The remake will appeal mainly to those who haven’t played the original.
It’s been 9 years since the release of the PS4 exclusive Until Dawn, the horror “interactive movie” that made British studio Supermassive famous and started a series of games in this style, which they continued with the anthology The Dark Pictures, the standalone game The Quarry and the recent The Casting of Frank Stone from the world of Dead by Daylight. Some games were more successful, some less so, but the studio was never able to fully follow the huge success of Until Dawn. And so it’s no surprise that Sony, as the owner of the rights to this brand, is back in the game and tasked with the new studio Ballistic Moon to create a remake of this last generation classic, which is currently being released. But is it worth it?
- Platform: PC, PlayStation 5 (reviewed version)
- Release date: 4. 10. 2024
- Developer: Ballistic Moon
- Publisher: Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Genre: Interactive movie, horror
- Czech localization: Yes
- Multiplayer: Yes
- File size: 58 GB
- Game time: ~9 hours
- Cena: 1,699 CZK (Alza)
As you know it
I would start with a story where there were only a few changes. Don’t expect a spectacular remake in the style of Resident Evil from Until Dawn, but rather a purely audiovisual remake. The only major additions can be found at the beginning in the form of a slightly extended prologue, which is not particularly good either, and on the contrary a very interesting ending, which seems to be tempting for a sequel, about which there is speculation.
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
The rest of the game is practically 1:1 like the original. Of course, this is not bad, the story still works great after all these years and the decisions play a big role here. But if you’ve already played the original game, you won’t find much new here in terms of story.
Impressive audio visual
Of course, the visuals underwent a big change. The developers bet on Unreal Engine 5, which makes the lighting look absolutely beautiful. Since Until Dawn takes place most of the time at night, and most of the lighting is just flashlights, candles, and other smaller light sources, the quality of the overall lighting, shadows, and volumetric lights stand out all the more.
Even in terms of overall details, the game has nothing to be ashamed of. The objects filling the environment are of high quality, as are all the textures, materials and even the hair. The snow simulation was also very successful, mainly the tracks in it when the character walks through thick snow, but also other visual effects.
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Overall, this is an extremely impressive title in terms of graphics, thanks to the very solid image quality. It’s not perfect, there is some aliasing, but the image is significantly cleaner than most current titles.
On the other hand, it must be said that the visuals are not completely without flaws. Although the new character models are good in many ways, some of their proportions look a little strange, especially Jessica in the prologue, where she looks completely bizarre. The bigger problem is the facial expressions and overall animation of the characters anyway.
As the developers have confirmed, they used motion capture data from the original game for the animations in the remake, which makes some of the animations really choppy. The original voices were used as well, but no problem there, the acting was great in the original.
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On the contrary, the novelty here is, of course, the successful use of the DualSense controller. Although it does not reach the level of Astro Bot, for example, haptics play a significant role here and significantly improve the experience. Adaptive triggers are used here rather marginally, but that is understandable given the gameplay style.
Supermassive fans will probably be disappointed that the iconic song O’Death, which the British developers also use for The Dark Pictures Anthology, will not be played in the opening. It’s possible that Sony simply lost the rights to the songs from the original, as the soundtrack is completely new. And it’s actually not bad at all, personally I really like the new theme tune. It’s just something significantly different than what we were used to in the original.
Accessible to all
In any case, the important thing is that the improvements did not occur only in terms of audiovisuals, the developers also paid a lot of attention to the Quality of Life improvements, of which there are many, but mainly it is the camera. While in the original game she was completely static in many parts, or moved only a little, the remake uses a modern 3rd person camera in most scenes, which makes the title play much better. You still occasionally find a static camera here, as a certain nod to the original.
So this is an improvement that everyone will feel, but then there are a number of options in the menu. They mainly concern accessibility, mostly various reliefs for the handicapped, including, for example, reading menu items for blind players. Almost all players will appreciate the very detailed options of quick-time events, which can be frustrating for some. Here you can set exactly how they should behave, so that they look according to your ideas and do not make your experience unpleasant. There is also a history of dialogues.
A major step back
I’ve had a lot of praise so far, but I haven’t covered one very major negative, and that’s the frame rate. While the original Until Dawn ran unlocked on the PS4 (ie aiming for 60, but the frame rate was quite unstable), the PS5 performance was able to match the frame rate and the game actually ran stable at 60 FPS most of the time. But the remake is locked to 30 frames per second and you won’t find any alternative performance mode.
Sure, the image quality is many times better than in the original, which only runs in Full HD, here it’s full 4K, but still, the absence of the 60 FPS option is surprising, when the original game already had it as a base on PS4. Be that as it may, it could still be chewed through, but unfortunately the performance problems don’t end there.
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The 30 FPS lock is, as in many other titles, badly done and the frame pacing is not stable. In other words, some frames are displayed longer and some are displayed shorter, so the smoothness of the image does not give a consistent impression. In the later stages of the game, especially in larger locations, you will also encounter the old familiar traversal stuttering, which can be quite significant and disrupts the overall experience. Even more so when it appears not only during movement, but also cutscenes and QTE passages.
The aspect ratio situation is also strange. The original was classically 16:9, but for the remake, the developers decided to choose a “cinematic” aspect ratio of 2.39:1, so if you don’t have such a monitor, you will have significant black bars at the top and bottom. There is an option to switch to 16:9 mode, but it works in such a way that the image is zoomed in and you have a significantly smaller field of view. So I played most of the game in the 2.39:1 aspect ratio, which is also recommended by the developers.
i Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
i Source: Jan Urbančík/Zing.cz
2,39:1 vs. 16:9
Finally, it should be added that I did not avoid a few bugs, such as when the camera almost had an epileptic seizure during a cutscene, or when my character began to skate on the ground at great speed instead of walking. Once the game completely crashed, luckily there are frequent autosaves. Anyway, multiple players are complaining about the crashes and it’s quite possible that I’ve been pretty lucky with just that one. Technically speaking, the game is not fully tuned yet and will need several patches. The repair shouldn’t take too long, because the number of bugs is not quite extreme, and it certainly cannot be said that the title would be unplayable because of them.
Especially for new players
As a result, the Until Dawn remake did well. The visuals are absolutely gorgeous and take the already strong atmosphere to a whole new level, with the audio and a solid, if different, new soundtrack not far behind. In terms of the story, don’t expect much new, so I would recommend the game mainly to people who have never tried the original, or to really die-hard fans who will appreciate the few extra things. Anyway, please wait a little longer before buying until some bugs and game crashes are fixed.¨
Verdict
The remake of the classic from the last generation was extremely successful in terms of audio-visual. Graphically, it’s a huge leap forward, giving the game an even stronger feel than the original. But don’t look for many changes in the story here, so the news will especially please those who haven’t played the original. And even these players have to reckon with technical problems, led by a not exactly pleasant frame rate.
What do we like and dislike?
Beautiful lighting, details and visual effects
A modern camera makes gaming more enjoyable
Great accessibility options, including QTE settings
Very high image quality
Use of the DualSense controller, mainly haptic feedback
Even years later, a great story with decisions that really matter
New ending and a few minor additions
Nice new soundtrack
Only 30 FPS with unstable frame pacing and traversal stuttering
Fewer bugs and occasional game crashes
Sometimes the animation of the characters is terrible
Half resolution 16:9
