Every Choice Has a Consequence: An Until Dawn Review

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, Newton’s third law. Something we are taught from a young age, not just in physics but also in life. For every choice we make there is a consequence- either good or bad. 

This point is driven home in the game Until Dawn. Every choice has the chance to lead to a different outcome.

Until Dawn is an interactive survival horror game that somehow blends the atmosphere of Friday the 13th, the twistedness of Saw, and the humor of Cabin in the Woods. Developed by Supermassive Games, Until Dawn takes seven to nine hours to complete. 

Until Dawn is a single player game available on PlayStation and Windows. It was released on August 25, 2015, and is now ten years old. 

Until Dawn is a horror game that stands out for the way it is played. While not the first of its kind, Until Dawn still dominates the interactive film style of game. It plays like a movie. Cut scenes are long and the cinematography shines, while also keeping the player engaged through making choices and letting them take the controls during vital moments. 

There are two versions of Until Dawn (the original and the remake) both have their own stories to tell. So does the recent movie adaptation Until Dawn (2025). 

The Original

The opening to Until Dawn has to be one of my all time favorites. There are three reasons: the classic horror trope, the iconic soundtrack, and one single foreboding warning. The game starts like most horror games, with an opening kill. Something that immediately sets the tone, but even before that there is a screen displaying the term ‘the butterfly effect’ and its definition, continuing to add to the atmosphere of the experience to come. 

The third and final thing that grabs me is the song choice for the opening credits. A version of “O Death” an old American folk song by Jeff Grace, performed by Amy Van Roekel, and there couldn’t be a more perfect song to open a game about running from death. 

The score overall was perfectly crafted and picked by the developers. The music makes the player feel the unease, the panic, and sheer fear the characters do. I found at times the score even reminded me of other horror pieces, specifically Psycho.

Until Dawn is a game that clearly shows a love for the horror genre. There are tons of cliches but that’s not to the games detriment. Supermassive Games manages to amplify the scares and make them even better then how the player predicts it. 

The first half of the game feels like a slasher movie. The dialogue is a little rough and you’ve got some of the classic slasher cliches: characters that are teenagers that only want to do stupid dumb things, splitting up when the characters shouldn’t, and petty arguments between characters. The use of genre tropes makes Until Dawn feel right at home in the horror genre. There are some occasions where the player gets to enjoy some clever misdirection that pulls off some rather good shocks. 

The story does lose some of its tongue and cheek tone across the ten hour run time. The second half of the game drops the teenage slasher feel and dives straight into a darker tense story. This change in tone can be seen as feeling like you have played two different games, but I saw it as the characters changing from being moronic and naive to realizing the dangers around them and the severity of their situation. 

While all the characters are stereotypical, there’s something about each one that stands out that makes the player compelled to make sure they all survive. The cast does a phenomenal job at making you love their respective characters. Until Dawn uses facial tracking technology to enhance character expressions. This means the actors weren’t just voice actors but also ‘face’ actors. Their portrayal of emotions are transferred to the in game models of their character and added an extra depth of realism. 

There is one character I would like to draw attention to, Dr. Hill. He is a psychiatrist that the player interacts with between the chapters. I found him to be a highlight of the game. It was fun to look back at the choices I made in his segments and see how they changed the game.

The setting is a remote cabin in the middle of nowhere that can only be accessed by an unreliable cable car. Until Dawn takes place in the dead of winter, which eliminates the idea that the characters can just escape by walking. The high angles and tracking shots make you feel like you’re always being watched by whatever lurks in the forest. Overall, the setting creates an uneasy feeling that the player and characters can’t escape. 

A big thing that sets Until Dawn apart- and any other Supermassive Game- is the fact there are over two hundred endings. The ending the player gets all depends on a few factors but primarily which characters are alive or dead by the end of the game. 

The life of each character is determined through the player’s choices. Some choices have minor consequences, some leave the player genuinely shocked, and some are satisfying to see fall in place. Some options even lead to different sub-story lines as well, enticing the player to play again to make a different choice to dig deeper into the story.

Now, my least favorite part of Until Dawn is the quick-time events (QTEs). However that’s just because QTEs rely on fast reaction times, which I don’t have. The QTEs- while stressful to me- actually added to the intensity to the story. It requires the player to always be ready for something, there is no down time when playing Until Dawn. The second you drop your shoulders and relax there’s a scare, a QTE, or something lurking to catch the player off guard, which overall adds to the thrill of the original. 

But did the remake live up to the standards of the original?

The Remake 

In 2024, Supermassive Games remade Until Dawn. There isn’t much difference between the two- at least from what I picked up on. 

There were subtle changes that made the game feel newer. Plus a handful of new scenes- like an extended prologue- that adds more for the player to do and discover. The character models are updated with better details which makes them look a bit more realistic. There are different camera angles that make the game feel more movie-like. 

The biggest change I noticed- outside of an extra scene- was a change to a few scenes. In the original, certain characters would have actions that the player could not change or interfere with. I found the removal of these minor character actions to take away from their personalities.

What I disliked about the remake was the exclusion of a few things. Two characters get significantly less screen time than the original. Now I could’ve completely looked past this because the remake did introduce new better scenes but what I couldn’t look past was the exclusion of the opening credit’s song “O Death.”

“O Death” set the tone for me and without it something felt like it was missing. Despite that game’s best efforts, that missing piece lingered throughout playing. 

The remake is decent, the new graphics and scenes definitely make it worth a play, but it doesn’t hold up to the perfection that is the original. I found the remake to be almost unnecessary because there weren’t enough changes that set it apart for the better.

The Movie

But if we really want to talk about something unnecessary, it's the 2025 movie “adaptation.” 

The movie is 103 minutes; 103 minutes too long. I originally was pumped to hear there was going to be a movie adaption of Until Dawn, but after the first trailer I knew it wasn’t anything close to the game. After over an hour and a half of torture later, my fears were only confirmed. 

The movie takes on a Happy Death Day-like persona- the day repeats over and over with the death of characters- something that wasn’t a part of the game, at all. In fact, there were basically zero connections to the source material and the story isn’t even close to what was in the game. There’s possibly three mentions of things that allude to the game, but honestly, the movie could be set in a whole different universe then the game. 

I wish I could say that the movie at least got the creatures right, but that would be a lie. It is the same monster, yet somehow the movie with a $15 million dollar budget couldn’t make them look anything like the game did. 

The only decent thing about this movie was the appearance of the actor Peter Stormare- the man behind Dr. Hill. He was the only good thing, but he was on screen for roughly 16 minutes, leaving the rest of the movie to drag.

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Until Dawn is the perfect horror game for someone who likes to be forced to think through every choice. The original will always be iconic in the world of horror games. While the remake didn't stand out, it at least was better than the movie.

Remember the butterfly effect, every choice you make has a consequence. Choose wisely when playing. 

My Rating: