One of (my) most anticipated games of the year, “Until Dawn” has finally announced the official release date. Sony has revealed that the horror survival game will release on PlayStation 4 on August 25 in North America, August 26 in most PAL territories, and August 28 in UK and Ireland.
“Until Dawn” will release three edition of the game: the standard edition, an extended edition, and a steelbook edition. The steelbook edition will only be available in some countries, the full list of which can be found on the PS Blog.
Sam (Hayden Panettiere), Josh (Rami Malek), Jessica (Meaghan Martin), Mike (Brett Dalton), Emily (Nichole Bloom), Matt (Jordan Fisher), Ashley (Galadriel Stineman), and Chris (Noah Fleiss) spend the night in a log cabin on the anniversary of the disappearance of their friend Hannah (Ella Lentini), unaware that they are being hunted by a crazed serial killer.
What makes “Until Dawn” interesting and unique is not the story but how it is played. It is driven uniquely by the individual player. It is designed to be replayed multiple times as players will not be able to understand the full story with only just one playthrough. According to the developer, each playthrough will last about 9 hours in length and the game mechanics will utilize a new in-game system called the “Butterfly Effect” in which any choice of action by the player may cause major unforeseen consequences later on. Throughout the game players will make difficult decisions during ethical or moral dilemmas such as to sacrifice one character in order to save another as one example. The “Butterfly Effect” system blurs the line between right and wrong decisions and it is possible for players to keep all eight characters alive or to have them all killed, allowing for many different paths and scenarios players can take and seemingly endless multiple endings. There is also a very strict saving function that will not allow you as the player to reload a previous save file in case you immediately regret a decision you have made.
Also, before playing the game, players are asked a series of questions such as “what frightens you more dark places or large crowds?” These answers are used to affect you thoughout the game. If you chose dark places, the killer might trap you in an area where you can’t see him before he kills you. It attempts to tailor the game to what terrifies YOU.
Pick up “Until Dawn” August 25.
