Until Dawn (2024) review

Released on PS4 back in 2015, it’s safe to say that cinematic horror adventure Until Dawn is the game that put developer Supermassive Games on the map. Putting players in charge of a group of sexually-charged teenagers heading to an isolated cabin for a weekend of fun and frolics, their fate is in your hands. You see, it doesn’t take long for you to realise that they’re not alone. And the choices you make, as well as your success at a myriad of actions, will determine who lives and who dies. No pressure then.

Despite being nearly ten years old, boot the PS4 version of Until Dawn up today and you’ll find that it’s still rather impressive, visually and otherwise. But with a film based on the game on the way, and perhaps a sequel, Sony has tasked new studio Ballistic Moon with giving it an update. And so, Until Dawn is now also available on PS5 and PC. It lies somewhere between a remake and a remaster, not only sporting dramatically enhanced visuals, but also a new soundtrack, some new and extended scenes, and one or two gameplay tweaks.

The result? Well, it probably depends on how attached you are to the original. For newcomers, the PS5 and PC version of Until Dawn will most likely prove to be a captivating yet horrifying experience, just as it was all those years ago. In fact, it could be argued that it’s scarier than ever thanks to its photorealistic visuals visuals bringing things to life like never before. Ardent fans of the original, however, might take issue at some of the changes here.

There’s the camera, for example. Until Dawn is a largely cinematic game, and when you are in control of a character in the original PS4 version it maintains the cinematic feel with fixed camera angles. This new PS5 and PC version, however, has an over-the-shoulder camera during gameplay sections for the most part. Some will like the change, others won’t. In any case, it certainly ramps up the tension in some scenes, that’s for sure.

Related: Supermassive Games’ horror games, ranked worst to best

Other changes include the removal of the run button, with whichever character you’re in control of now speed-walking or jogging during exploration as appropriate. There are no changes here that dramatically alter the core experience, though. You’re still leading characters through a story that unfolds across numerous chapters, sometimes making important decisions, and you’re frequently put under pressure thanks to quick time events that test your ability to press the correct buttons in time to complete actions. Your ability to remain perfectly still is often challenged, too.

Versus some of the games made by Supermassive Games since, Until Dawn can feel a little simple, but its fabulous story full of twists and interesting characters mean that it hasn’t really lost its edge over the years. This is still perhaps the best game made by the developer, with some truly tense scenes and choices to make that don’t always lead to predictable outcomes. And so, keeping all characters alive can prove to be a task unless you’re following a guide, leading to plenty of replayability.

But there are some genuine disappointments when it comes to this new version of Until Dawn. The game now defaults to playing in a 2.39:1 format, for example, which puts black bars at the top and bottom of the screen. You can change this to 16:9, eradicating the borders, but this simply zooms the image in, giving you a lower field of view and making some QTEs much harder to complete. It also seems like a massive oversight to not incorporate a local multiplayer mode, allowing multiple players to take control of one or more characters.

Thankfully, the QTE issue can be somewhat alleviated by some of the game’s accessibility settings, which allow you to change the locations of the QTE prompts and more. You can even set QTEs to auto-succeed if you wish, though you can’t simply set them to give you more time. On my first playthrough of the PS5 version of Until Dawn for review, I encountered some technical issues and bugs, too. These seem to have eradicated by a patch released just after launch.

Ultimately, this updated version of Until Dawn for PS5 and PC is a hard one to judge. On the one hand, it certainly looks a hell of a lot better, and the new and updated scenes are very welcome indeed. Other changes, however, like the new soundtrack and the over-the-shoulder camera will be appreciated by some but not so much by others. But the real kicker here is that there isn’t an upgrade path available for those who own the PS4 version of the game.