Until Dawn, PS5 Byte Size Review
Big thanks again to guest writer, Nina. Who sat down to a few sessions of scares, before flitting off for a month long holiday in Thailand!
When Until Dawn first released back in 2015, it was quickly considered the best-in-class thriller of its kind, especially in the mainstream space. As such, it took up a special place in the heart of both gamers and more casual or ‘video-game’ curious players. It makes sense, then, that Sony would want to put out a next-gen version of the game.
The result is Until Dawn PS5 – a visually and technically enhanced version of a thrilling classic, with a few extra goodies thrown in for good measure.
Don’t look back, well, perhaps a little…
Back in 2015, Until Dawn was on the cutting edge of realistic graphics, and the PS5 edition makes sure to uphold that legacy. All the visuals have been overhauled using Unreal Engine 5, allowing the game to run at a smooth 60 fps with 4k resolution. During the hours I spent with the game, I experienced no frame drops or any other kind of graphical glitch. On top of the visual face-lift, the game has also received a swathe of new settings, including accessibility features. I wanted to bring these up in particular because they’re among my favorite things that have been added because they let you totally customize how you want to play the game.
For example, I really dislike quick time events, and in Until Dawn succeeding or failing QTEs is often the difference between a character’s death and their survival.
But, with the new accessibility settings, I can set all QTEs to automatically succeed. Or, I can also set all QTEs to automatically fail. I don’t know why anyone would opt to do the latter, but I can’t help but respect the devs for adding the option anyway. It feels like genuine commitment on their behalf, and I imagine it would also make for a very unique playthrough.
Enough collectibles to keep you searching Until Dawn.
Other new content for this edition include new conversation options and character interactions, which don’t change the overall story, but help to deepen some of the relationships and personalities of the main cast. There are also new collectibles to find and locations to explore. Again, they don’t change the plot in any major way, but rather expand upon what is already there.
I like all this new content, and I’m impressed with the visual and performance upgrades on show too. But in my most humble opinion, they are not enough to justify a $100 NZD price tag. At the end of the day, this is exactly the same game.
So, if you’ve never played Until Dawn before and would like to, I strongly recommend picking up this ‘new-car-smelling’ version. But if you played it back in 2015 on PS4, then you’ve already played had they best of this game….the thrilling experience and story.
If for some reason you are on the fence, torn or just down right curious, I’d recommend looking up the new scenes, locations and collectibles on YouTube….. and save yourself a hundred bucks.
