Until Dawn, the PS4 exclusive coming out later this month, has already revealed plenty of gameplay, but a new trailer highlights the game’s emphasis on the impact your actions have. Giving the player choices that affect the game has become an increasingly popular aspect of story-driven games, and Until Dawn has so far made it look like it could work very well.
The trailer starts out focusing on a wall of butterflies, and not-so-subtle nod to the butterfly effect. As the trailer pans out, you hear glass breaking and a scream, and see a room that’s been trashed. Glass is broken, a dresser’s on the ground, and the bed is completely unmade. As the camera takes you into the next room, you reach your first decision: go left and fight, or right and evade. While this is happening, there are sounds of a knife slashing and someone screaming. The rest of the video follows in this same vein, eventually panning up and showing a variety of options that you can take.
It’s an interesting trailer, not so much because of what it shows but because of what it implies. The impact of choices is a major selling point in this game, and the text in the video shows that. More importantly, though, it shows that your choices aren’t just something that can be done and forgotten about. The camera is taking you back through a house that has already seen violence, meaning that someone else’s choices are now affecting what you might be able to do. The environment is dynamic and stays changed. One action has led to the results you see, and the choices you’re left with. Since the game deals with eight friends, the potential for (tasteful) backtracking is real, and, in turn, one friend potentionally dooming another.
Until Dawn is set for release on August 25th.
