Until Dawn

Welcome to a game, in which every single action can decide about life and death of your friends: Until Dawn. In this interactive horror movie, players must choose between morally acceptable and strategic decisions repeatedly. Binary decision-making paths and various quick-time events lead to different endings. Accordingly, this video game is ideal for an analysis from a media science perspective in the field of Game Studies.

About the Game

Until Dawn is an interactive survival horror video game developed by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Computer Entertainment in 2015 exclusively for the PlayStation 4. The age rating in Germany as well as in whole Europe is 18 years (according to USK and PEGI). There is only one goal in this single player game: survival. Players step into the roles of eight teenagers and must save themselves and their friends from death. Not only the decisions made are relevant. The relationships that the players build with the other seven teenagers during the ten chapters also determine the fate of every single character in a later moment.

One year after the release of Until Dawn, Sony Interactive Entertainment released a direct spin-off: Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. This first-person shooter is also marked with an age restriction of 18 years but can only be played with a PlayStation VR Headset on PlayStation 4. Players go through seven roller coaster rides (chapters), in which they must fight against various enemies and monsters, including the psycho who is also the antagonist in Until Dawn.

Story

The Story in Until Dawn is about ten friends named Josh, Hannah, Beth, Sam, Chris, Ashley, Emily, Matt, Mike and Jessica. For their annual winter trip, all ten teenagers meet at the Blackwood Pines mountain hut on Mount Washington which belongs to the parents of the three siblings Josh, Hannah and Beth. It is placed near an abandoned sanatorium and an old mine. After Ashley, Emily, Matt, Mike, and Jessica discover that Hannah secretly has romantic feelings for Mike, they decide to play a prank on her. As a result, Hannah runs out of the mountain hut into the forest and is overtaken by her sister Beth. When they both hear a terrifying noise, they flee from an unknown pursuer and slide down a cliff. The stranger holds out his hand to Beth, who is holding onto a branch with Hannah. However, the branch breaks off and both fall into the depths. Since they cannot be found by the rescue workers, they are declared dead.

A year after this accident, Josh invites the remaining seven friends back to the Blackwood Pines. But after the group decides to split up, strange things happen. While Mike and Jessica search for the guest hut, something unknown is following them. Shortly afterwards, Jessica is attacked and kidnapped by an unknown being. Through various clues, players can find out what these events are about. At first, everything looks like the main threat is the Psycho, a typical serial killer. But it turns out that Josh, who previously simulated his own death, is the psycho and wants to play a prank on his friends because of the accident that happened to his two sisters. However, this prank clearly goes too far for the other friends and various arguments arise. Shortly afterwards it becomes clear that the creature which had previously kidnapped Jessica was not him, but a so-called Wendigo. Exploring the sanatorium and discovering various clues educates the players about the nature of the Blackwood Pines. There is a bitter fight over life and death, as the rescue workers cannot appear until the next morning due to a storm.

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Characters

Playable Characters

• Josh: Hannah’s and Beth’s Brother, described as complex, thoughtful and loving
• Sam: Hannah’s best friend, described as diligent, considerate and adventurous
• Chris: has a crush on Ashley, described as methodical, protective and humorous
• Ashley: has a crush on Chris, described an academic, inquisitive and forthright
• Emily: Mike’s Ex, described as intelligent, resourceful and persuasive
• Matt: Emily’s new Boyfriend, described as motivated, ambitious and active
• Mike: Emily’s Ex, described as intelligent, driven and persuasive
• Jessica; Mike’s new Girlfriend, described as confident, trusting and irreverent

Non-Playable Characters

The Psycho:

The Psycho, also known as the Killer or Madman, is the main antagonist in the first half of the game. In the course of the game, it turns out that he is actually Josh, who is playing a prank on his friends. As the brother of both Hannah and Beth, who died in an accident, he wants to take revenge on his friends. But the name Psycho also reveals something about Josh's mental health. Josh has been mentally unstable since the incident a year ago. At the beginning of the game, the psycho is introduced as a stalker who watches the teenagers behind the trees. The traps he sets for his friends in the further course of the game are reminiscent of the horror film series Saw. Until his identity is revealed, he chases the others, stuns them and ties them up, only to give them the task of killing themselves or their friends.

Dr. Hill:

Dr. Alan J. Hill is a psychiatrist who only appears in the sessions between the chapters. In the first few sessions, the player takes on the first-person perspective of the patient, who is still unknown. In the course of the game, it turns out that the patient is the psycho (Josh). Thus, the player consequently takes on the role of Josh / the psycho. By answering questions and completing tasks, a psychological profile is created in the background, which can be identified in the chapters through individual moments. While Dr. Hill leaves a professional and serious impression at the beginning of the game, his own state of mind becomes more and more unstable influenced by the actions of the psycho. In keeping with this, the treatment room is transformed into an even darker, more frightening and neglected place. With the character of the psychoanalyst, the strong self-reflexivity in the game becomes clear.

The Stranger:

Jack Fiddler, better known as the Stranger or the Flamethrower Guy, lives in isolation on Blackwood Mountain and has made it his business to hunt down the Wendigos. He is also the one who held out his hand to Hannah and Beth just before they both fell down the cliff. In chapter eight he meets the group of teenagers and enlightens them about the history of the Wendigos. When he accompanies Chris to the hut in which Chris and Mike had previously tied up Josh, both are attacked and the stranger dies.

The Wendigos:

"There is a curse. That dwells in these mountains. Should any man or woman resort to cannibalism in these woods the spirit of the Wndigo shall be unleashed." - The Stranger

They are the antagonists of the second half of the game and were originally normal people. According to the official history of the Wendigos, an indigenous native tribe called the Cree lived on Blackwood Mountain. The Cree worshiped the mountain and the animals and were convinced that harming the creatures of the mountain would bring bad luck. When miners came to Blackwood Mountain in 1893 to mine raw materials, the mountain screamed and released the wendigo spirit. If a person then succumbs to cannibalism, they are taken over by the Wendigo-spirit and turn into one of these creatures.

Towards the end of the game, players in the role of Sam can find Hannah's diary. As a result, the characters find out that Hannah survived the accident which happened a year ago and, after several weeks of starving, she ate her deceased sister Beth, who she had previously buried. Hannah turned into a Wendigo. In the tenth chapter she meets her brother Josh as a Wendigo. Josh recognizes Hannah because of her tattoos but is still dragged into the old mine by her.

After the end of the tenth chapter and the subsequent interrogation of the teenagers who survived, players see rescue workers searching the mines for survivors. In this scene, Josh, who was previously in a mentally unstable state, is about to eat the body of the deceased stranger and attacks the rescue workers in a half-transformed state.