Until Dawn is a reimagined classic worthy of revisiting

I never played Until Dawn when it first came out on the PlayStation 4. It just flew under my radar, despite hearing from friends throughout the years that it's a milestone in horror game design.

So when Sony sent the remake for the PS5 for review, I was more than happy to try out what many call one of the best horror games ever made. Featuring an all-star cast of character actors, including Rami Malek, Peter Stormare, and Hayden Panettiere, on paper, Until Dawn is everything a genre fan like myself could hope for.

After a couple of playthroughs and numerous gruesome deaths, I can happily attest that it's just as good in practice as it is in theory.

Split over ten chapters, plus a prologue and epilogue, Until Dawn is a classic horror film where you get to play the best parts. It's an interactive survival horror game, where one playthrough took me around seven hours to complete. As I got more used to the mechanics and more comfortable experimenting, I shaved another hour off the timer. But this is a moody, atmospheric adventure that's worth savoring.

Most of the gameplay loop is in exploration and quick-time events, same as in the original. Major sequences involve decision-making that result in characters living or dying, depending on actions made far earlier into the game. There's only one save file at each time, which forces players to live with their actions until the end, or to start the whole thing all over again.

Usually, I'm not a fan of a forced mechanic like this, but Until Dawn justifies its decision by emphasizing the horrific scenario, our heroes find themselves. When you can't go back and undo your mistakes, it adds to the nightmare in a palpable way.

It's also noteworthy that the choices presented in the game aren't cut and dry. Numerous times I found myself questioning the ethics of what was before me, only for the game to torment me with a timer forcing a quick decision. It's an elegant, yet horrific method of placing the player in the center of a horror film. The violence itself is a secondary consequence, and if the game was all about gore, it wouldn't be half as effective. Instead, by making us choose and live with our choices, Until Dawn achieves scares that few, if any, game delivers.

This is helped by a winning cast, each of whom bring their best genre-aware A-game to the table. The remake is built ground up with the Unreal Engine 5, and it shows. Until Dawn is gorgeous and horrendous all at once. It's wild to see reflections in pupils and glimmers of sweat streaking down foreheads. All of these details add to the atmosphere, which you can cut with a knife.

It must be said, though, that I experienced quite a bit of stuttering and lag during my first few runs. These lessened over time, and after an update a few weeks later, I've seen less of them, but they are still noticeable. I'm not sure if this was the case with the original version as well, but it's a bummer to see in a remaster like this.

Technical glitches aside, I had a blast with Until Dawn. I wasn't certain I was going to, as quick time -heavy gaming isn't usually my thing. But Until Dawn's fantastic balance between frantic button pressing, moody survival horror, and intense decision-making made me forget all of my initial hesitations.

This is still one of the premiere horror titles around, and one that I'm glad I finally got around to playing. If you haven't tried Until Dawn yet, do yourself a favor and get it the first chance you get. It's a terrifying thrill, one that has a surprisingly high replayability level, thanks to clever writing and game design.