I rented Until Dawn from Red Box yesterday and I have to say I'm impressed. It's made in the style of games like Heavy Rain, where you complete quick time events and make decisions that will determine the outcome of your game, just with (more of) a horror twist.
The mis-en-scene is handled really well with lots of space to build tension and though most of the scares are jump scares, I don't mind since I like most of the characters (fuck Emily though) and I'm interested to see how my playthrough pans out.
The controls aren't what I'd call tank controls by any stretch, but you do have a change in what direction you need to be pushing that left stick when you change rooms, throwing you just a bit off balance.
There are a lot of collectibles you can find to solve mysteries, your actions will change character traits and relationship statuses, and you can find totems that play second-long clips hinting at what might happen in the future depending on your choices.
The game is split up into sections based on how many hours there are until dawn, each one starting with a therapist (I think voiced/acted by the game's writer) asking you several questions to ensure your experience is more scary. I've even been asked which characters I like more than the others. The therapist's office will change between "hours" to reflect how you've played your game.
Oh, and there's bonus behind the scenes content! Woohoo! You unlock it every time you beat a level or "hour" and so far I've seen the actors (including Hayden Penattiere or however it's spelled) discuss their characters, how they measured scares using a wrist-mounted heart monitor on focus group participants (cool, but imo gets you more jump scares), how the writer and director met, and one other I can't think of.
Between the collectibles, characters, and story I might end up buying this game. Yeah, it's your typical cabin in the woods axe murderer horror movie at its core so far, but I'm interested enough in all the different possibilities and collectibles I just might save room for it in the 30% "want" portion of my budget.
I still need to play this title. I won't lie, I was shocked at how successful this title was. It's gotten good reviews and a lot of youtubers I watch enjoyed it. I'll get it one day. It will probably be once I've recovered from this separation and apartment crap.
It's a good'un.
That was my game of 2015. Nothing else even came close for me.
I dunno if I'd go that far, but it's definitely a cool game. I hope it did well, looks like they pumped a lot of money and resources into it.
This sounds like an interesting game that I'd give a shot. Maybe this will finally get me to try out Red Box
Free every Wednesday this month with code GAMEON. You may as well. You do have to set up an account with them for email receipts, etc. though.
They said to check their Facebook for the code, so look there to see if maybe GAMEON was jst this week, but I think it's for the month.
Nice I'll sign up and see if the password changed for this week. Thanks for the heads up!
You can sent an acct up online or I believe when you swipe your card, they'll ask for an email address to send the receipt to.
Some of their promotions require reserving something online though, so check on that.
I liked this game a lot too. I beat it two times and enjoyed both playthroughs a lot. Definitely a surprise last year.
I might rent it again to finish my playthrough or just find a used/sale copy.
Nope, the therapist isn't the game's writer, that's none other than Peter Stormare.
I watched the posting of the stream Dodger/PressHeartToContinue did with her fiancee of the game and I must say, i'm interested playing it myself and it's now a likely PS4 option to get. I think a good thing about it is that even when I saw the entirety of the game, there was still enough stuff missed that I could still check out and find other sorts of secrets, paths and character interactions.
Oh, he was in Fargo.
