombat X equally, and I find KI 3 S2 to be the better & more exciting game.
“the plot demands it” “tea party” typo’s, my bad. 😛
Maybe there isnt much branching because well…. it will cost alot of more money, for a game which maybe wouldnt take off as well.
But if the game is a successes, and get enough money, could get a sequel or spiritual successor, which is bigger and more impresibe
Until Dawn kinda looks and feels like an Eli Roth/Wrong Turn movie, yet has a better story and characters. Granted, the game could use more branching paths and different endings as Phelous has stated. Still, compared to other cinematic games, Until Dawn seems to have done it best in years. May not be perfect, but does look like a playable movie one would see on SyFy or Chiller.
Phelous, you need to get back into the bad horror movies again, there are still plenty out there.
I’ll admit I’m not a fan of the interactive movie game, but this one doesn’t seem to leap out at me as a reason to jump back into the genre.
I think the worst part of what you showed us was the cliche nature of it all, which I guess it could be argued they were going for:
– Isolated teens partying in a remote location
– with a dark secret in their shared past
– They split up and pair off
– hot girl takes a bath/underwear
– multiple red-herrings for the killer (like Scooby Doo) and characters that exist only to be assholes
– dream sequences and characters that exist only in someone’s head
– late second act killer reveal tied to one of the main characters
It’s a shame it’s ultimately still very linear, but there is potential for a game like this.
Yeah, if I had a buck for every horror movie, game, & book that checked off that entire list of cliches, I wouldn’t need to work for a living,
This game stars Hayden Panettiere running around in a towel and tight pants? I MUST BUY A PLAYSTATION 4 just for this! Think of how much money they could make if this was a porno.
I straight up agree with the whole wendigos on the mountain that were around for forever but never attacked the people as a flaw. And it also annoys me that some of the choices have responses that give the illusion that you changed something, but haven’t really. Like Jess in the water. She’ll have a scene where she’ll be mad at Mike because she thinks the phone fell out when she was pushed in. Or if you choose to snoop in Chris’s phone, he’ll later take Jess’s phone and go through it with the excuse that Sam thought it was okay. That one especially annoys me because that is included in a butterfly effect, though if you don’t snoop, it still happens sans the extra dialogue and butterfly effect.
The Josh Youtube thing though I get. I can see him doing it as part of his revenge because they had taped Beth and he assumed they would be more nefarious with it or he just wanted them as humiliated as possible but with his psycho brain, he didn’t realize the video made him look demented.
Wow, 37 & 1/2 minutes. Your fingers must be sore from a hard week of editing. 7:40 Your left eye looks a bit bloodshot too. Did you pull an all-nighter?
That uncomfortable unsettling feeling you get looking at motion capture & CGI combined is absolutely ideal for the horror genre, & the fact that you can change the ending is nice for horror too. But the movement is very stiff & slow, like stop motion animation, like they were all made out of clay. This is especially apparent on the Wendigos, & it’s incredibly distracting & pulls you out of the experience.
Quicktime events are punishing & unfun, I don’t know why games insist on continuing to implement them. I have the reaction time of a freshly woken sloth.
Damn you Josh, BLINK! BLINK YOUR FREAKY UNBLINKING EYES!
I usually like the bitchy character. It’s the overly emotional one that snivels & cries the most that I usually take a hammer to. Of course those two personality types can overlap.
Haven’t played any interactive stories lately but I share similar feelings towards Indigo Prophecy/Fahrenheit. What a mess of a narrative, and what a crap use of QTEs.
As for stories branching depending on the choices, I have had a better experience with western RPG than interactive stories. Sure, you’ll always have some fixed events that you can’t avoid or change no matter what but there’s the possibility of influencing characters more and getting different outcomes in the long term (and RPGs are usually longer, some of them even carry the choices into the sequels). This Until Dawn sounds good in that regard, but I’m not fond of slasher movies, so even if the game appeared on PC I don’t think I’d play it.
Hmm… pale humanoid creatures with long and very thin limbs crawling about in an abandoned mine… I’m having some horrible Silent Hill Downpour/Weeping Bat flashbacks right now.
Also, it really does sound like you’re still bitter about the disappointment that was Indigo Prophecy (or Fahrenheit, as it is called over here). Maybe reviewing that one at some point could be a “therapeutic” experience and help you let go of the feeling of disappointment.
Actually, Phelous, while sanitariums, the North American version of the word sanatorium seem to be associated primarily with mental illness, there are many sanatoriums that deal with all sorts of physical illnesses (mostly chronic) or rehabilitate people after an illness or accident. In Russia particularly, the word sanatorium means hotel or lodge that is focused on the improvement of health of it’s guests or lodgers and is not associated with treating any mental illness at all except for maybe stress, in fact most of the people that use its services aren’t even ill or have a chronic condition, it is simply a way to spent a holiday while simultaneously improving your health trough warm climate, nature, healthy food and health procedures such as swimming, hiking, mud baths, drinking mineral water from a local spring and etc.
Chris is played by Andy Dick?
Ugg motion captore need additional animation after as always! Dont rely on it 100% and think your animation is done. It needs tweeking and added principle of animation to it. But I guess they want to stay under budget and not go in and add anditoonal animation with the computer programs. :/. The texture rendure look nice and from far away they almost look realisitc but the uncanny of not mutch character face xpression show through. The voice acring annoy me. Maybe all there money went to the 3D model and texturing and left over to program the codeing. xD
Interesting that the interactive movie hasn’t been totally abandoned as a concept.
I’d nearly be interested if it wasn’t a PS4 release (my last console was a PS2, I’m strictly PC and 3DS these days!) and was a genera I’m more interested in.
Than again, there is the chance to vicariosuly get Grant Ward killed…!
If the hotel was built in the victorian era a hotel and sanatorium might not be an implausible concept. It was a fun pastime of the rich to go see visit mental hospitals as a source of entertainment, the most famous one being the Bethel hospital in England, often called “bedlam.” So for them, it would be like having a hotel that has a show or a comedy routine performing there, not saying anything for safety though but as entertainment it’s plausible.
It was nice reliving our playthrough of this game through the video. I really hoped my ps4 got a “special thanks” credit :P. Also giving you the honours to kill Em the first time was probably my favourite part hahaha