Until Dawn

Until Dawn is a 2015 interactive drama horror video game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment for the PlayStation 4.

Plot
Every year, a group of young friends travel to an isolated ski lodge deep in the mountains for their annual retreat. When a mean-hearted prank goes awry, two of the friends are driven out into the icy darkness and are never heard from again.

One year later, the remaining eight are invited to that same ski lodge to commemorate their friends' deaths. But when mysterious and deadly occurrences begin to happen, it quickly becomes clear that someone or something is out for blood... and not all of them might make it out alive.

Why It Rocks

 * 1) The game's premise is unique as you get to experience what's essentially an interactive horror movie.
 * 2) The game features a butterfly effect system, in which players have to make choices. These range from small decisions like picking up a book to moral choices that involve the fates of other characters. Some decisions are timed. Certain choices may unlock a new sequence of events and cause unforeseen consequences. These choices also influence the story's tone, personality trait of characters, and the relationships between characters.
 * 3) The game in total has 3 endings: All survivors, partial survivors, and no survivors. Despite that, it is said that there is more than 256 possible combinations with each character acting different in the police interviews.
 * 4) The game greatly pays homage to many horror franchises like Saw, Friday The 13th, The Wicker Man, and etc.
 * 5) The graphics looks amazing for 2015 standards and still looks great today.
 * 6) Amazing intro song in the form of O'death, performed by Amy Van Roekel.
 * 7) In between each chapter you will be in a therapy session with Dr. Alan Hill and he will question you about things like your fears, and what characters you like and dislike. As the game progresses, the office itself will change becoming more decrypted and creepy. There will even be items that reflect on whatever you choose during the sessions.
 * 8) The game is purposely made as a Cliché Storm. The plot is that of a typical horror movie; there are a bunch of teenagers that go to a remote location with no other people around and no signal for their phones, and end up Alone with the Psycho for the night. Along the way, there's a Town with a Dark Secret/Government Conspiracy, a grizzled old hermit who's Mr. Exposition, Saw-esque Death Traps, a Stringy-Haired Ghost Girl, loads of Cat Scares and Jump Scares, an Abandoned Hospital and Abandoned Mine, and lots of other common horror elements present.
 * 9) *The characters also share cliché elements from this as Sam plays the role of the Final Girl since she can only be killed in the last sequence of the game and Jessica plays the role of the Dumb Blonde. Players can even make the Black Guy Dies First cliché occur with their choices.
 * 10) Throughout the game you can find clues that related to one of three cluelines in the game.
 * 11) *Mystery Man Clueline - The clues help the player find out who is hunting and torturing the group.
 * 12) *Twins Clueline - The clues help the player discover what happened to the twin sisters, Hannah and Beth, after their disappearances.
 * 13) *1952 Clueline - The clues help the player find out the events that took place across the mountain in 1952 and the origin of the Wendigo.
 * 14) There are five different types of totems based on Indigenous Native-American beliefs which signify prophecies to come in the form of butterflies, with different colors correlating to different meanings. They can be found in the game randomly, and looking into them shows a glimpse of a possible future event, giving the player a chance to avoid or follow the said event.
 * 15) *Death Totems foretell a possible death of the player's character. The individual segments are colored with black marks and together form a totem pole of demonic figures with ghoulish faces and prominent fangs.
 * 16) *Danger Totems foretell a dangerous event that a character might experience. The individual segments are colored with red marks and together form a totem pole covered in insects and arachnids like beetles, scorpions, and dragonflies.
 * 17) *Loss Totems foretell a possible death of another character. The individual segments are colored with brown marks and together form a totem pole decorated in reptiles and amphibians like snakes, lizards, and frogs.
 * 18) *Guidance Totems provide visions to guide the player in making future decisions. The individual segments are colored with yellow marks and together form a totem pole composed mostly of ungulates (hoofed animals).
 * 19) *Fortune totems foretell possible fortunate outcomes for the characters. The individual segments are colored with white marks and together form a totem pole made out of winged creatures like bats and birds.
 * 20) **Finding every totem will unlock a short video, called The Events of the Past. This has The Stranger explain how the curse of the Wendigo was awoken by the mining event in 1952.
 * 21) While the game itself is only 8 hours, the multiple endings give it a lot of replayability.
 * 22) Most of the characters are decent albeit somewhat cliché and somewhat likable (excluding Emily).
 * 23) All the actors do a great job at portraying the characters most notable Rami Malek as Josh and Brett Dalton as Mike.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) Some of the facial expressions look off and at times fall into the uncanny valley. This is something that's also apparent in Supermassive's Man of Medan franchise.
 * 2) While some think that Josh being the fake murderer and that there are actually monsters is a clever plot twist that completely turns the game's plot on its head, other feel it undermines the consequences of Josh setting up the fake murderer prank out of a messed up way to cope with the deaths of his sisters and just turns the story into another generic horror plot. There's also a middle ground of people who agree that the twist makes the story into a generic horror plot that covers no new ground but appreciate the game as a love letter to the horror genre for that exact reason.
 * 3) Emily is a pretty unlikable character since she's the one who planned the prank on Hannah, constantly bosses Matt around, and is rude to most of the characters.
 * 4) Some of the dialogue is a bit cringy as it mostly sounds like your typical cheesy teen horror dialogue. Although, it was later confirmed that this was mostly intentional and the dialogue does get better as the game progresses.
 * 5) There are some things that make no sense. At one point, Chris and Ashley can come across film reel that shows clips of where everyone was hiding in the prologue, just like the player was shown at the beginning. The only footage that would be available is footage Matt recorded from behind the closet so how did Josh get this footage?
 * 6) It's fairly easy to guess at the identity of the "Mystery Man" for a number of reasons: He isn't available to be played before the reveal, has a motive for a grudge against the guests, and is responsible for splitting up the party and sending them to specific locations throughout the lodge. If all of those clues didn't tip you off, it's pretty easy to recognize actor Rami Malek's distinctive diction through the voice distortion.
 * 7) Much like most Interactive Dramas, you can't skip the cutscenes which hurts replayability.

Reception
Until Dawn received a generally positive reception. Many critics praised the acting, the handling of QTEs, the butterfly effect system, and impact of choices. Critics also praised the writing noting the similarities to B-movie slasher flicks while others disliked it. The main criticism came from the controls and motion controls like the "Don't Move" ones.

Sales
According to Chart-Track, Until Dawn was the second-best-selling retail game in the UK in its week of release, trailing only Gears of War: Ultimate Edition. It was also the seventh-best-selling game in the US and the top-trending game on YouTube in August 2015. Sony was surprised by the game's critical responses and the number of players posting videos of it or streaming it on YouTube. Shuhei Yoshida, President of SCE Worldwide Studios, called Until Dawn a "sleeper hit". Samuels added that the game surpassed the company's expectations, though the exact sales figure was not announced.