Game review: Until Dawn

Until Dawn embraces the clichés – there’s a creepy psychiatrist, a Native American curse, an abandoned sanitarium and a 50-year-old tragedy. Yet, the story introduces some clever twists on those genre tropes.

Nashville TV star Hayden Panettiere voices the character of Samantha in Until Dawn. Sony Computer Entertainment America via AP

Until Dawn

Sony

PlayStation 4

Dh220

Four stars

Years of horror movies have taught us that the proper response to an invitation to stay at a remote cabin in the woods is: no thanks.

If everyone followed that advice, we wouldn't have Friday the 13th, The Evil Dead or, well, The Cabin in the Woods.

But the kids in Until Dawn have even more reason to stay at home – the last time they went out, two of their friends vanished.

A year later, eight teenagers return to the site to try to get some closure. In this genre, closure usually means running around in terror while an axe-wielding maniac chases you.

Until Dawn embraces the clichés. There's a creepy psychiatrist. There's an ancient Native American curse. There's an abandoned sanitarium and there's a 50-year-old tragedy that may explain the mayhem.

And yet, the story introduces some clever twists on those hoary genre tropes.

Until Dawn also benefits from an appealing young cast of voice actors, led by Hayden Panettiere of Heroes and Nashville fame, and Rami Malek, the star of the critically acclaimed new American TV conspiracy thriller, Mr Robot.

Peter Stormare – the star of Fargo and too many other movies to list – also shows up to deliver his special brand of sublime creepiness.

The motion-captured performances and animation are solid, and the lighting and sound capture the ambience of classic teen-horror movies.

The gameplay is more reminiscent of a Choose Your Own Adventure than action-heavy horror games such as Resident Evil or Silent Hill.

At times, the game presents a decision between, say, firing a flare gun or saving it for later, which may seem innocuous, but could have fatal consequences hours later.

There’s much chatter about the butterfly effect and so many decision-points that you’ll want to replay some scenarios to see how things might have turned out differently.

There are also occasional quick-time sequences, where you need to press buttons to match on-screen prompts. Mess up and you’re dead, and the perspective shifts to another teenager. Suffice it to say that not everyone gets out alive.

More trigger-happy gamers might not like the limited control you have over the characters, and there are times you will yell at the screen when the kids do something really dumb.

But then, isn't that the same way you felt watching Friday the 13th?

* Associated Press