Until Dawn remake review: It’s more than just a reskin, Han
Blackwood Mountain isn’t a location you’ll want to visit if it’s a night of hedonism that you seek, at least that’s what someone should’ve forewarned Until Dawn’s cast of characters. Myself though? I was itching to return and have since delighted in once again experiencing the trials and tribulations of that fateful night. Until Dawn has always stood out as Supermassive Games’ very best title, and Ballistic Moon has only sent it further soaring above its competitors with this competently handled remake.
This is about as faithful as a remake can possibly be. What you shouldn’t expect to find here are too many surprises. Yes, there’s that stinger of a sequel tease tacked on the end which has already set the internet alight, possibly giving us insight as to the intention of the remake, but Until Dawn is otherwise a succinctly upgraded experience of what came before. It benefits from a hugely successful reworked prologue, while the impressive visual upgrades enhance the game’s palpable sense of tension and dread.
With all of this in mind, Ballistic Moon’s take on Until Dawn is the definitive way to experience this PlayStation horror classic, although the elephant in the room here is that doing so comes with a rather steep price tag that I can’t help but feel will hold this accomplished project back.
Until Dawn is certain to appeal to fans old and new. If you’re in the latter camp though, allow me to bring you up to speed. This is a branching horror, where you’ll find yourself responsible for the lives of eight teens. The group has reunited at a ski lodge on Blackwood Mountain to mark the anniversary of their friend’s, Beth and Hannah’s, disappearances one year prior. What is intended to be a night of togetherness though takes a grisly turn for the worse. It quickly becomes apparent that this group is not alone on the mountain, and perhaps they weren’t one year ago either.
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Take a look at Until Dawn in action below.
Ballistic Moon has totally rebuilt the game in Unreal Engine 5, moving away from the Decima engine used by Supermassive Games in the original, and Until Dawn is all the better for it. Photorealism shouldn’t be the tentpole goal of the gaming industry, but it certainly has its place. You see, photorealism is hugely beneficial when it comes to immersion as it’s very easy for us to lose ourselves in a fictional world that resembles our own. That’s certainly the case here. I’ve played Until Dawn several times - I know what spooks and scares lie around the corner - and yet, this time around, I felt a sense of fear I’ve not had since that original playthrough.
There’s a groundedness to this remake which, yes, is somehow possible in a game about wendigos. In the original, I always felt the wendigos were at their most effective before you actually came face to face with one. The feeling of something watching you or lurking nearby sent a shudder through me far more so than when I actually saw these oversized naked mole rats in the flesh. I’d like to make it clear though that I wouldn’t want to meet one of these beings in real life, but I did always think in the back of my mind that the horror scale could’ve been turned up just a tad when it came to their design.
It’s almost as if someone at Ballistic Moon heard my wish. Here, it’s much clearer to see the remnants of a wendigo's former life. When you, and I’m about to delve into spoilers, finally encounter Hannah as a wendigo, the improved visual fidelity means that you can almost see the person beneath the monstrous exterior. A much greater level of detail has been placed into the face models and while, certainly, they’re scarier, so too did it make the whole story feel more tragic. As if you could see the trapped and cursed Hannah behind the wendigo’s eyes.
That improved sense of detail was replicated in the models of the human characters and the textures in the game’s environment, resulting in what felt like a far more visceral experience - particularly in the game’s more gruesome scenes. There’s little to say in the way of performances. They were great back in 2015, and they remain great now. You can’t really go wrong when a game boasts the star power of the likes of Rami Malek, Hayden Panettierre, and Brett Dalton - to name a few.
Those graphics were complemented by the new over-the-shoulder camera. Those who’ve played the original will recall the fixed camera (which does still make the odd appearance), resulting in players somewhat awkwardly marching characters about as you sought the right way out of the current scene. While that fixed camera did add to the sense of dread - exacerbated by the feeling of being out of control - so too does the over-the-shoulder camera have its own benefits. Yes it may not enforce dread in the same way, but it does mean that you’re able to explore locations more fully - and Ballistic Moon have added a number of collectibles in accordance with that. You can turn around, and look back to from whence you came. You can stare off in any given direction, unforced by the camera to direct your vision a certain way. For me, that too helped to boost the immersion while reinforcing the idea that whatever horror I was to encounter next could come from any direction. If you hear a scurrying behind you, are you bold enough to look back? Those are the kind of questions it feels like this new perspective asks.
As for those added collectibles, many of these are new ‘hunger’ totem poles, adding to the pre-existing death, loss, fortune, guidance, and danger examples that players will already be familiar with. I’ve got to be honest, it took me a while to understand what these visions were getting at but once it finally clicked, I could only marvel at Ballistic Moons’ genius. You see, these clips are just a few seconds long and shown from a first-person perspective so it’s hard to get a grasp on what’s happening but the more you collect, the more obvious it becomes that you’re experiencing Hannah’s downfall and transition into a wendigo, hence the name ‘hunger’. It’s a powerful, if brief, insight into the horrors she must’ve gone through - and it’s only left me eager to find those that I missed to fill in these narrative gaps.
Until Dawn’s expansion of its story is subtle. There's a reworked prologue which is a total triumph. It’s far more considerate in its introduction of the various characters and elongates the pranking of Hannah by the group. As such, you're far more likely to invest yourself in the welfare of the group later on. The prologue also heightens that aforementioned sense of tragedy too that lies underneath the surface of Until Dawn’s slasher tale, highlighting just how unfortunate the events were that led to Beth and Hannah’s demise. I was also pleased to see that the remake reinstated an early Matt and Emily chapter, previously a pre-order exclusive and thus inaccessible to many players in the years since the game’s original release. It doesn’t include any major story points, with the two venturing off to collect Emily’s bag in one of the opening chapters, but it certainly builds tension and deepens our connection with Matt, a character who always felt a tad ignored in the original to me. Clearly, this exclusion was why.
As for its gameplay, Until Dawn keeps things much the same. The brilliant ‘Don’t Move’ mechanic returns and while it’s wholly unnecessary, I will continue to totally hold my breath like there’s a wendigo two-feet in front of me IRL. QTEs also return, although gone are the coloured inputs, replaced with simple black and white triangle, square, circle, and cross icons. The UI is basic so as not to overly interfere with any given ongoing scene and if anything, the ridding of the green, red, blue, and pink colour scheme adds a smidge of an extra challenge to those QTE sections.
You do now need to rotate totem poles to find a crack which will eventually glow, revealing the vision within. Previously, you’d simply turn them over and they’d autoplay. I found this a tad troublesome. On occasion, I’d rotate the whole thing multiple times, totally unsure of where the dang crack was hiding but it was hardly a big grievance. If anything, I was quite for having another added method of input in what is oftentimes a passive game.
The music has also received an overhaul this time around. Like The Quarry, Until Dawn adds in a couple of mainstream songs but I don’t have an issue with that. They’re used sparingly at the beginning of the game when our main characters are attempting to have a good time, so feel fitting. Perhaps the biggest change is that the music doesn’t always build before a jump scare anymore and while that was a fun trait of the original game, prompting that ‘uh oh’ feeling within you, the subtlety of this renewed soundtrack fits with the remake’s overall goal. That silence may feel jarring to players who are experiencing this story for the umpteenth time, but for those who are new here, those jump scares are going to be far more effective when the music doesn’t indicate that they’re coming.
I should also add that, for me, the game ran flawlessly. I’m aware that others online haven’t had quite the same experience but I can only speak on what I played and within those eight hours, I didn’t encounter a single glitch nor bug - and although Until Dawn is locked at 30fps, neither did that particularly hold it back. Certainly, 60fps would’ve been nice but the performance was steady and reliable, and that’s a rarity these days.
It’s hard to find any grievances with the game itself. This is a marked improvement upon its predecessor which was already a solid release. There is one glaring issue beyond the in-game content though, its price. I appreciate that Until Dawn is a remake, not a remaster, and as such, I think Sony is right to price it as a full release as opposed to the $10 upgrade path we see for many remasters. That being said, I can’t help but feel that the $60 price tag is asking a tad too much. As I’ve sought to highlight in this review, this is certainly the definitive way to experience Until Dawn but these are subtle improvements, with some perhaps only appreciated by those who truly loved the original like myself. If you’re brand new to Until Dawn, you won’t be disappointed by what you pay for. If you’re a pre-existing fan though looking to experience this enhanced iteration of the game, shaving $15 or so off the price tag might’ve made this venture feel far more enticing.
Everyone has been up in arms as of late over Sony’s reliance on remasters and remakes, and I get it. Such projects should never outweigh or replace originality and innovation. That being said, Until Dawn is one such IP that I’m glad hasn’t been left to, like poor Hannah and Beth, wither away. Ballistic Moon has rid the game of its outdated tendencies, creating something that is far more grounded, detailed, and immersive. Perhaps a remake wasn’t ‘necessary’ but is any game ‘necessary’? The prevalence of Until Dawn’s wendigo spirit on the mountain, including Josh’s potential post-credits transformation, always left me thinking that the game, as a franchise, had more mileage in its tank. If Ballistic Moon’s remake has got more people on board with that thought process then I can only be wholly grateful that it exists.
Pros: Upgraded visuals, improved camera controls, reworked prologue, all of which boosted immersion
Cons: Steep price for returning players
For fans of: The Quarry, Life is Strange, Detroit: Become Human
9/10: Exceptional
Until Dawn is out now on PlayStation 5 (version tested) and PC. A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Topics: PlayStation, PlayStation 5, Sony, Reviews