14 DAY TRIAL // Our Incoming 2015 series focuses on the most important game launches of the next 12 months and next up we talk about Until Dawn.
What we know
Until Dawn is one of the most intriguing titles on the list of video games set to be launched in 2015 and one about which very limited details have been offered so far.
The trailers that have been released until now show a fairly atmospheric and dark horror title that aims to capture the classic feeling of slasher movies from the ‘90s.
The development team at Supermassive is using a modified version of the most recent Killzone title to deliver realistic visuals and to make sure that there are some moments where the realism level of the scares approaches photorealism.
The team is saying that Until Dawn will use some adventure game mechanics and that gamers will be able to control the way their characters interact with both the environment and with each other.
The story has not yet been fully fleshed out, but it deals with eight friends who are being hunted by a serial killer with unclear motives as they honor a friend by spending a night in a log cabin.
Until Dawn is set to be offered only on the PlayStation 4, despite the fact that it started life as a PS3 title with Move support, and Sony claims that it will be out at some point in the summer of this year.
Why it matters
Until Dawn needs to deliver both quality visuals and good gameplay because it’s a PlayStation 4 exclusive and it is supposed to drive sales of the Sony home console during the relatively sparsely-populated summer months.
The fact that the company has managed to get some solid voices to work on the title, including Hayden Panettiere as Sam, means that it will focus on narrative elements and the atmosphere.
This might lead to poor or limited mechanics and the title also needs to deal with the fact that horror experiences have not managed to make too much of an impact on current-gen consoles.
Until Dawn will serve as a showcase of what the PS4 can deliver when it comes to story and character development, and it will be interesting to see what new ways the developers find to scare a largely jaded audience.
