Until Dawn challenges current survival horror giants

After watching the trailer for Until Dawn it becomes apparent that this game could be a strong competitor for genre sweethearts Silent Hill and Resident Evil (formerly a survival horror game). The game is being released for Playstation 3 and will utilize the PS Move controller for gameplay. Supposedly, it may also support standard controller gameplay according to Kotaku (let’s hope). The developers of Until Dawn, Supermassive Games, states that the game takes influence from the critically acclaimed PS3 game Heavy Rain in that is being designed to be very “filmy.” The type of film? A teen horror flick. This is refreshing since there are plenty of traditional zombie based games and horror suspense games.

Watch the Until Dawn trailer here…

Kotaku writer, Stephen Totilok, recently played the game and reported, “So, yeah, the pretty girl stripped to her underwear moments before some dark force yanked her out of the window of a log cabin and before her would-be boyfriend went running after her into the dark, snowy woods. The difference was that it was all interactive. Until Dawn is a PS3 game, controlled by the PlayStation Move motion controller. Unzipping Jessica’s jacket is a swipe down with the Move. Running after her abductor is a tight squeeze of the Move’s analog controller while pointing the Move as a flashlight to break the blackness of night.”

That sounds pretty exciting to play as a game. My general complaint with these type of games is the overall lack of challenge and depth. But of course, these aren’t traditional video games… they’re more like interactive movies. I can appreciate that too as I enjoyed titles like Heavy Rain and Asura’s Wrath. The player takes the role of whoever has the flashlight, which is a pretty cool idea. The story is being written by Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, both experienced horror writers. My main concern is with Supermassive Games, a developer with a short but less than stellar track record. Their highest profile game is Doctor Who The Eternity Clock, a PSN/PS3 and Playstation Vita title that was released with mixed reviews. Most of the negativity centered around technical issues which Supermassive Games addressed via an update. I’m not using this to condemn them since they are a fairly new development house and this appears to be a very important title to them. Until Dawn could be the game to put them on the map.

Until Dawn’s release date will be sometime in 2013. It is Playstation 3 exclusive.

Supermassive Games Official Site

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