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Until Dawn - Review Thread

pixelation

Member
If there's one thing i truly dislike about Sony, its the way that they "advertise" some of their games... hell they only seem to spend marketing money in Uncharted and GOW, leaving most others to find whatever success they can by themselves.
 

UberTag

Member
If there's one thing i truly dislike about Sony, its the way that they "advertise" some of their games... hell they only seem to spend marketing money in Uncharted and GOW, leaving most others to find whatever success they can by themselves.
Their greatest offense is releasing both Tearaway games on the same week of a new Mario platformer that will completely overshadow them in the gaming press.
 

Rurunaki

Member
77sg1q.jpg



This will be me the whole time playing the game.
 
Just read The Verge's review, I love how they always seems to be first timers on games in their reviews but with respect and good will... the opposite of real gamers. :p
 
Gonna get this when I get my own place. Housewarming with friends and drinks, playing this and shouting at the screen

I can't imagine anything better
 

JoduanER2

Member
I'm surprised to see this review so well. But so did Heavy Rain, and that was a disaster.

Still, might be a good game to play with my girlfriend. Seems the type of game you want an audience for. I'm really on the edge on whether I should buy this, can't decide... HMMM

Mmm sure a disaster... completely unplayable.
 
If there's one thing i truly dislike about Sony, its the way that they "advertise" some of their games... hell they only seem to spend marketing money in Uncharted and GOW, leaving most others to find whatever success they can by themselves.

I don't think this is really true so far this generation. I think The Order 1886 and especially Bloodborne received good pushes.
 

spekkeh

Banned
About the Polygon review:

I feel like his major gripe with the no checkpoint system and the consequences that result from it has merit; but, at the same time, I also feel like it's complaining about something that works as intended and is a good design decision. If you fail a critical button prompt and a character dies because of it, doesn't that make the scene feel more thrilling and future button prompts more heart pounding?

Plus, this game isn't setup like a normal game. You know people are going to die. You know this is a game that's meant to be replayed for different outcomes.

So I feel like the criticism is logically valid but is very shallow and fundamentally wrong. It's like complaining that a character in Game of Thrones dies five seasons in...
It has merit in the sense that he probably voices an opinion many gamers will have, but he quite obviously approaches the game with an achievement gamer mindset. That he has to win. Story games are more about role playing in an optimal dramatic arc. Losing can be just as much or even more satisfying than winning if it fits your feelings. I think a professional reviewer should be able to see this distinction. (though it might be that the game really did fail at this as he said some of the deaths felt like cheating; then again to me this seems par for the course for slasher flicks.. which is not an outright endorsement though.)
 

Mogwai

Member
I'm surprised to see this review so well. But so did Heavy Rain, and that was a disaster.

A disaster on NeoGAF: The game has minor flaws regarding to plot, gameplay mechanics etc.

A disaster outside NeoGAF: The game is broken and not playable.
 

eerik9000

Member
Really? Awesome then. Only trailers I have seen are the YouTube PlayStation Blog trailers and nothing on TV. Guess I'm watching the wrong channels. Hopefully this is a resounding success.

There was an ad for it at the half time of Arsenal v Liverpool on Sky Sports (UK) last night. That much I can confirm.
 

hal9001

Banned
Why can't reviewers review the game just for what it is? Why do they always have to have countless debate paragraphs discussing if it is a game or not? Fucking agenda against this genre.
 
I'm surprised to see this review so well. But so did Heavy Rain, and that was a disaster.

Still, might be a good game to play with my girlfriend. Seems the type of game you want an audience for. I'm really on the edge on whether I should buy this, can't decide... HMMM

Heavy Rain was good. It had a few problems, but to call it a 'disaster' is a stretch. I enjoyed my time with it, it was refreshing in a world full of first person military shooters.
 

driver116

Member
The polygon review is crap. The guy implies it does something genre defining, yet it's a bad game that doesn't deserve success. WTF?
 

KORNdoggy

Member
It has merit in the sense that he probably voices an opinion many gamers will have, but he quite obviously approaches the game with an achievement gamer mindset. That he has to win. Story games are more about role playing in an optimal dramatic arc. Losing can be just as much or even more satisfying than winning if it fits your feelings. I think a professional reviewer should be able to see this distinction. (though it might be that the game really did fail at this as he said some of the deaths felt like cheating; then again to me this seems par for the course for slasher flicks.. which is not an outright endorsement though.)

i agree. this isn't supposed to be a game where you have to "win" every encounter. it's one of cause and effect. i think gamers in general have had the need for success implanted in their heads so much that the idea you can "fail" and carry on is alien to them. they're used to QTE's that result in death to result in a reload and a retry until it is done successfully. but games like heavy rain and until dawn don't work that way. it's lack of checkpoints and the way it forces you to accept your actions are vital parts of its design. imo it should auto save over a single save file very frequently, much like the souls games do.

if you strip away how these "consequence" based systems work, it takes a huge part of the experience away. image demon's souls if you could save anywhere and just reload before a fight rather then have to re-fight and re-acquire your dropped souls? it wouldn't be the same game.
 

Percy

Banned
A disaster on NeoGAF: The game has minor flaws regarding to plot, gameplay mechanics etc.

I'd hardly call one of the game's central plot points (
Ethan's black outs
) going completely unexplained due to content being cut from the game a "minor" flaw. In a game where the plot and the actual gameplay are so closely intertwined, such an enormous plothole could arguably be described as 'game breaking' in a way imo.

Why can't reviewers review the game just for what it is? Why do they always have to have countless debate paragraphs discussing if it is a game or not? Fucking agenda against this genre.

The problem can't be an 'agenda' against the genre. I've never seen this subject be so central to discussions of titles like Life is Strange or whatever Telltale put out for example.
 
The polygon review is crap. The guy implies it does something genre defining, yet it's a bad game that doesn't deserve success. WTF?
Until Dawn exists within a strange duality. It's a game that's generic while being unlike anything else I've ever played. It's bad in some very evident ways, and yet I want everyone I know to try it. It's not a great game, probably not even a good one, but it does things I want every narrative-based game going forward to learn from. I'm still fascinated by it, still planning more playthroughs for myself, still wanting to recommend it to friends. Until Dawn's greatest mystery may be how it manages to remain compelling in spite of such huge flaws.
"Yet I want everyone I know to try it." "Still wanting to recommend it to friends" "does things I want every narrative-based game going forward to learn from"

Seems like he wants it to do well, but recognizes the game(from his point of view) has some major issues. Seems perfectly agreeable.
 
As far as sales. I think this will crack a million before October. When the reviews hit in the UK, prices spiked and it jumped from being in the amazon top #100 to top #5

And this happened with every EU Amazon gaming chart. Support morphed into outright thirst. And the remarkable thing is that all happened within an hour. Across Amazon EU.

Top 30-50 day before release to a uniform top #5 across the board an hour later?

From that turn around I'd say that while meta is important, it's mostly influenced by western/NA sources. Until Dawn reviewed well on gaming sites in the EU that wont register on meta but they are trusted by gamers. And those review scores were 9's and 8's. I expect really strong support across the EU.
 
I'm surprised to see this review so well. But so did Heavy Rain, and that was a disaster.

Still, might be a good game to play with my girlfriend. Seems the type of game you want an audience for. I'm really on the edge on whether I should buy this, can't decide... HMMM

Heavy Rain was not a disaster. Far from it actually.
 

UberTag

Member
cannot consider itself an homage to teen slashers if it doesnt show nudity and lots of tits. So does it?
tumblr_mqa974szgL1rxo8yio1_250.gif


You can thank the ESRB for that. Gore = good. Nudity and lots of tits = bad.

Allow me to introduce you to Until Dawn's 9th playable character... the magic towel.
You can run through the house holding a flashlight while running from a crazed psycho, tripping down steps, diving under beds.
You'll fear for your life plenty but you'll never have to fear for your modesty because that towel ain't going anywhere.

UntilDawnPSXDemoWT-610.jpg
 

Late Flag

Member
For some reason I just sort of expected this game to review poorly. I'm going to have to put this on my list of games to pick up at some point if I can catch it on sale.
 

kubus

Member
It seems like you don't know the meaning of 'poorly'.
I think you misread Late Flag's post. It think they mean they thought it was gonna review poorly, but was positively surprised to see it doing so well. But correct me if I'm wrong!

Speaking of which, I still don't see why people were expecting this game to be bad. It looked amazing in all previews and I've been following this game's development since it was first revealed in 2012. Really happy that it's being reviewed favorably. Word of mouth and the internet (streams, let's plays) will give this game legs.
 

Endo Punk

Member
tumblr_mqa974szgL1rxo8yio1_250.gif


You can thank the ESRB for that. Gore = good. Nudity and lots of tits = bad.

Allow me to introduce you to Until Dawn's 9th playable character... the magic towel.
You can run through the house holding a flashlight while running from a crazed psycho, tripping down steps, diving under beds.
You'll fear for your life plenty but you'll never have to fear for your modesty because that towel ain't going anywhere.

UntilDawnPSXDemoWT-610.jpg

i was so interested in the game but this put me off. Its principle, they are not being true to the source material.

For some reason I just sort of expected this game to review poorly. I'm going to have to put this on my list of games to pick up at some point if I can catch it on sale.

Im glad you you didnt compare it to the order :p
 

derExperte

Member
Single playthrough should be about 7-9 hours, but it is made to be replayed.

People keep saying that but then I read in some reviews that long parts become boring when played again because obviously the suspense is gone and you can't skip stuff even if it's the same as before. I redid some of Heavy Rain and considered it for Beyond but if it's not like Stanley Parable with completely diverging paths it becomes really hard for me to replay games like this. Though I also never was someone who rewatches his favorite movies 50 times.
 

kurahador

Member
tumblr_mqa974szgL1rxo8yio1_250.gif


You can thank the ESRB for that. Gore = good. Nudity and lots of tits = bad.

Allow me to introduce you to Until Dawn's 9th playable character... the magic towel.
You can run through the house holding a flashlight while running from a crazed psycho, tripping down steps, diving under beds.
You'll fear for your life plenty but you'll never have to fear for your modesty because that towel ain't going anywhere.

UntilDawnPSXDemoWT-610.jpg

Goddammit america!!
 
http://24.media.tumblr.com/1426c2b97fb8d03a6ca4903624932da5/tumblr_mqa974szgL1rxo8yio1_250.gif[IMG]

[B]You can thank the ESRB for that. Gore = good. Nudity and lots of tits = bad.[/B]

Allow me to introduce you to Until Dawn's 9th playable character... the magic towel.
You can run through the house holding a flashlight while running from a crazed psycho, tripping down steps, diving under beds.
You'll fear for your life plenty but you'll never have to fear for your modesty because that towel ain't going anywhere.

[IMG]http://media1.gameinformer.com/filestorage/CommunityServer.Components.SiteFiles/imagefeed/featured/sony2015/untildawn/UntilDawnPSXDemoWT-610.jpg[IMG][/QUOTE]

I read it didn't have much gore either?

Not that it matters. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of my favourite horror films and there's not much blood in that at all.
 

UberTag

Member
I read it didn't have much gore either?

Not that it matters. Texas Chainsaw Massacre is one of my favourite horror films and there's not much blood in that at all.
Don't know where you heard that.
I would argue that gore is quite plentiful... albeit they probably overdo it a tad on the severed head front.
I'm a big proponent of variety.
 
Don't know where you heard that.
I would argue that gore is quite plentiful... albeit they probably overdo it a tad on the severed head front.

It was in the Metro review.

We should point out right away that Until Dawn has relatively little gore and no nudity, and apart from a couple of very brief sequences would barely justify a 15 rating. It’s also not really scary, and outside of a few cheap jump scares rarely seems to be trying. You might wonder why someone would go to all the trouble of making an 18-rated game with such limitations but in the context of the movies it’s mimicking it doesn't seem as gutless (literally) as it sounds.
 
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