[Test PS5] Until Dawn: The Return

New with old…

In 2015, Supermassive Games entered the world of video games through the big door with Until Dawna narrative horror game exclusive to the Playstation 4. Helped by a cast of stars (Hayden Panettiere, Rami Malek, and Peter Stormare), he had fun reproducing (and sometimes a little parodying) the clichés inherent in the codes of genre through a story that is nevertheless very well written and gripping.

The experience itself found its interest in the choices that we could make, and which impacted the progress of the story and the destiny of the characters. Which also creates an amusing paradox because, in a good slasher at the cinema, often, it is the number of deaths and the circumstances of these deaths which partly make up the spice of the story, whereas, in the game , the best thing we can do is to make the right choices to obtain as many survivors as possible, or even zero victims.

Today, Until Dawn benefits from a remastering available on PS5 and PC (and not a remake), but, instinctively, we could ask ourselves questions about the usefulness of such an approach. Once the game has been remade, unfortunately, despite several notable improvements, including in terms of graphics, we are entitled to always ask ourselves the question.

Halloween is here and it is nevertheless the right time to bring out a game which, despite the Bandai Namco anthology (which Supermassive Games then launched to ride on the success of its foal), has never found the same balance as during his first game. So, 10 years later, the studio decided on this remastering in order, certainly, to promote the future cinema adaptation and a possible future sequel, if we refer to one of the added scenes.

…but an old one that doesn’t make it new

As we said, in terms of improvements, visually, we feel that there has been an effort made, even if the 2015 version still puts on a show. There are also notable (micro)additions, story-wise, among others in the prologue, which is now longer and further establishes the characters and the rest of the story.

It was the Ballistic Moon studio which took over from Supermassive Games for this remastering, and which is based on the Unreal Engine 5 graphics engine. A judicious choice because, in fact, visually, the level of detail has increased. and the atmosphere is affected – more immersive, with lighting effects that gain in brilliance and more precise character modeling (even if the facial expressions and lip synchronization are still far from perfect). For the rest, the game has not really changed and the atmosphere of the narrow corridors continues to have its effect and accentuates the moments of anxiety to make us jump.

On the other hand, in terms of handling, we will regret a notable lack of effort because we are often treated to big jerks, or even collision bugs which often force us to turn the cursor of the controller several times to succeed to go through a door or go around an NPC who accompanies us. Fortunately, this doesn’t happen all the time, but the heaviness of the whole thing reminds us of the age of the game despite the tweaks.

The real problem only arises when you are in an emergency situation and your reaction rate does not depend solely on contextual actions. The heaviness of your character then quickly becomes burdensome. Flaws that are somewhat painful but which, fortunately, are once again absorbed by a story that is as distressing as it is captivating.

In summary, this Until Dawn 2024 version, despite its technical improvements, remains a simple remastered and therefore does not reach the level of certain more recent PS5 games. On the other hand, its story has not aged a bit and, if it is difficult to recommend the game to all those who have already played the original experience given a sales price of 70 euros which is clearly exaggerated (l arrival on PC set the tone with a peak of only 3000 curious people according to Steam DB), the others can let themselves be tempted by the adventure – especially since the game has real replayability if you want to try all the narrative branches or that we wish to recover all the collectibles.