Until Dawn
A snowbound lodge, eight friends and a masked figure who turns out to be the smaller of their problems. This is a horror film you steer: you search rooms, read clues and pick what each character says, and once the killing starts, split-second prompts take over. Any of the eight can die, and which ones do depends on the choices stacked up since chapter one.
The PC edition is a full rebuild of the PlayStation 4 original rather than a straight port.
Top 3 Reasons to Play
- Stakes without a health bar. Characters die because of an answer given in a heated argument, a door opened out of curiosity or a prompt missed by half a second. Runs where nobody survives and where all eight do both exist, and each has a trophy attached.
- The prank-gone-wrong opening and the lodge cut off by snow are textbook teen slasher, until the mountain's older legend muscles in.
- Players who want the story without the sweaty palms can simplify quick-time events, switch on aim assist and put subtitles on a bordered background.
Story and Lore
The night begins at the Washington family lodge on Blackwood Mountain, in Alberta, Canada. A cruel prank on Hannah Washington sends her running into the woods, her twin sister Beth follows, and a stranger with a flamethrower pursues them both until they go over a cliff edge. Neither is found.
A year later their brother Josh invites the old group back to make peace with what happened. By nightfall the guests are being stalked, and a radio call to the rangers brings only the news that help cannot arrive before morning.
- Structure: ten chapters, each standing in for one hour of the night, with the rescue due at dawn.
- Interludes: between chapters, psychiatrist Dr. Alan Hill speaks to the player directly. His early questions ask about fears and what you value in people, and the answers alter details later in the game.
- The legend: the game's version of the Wendigo myth holds that anyone driven to cannibalism is handed over to the creature. Old mine workings and the abandoned Blackwood sanatorium round out the rest of that history.
The remake gives the opening more room, with additional dialogue and scenes before the prank lands.
Gameplay and Mechanics
Movement is simple: the left stick walks and the right stick swings whatever light the character carries, be it a torch, a lighter or a phone. Routes are limited to what the game opens up, with clues and collectibles tucked into the corners.
- Butterfly Effect. Significant choices are flagged on screen with a butterfly icon, and the fallout can arrive hours later and land on a different character. Dialogue picks also shift the relationship scores between the cast.
- Quick-time events. Button prompts and stick flicks decide chases, jumps and shootouts. A missed prompt can be as deadly as a wrong answer.
- Don’t Move. A stillness test: the controller has to stay perfectly steady while a threat passes close by. The remake adds Stay Calm as an alternative, which also covers third-party pads without a gyroscope, and Beth now faces one of these moments in the opening scene.
The biggest departure from the original is the camera. A modern over-the-shoulder view replaces the fixed cinematic angles, although some scenes still lock to set viewpoints, and some reviewers feel those fixed angles carried much of the original’s tension.
Totems scattered around the mountain show short premonitions of what might befall a character; each has to be rotated by hand to reveal its vision. The remake re-hides the original totems in new locations, so an older collectible guide will not line up, and adds Hunger Totems of its own.
Characters and Factions
Eight friends make up the playable cast, divided by an old secret: five of them took part in the prank on Hannah, while Sam, Chris and Josh did not.
Mike (Brett Dalton) and Jessica (Meaghan Martin) are a couple. Emily (Nichole Sakura), Mike’s ex, arrives with her new boyfriend Matt (Jordan Fisher) and visible resentment toward the pair. Ashley (Galadriel Stineman), curious and forthright, completes the prank crew.
- Sam Giddings (Hayden Panettiere). The closest thing the story has to a lead, and the one who argued against the prank. Panettiere recorded new voice and motion work for the remake.
- Chris (Noah Fleiss). Josh’s best friend, protective and quick with a joke, and openly smitten with Ashley.
- Josh Washington (Rami Malek). The host, and the brother of the missing twins. The loner of the group.
Beyond the eight, Hannah and Beth Washington, both played by Ella Lentini, are gone before the main story starts, yet everything that follows traces back to them. Peter Stormare plays Dr. Hill, and Larry Fessenden plays the Stranger, a flamethrower-carrying recluse who has made a business of hunting wendigos. The wendigos themselves form the third camp: according to the Stranger, they are active only between nightfall and sunrise.
The 2024 version builds on the original performances rather than recasting them.
Editions
PC listings carry a single edition, the standard game. The Matt and Emily segment, which once required the pre-order or extended release of the 2015 version, is part of the base build.
- Developer: Ballistic Moon (remake of the 2015 game by Supermassive Games)
- Publisher: PlayStation Publishing LLC
- Release date: October 4, 2024
- PC storefronts: Steam and Epic Games Store
- Not included: Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, the separate 2016 VR spin-off