REVIEW – Ever since Supermassive Games launched Until Dawn in 2015, it’s easy to forget just how much the Guildford-based developer got right with its debut survival horror title on PlayStation 4. A tightly constructed, atmospheric, and visually compelling genre piece, Until Dawn laid the foundation for the developer’s future projects. Now, approaching its tenth anniversary, Until Dawn is back in the spotlight with a kind of remake as we near 2024.

It’s important to point out that this remake of Until Dawn makes very few changes to the core gameplay loop of the 2015 original. This means the third-person exploration, non-linear storytelling, light puzzle-solving, and quick-time events (QTEs) remain entirely intact here, so don’t expect any major deviations from the PS4 version. In fact, it might be best to think of Until Dawn on PS5 as more akin to a 4K director’s cut than a completely re-imagined title. As such, our original review of Until Dawn for PS4 still holds up as a critique of the story, pacing, and gameplay systems that feature in Until Dawn in 2024.

The Teen Horror Revival

For those unfamiliar, Until Dawn clearly embraces the teen slasher influences of the 90s and 2000s. The story follows a group of eight friends who return to the snowy Blackwood Mountain retreat a year after two of their companions went missing. As the story unfolds, each one becomes a victim of a nameless terror, while their egos, mistakes, and unique personalities cause constant friction within the group.

This setup serves as the backbone for Until Dawn’s non-linear narrative, where your decisions not only open up new story paths, scenarios, and areas but also determine whether the characters survive or meet gruesome fates. It’s here that Until Dawn draws direct parallels to more recent Supermassive titles like The Dark Pictures Anthology, The Quarry, and most recently, The Casting of Frank Stone.

However, Until Dawn stands out in many ways. First and foremost, the quality of the voice acting far surpasses that of Supermassive’s latest releases, with performances from well-known actors such as Rami Malek (Bohemian Rhapsody, No Time To Die), Hayden Panettiere (Heroes, Nashville), Peter Stormare (Constantine), and Brett Dalton (Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.). These performances are leagues above the more wooden acting seen in titles like The Casting of Frank Stone.

In addition, Until Dawn fully understands its teen slasher setting and takes it to the limit, with squabbling friends, cocky jocks, loners, messy deaths, and all the other trappings you’d expect from the genre. Simply put, Until Dawn is the digital embodiment of the teen slasher trope, and I’m here for every cringeworthy, gory moment.

A Visual Overhaul

On the visual side, let’s start by saying that Until Dawn’s upgrade to Unreal Engine 5 results in a dramatic improvement. The PS5 version offers far more detailed textures, advanced facial animations, and better lighting and shadows, all of which further amplify the tense atmosphere. The visual improvements provided by Unreal Engine 5 manifest in subtle but impressive ways, especially in the character’s facial animations. When they encounter something horrifying, their expressions, skin pores, sweat droplets, and other small details look incredibly lifelike.

Unfortunately, all this visual fidelity comes at a cost. Those hoping for a 60 frames-per-second performance mode will be disappointed, as the Until Dawn remake is locked to 30fps. While I, too, would have liked to see the game running at a smoother frame rate, the cinematic style of the game, combined with high-end graphical features, means that 30fps doesn’t bite as hard as it otherwise would, especially with the decent motion blur that’s implemented here.

On the technical side, there’s also a handy midnight mode that normalizes audio output, which is particularly useful if you’re playing when others are asleep. It ensures that jump scares and other sudden noises are set at the same volume as everything else, making for a more balanced experience.

Although the engine upgrade is welcome, Until Dawn also makes a significant shift in how the game is presented to players. Gone are the fixed camera perspectives, and instead, Until Dawn now embraces full third-person camera movement, similar to Capcom’s Resident Evil 2, 3, and 4 remakes. This not only makes the remake feel more frantic than before, but it also allows players to peel back the curtain on areas that were previously hidden in the 2015 version.

That said, I can’t help but feel that the move to a roaming third-person camera takes away some of the tension the fixed camera angles provided in the original. After all, fear is most potent when you can feel the anticipation churning in your gut, and the original Until Dawn excelled at building up creeping dread that eventually led to some of the game’s scariest moments. Even so, Until Dawn’s focus on nerve-wracking atmospheres and jump scares still makes it a genuinely unsettling experience.

Replay Value Above All Else

Until Dawn has always been about replayability, and that remains true in this PS5 remake. Not only can you manipulate how many survivors make it to the end, but the sheer number of dialogue choices and decisions throughout the game push you to keep replaying it. And that’s before we even get to the collectibles, several of which have been added for this current-gen version.

Beyond aesthetics, there are some subtle changes to the game’s content. A lengthened prologue offers more backstory leading up to the first act, while a pair of post-credits scenes provide new perspectives on events from the original game—but that’s all I’m saying on that front.

Though nearly a decade has passed since Until Dawn first sent chills down players’ spines, its expertly crafted slasher narrative, impressive voice acting, and non-linear storytelling remain as appealing as ever. It’s easily one of the best titles Supermassive has ever produced. Of course, if Until Dawn didn’t do it for you the first time, this shiny new 2024 version probably won’t either. But for everyone else, the PS5 release is the definitive version of one of the most effective horror games of the last generation.

-Gergely Herpai „BadSector-

Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
Developer: Supermassive Games
Style: Survival horror
Release: October 4, 2024.