Until Dawn and Vampire Survivors (PS5)
With the unstable weather outside and my health constantly playing tricks on me, I decided to stay home playing video games. I was missing playing on my Playstation 5 which has been gathering dust for months. No console should gather dust! Even though PS5 has a lot of jrpgs, I felt that I needed a break. I play almost exclusively jrpgs and despite being my favourite genre, sometimes the experience doesn’t bring the same level of satisfaction or meaning even. Fun fact: by mistake, I renewed my PS+ Extra subscription for 2025. Fun times await! I have some games in the library that aren’t available in the subscription anymore (so why can’t I delete them??) but games I added since I bought the console, like Until Dawn, are still available to play.
Until Dawn1 plays like an interactive movie and it’s a game centered in multiple choices affecting the outcome of the story, with allusions to the fascinating butterfly effect even if ever so slightly. It’s a horror story in a setting all too familiar to me. Middle of the woods, cold as hell, everything covered in snow, windy, stormy, you name it. Familiar. The story takes place in the Blackwood Mountain lodge where a group of friends played a prank on one of their own. On that fateful night, two sisters died. The group decided to gather after a year to pay their respects and remember their friends. However, nothing went as planned, and everything about the story is a big horror movie trope. The group of friends isn’t relatable and easily forgettable. Their worries, passions, interests are very superficial and since you, the player, are supposed to save them, it would be nice to have some emotional connection. I used morality instead. The scenes at the sanatorium and mines were my favourite, where I found myself in the middle of intense QTE action to escape the wendigos – cursed humans turned into agile, spidery looking creatures, after having eaten other humans during a cave-in at the mines. The mutation they went through gave them very thick and resistant skin, extremely sharp reflexes and powerful hearing. They were also completely blind.
As we’re exploring we should pick up clues because most of the story is told through documents and commentary coming from those who find them, trying to make sense of the tragedy involving their friends and the mine workers. We play from the point of view of everyone, pretty much, and the interactions between the character we’re playing as and others will decide their final outcomes. I think the game is well crafted in those connections and the in way we can piece together the story bits. It is however painful to get through. Any person who has a taste for visual novels knows that in every game with multiple endings and variations you should be able to save(!!) skip or fast-forward every previously watched scene. The skip should automatically stop at unseen text/scenes or at new choices. Another feature that helps the player is an indication of paths previously taken, so that we aren’t left scratching our heads at easily forgettable choices like keep running or hide. After my first playthrough I became aware that if I were to explore other interactions, other endings, or gather all collectibles, I’d have to put up with the cast over and over again.
Enter Vampire Survivors. I played it right when it came out when I still had GamePass and an Xbox. The game didn’t have as many DLC or other features as it does now, at least as far as I remember. I decided to add it to my collection on PS5 and since I started playing I just couldn’t stop! I love to see those upgraded weapon effects in action and mixing and matching different weapon types with items to reduce their cooldowns or affect their damage output. The best part is when the screen is so full of everything that you can’t even see your character anymore. If there’s traps on the floor, you can’t see them. It’s a jumble of enemies approaching you at different speeds and getting annihilated.
The game starts a bit slow and it takes some time to make evolved weapons. My go-to is Poe Ratcho because of Garlic. Also, the King Bible. Anything that can protect the area around our fighter so they can go around and have a leeway while still doing damage. The other starter characters were harder to use, especially if I didn’t get any weapon with an area of effect around me. One thing I didn’t know is that the gold coins earned on a DLC also show up in the main game. I could buy a lot of upgrades to get stronger and unlock more characters. The DLC characters and weapons also transfer to the main game. There was a level that should be completed with a starter character in order to unlock a secret room. I had to look it up. I eventually beat the boss in Moongolow, something I did’t think was possible, and unlocked a funny trophy where all secret items show up on the map. Sweet!
The funniest moment was when I was on Stage 3 for the second time just to upgrade some weapons. I looked at the map and there were some rings – one right above my character and another one below. I got to the first ring and didn’t see what it did. By the first upgrade I pressed the button a bit too fast and could only take a glimpse at something-something buffing the enemies. Would it be possible to get to the other ring in time to see what it was? Maybe it was something good to buff me? I risked it, with my slow movement and almost at the 30 minute mark I got the ring, and wouldn’t you know it, yes, it was a buff for my character which I used when my entire screen was full of mechs trying to kill me. Wonderful game!
For now, I’m exploring Bonus, Special, and Challenge maps in the main game. I currently have the DLCs Legacy of Moonspell, Emergency Meeting, and Operation Guns. I finished the first one today. The final fight was very exciting, but there’s a hidden character that I haven’t unlocked yet. I’m still braving through Cappella Magna without much luck. Death keeps coming after me with the intent to overflow the chapel with bubbly water! All enemies are tanky and I’m constantly getting pushed farther away from the bottom of the map which means no gems or reward chests to level up. There’s still a lot to do before giving it another try. Anyway, did I say wonderful game? I say it again.
When I was looking for an image to illustrate the game (it was impossible to take screenshots for some reason) I found an article called Integrative Complexity, Horror, and Gender: A Linguistic Case Study of Until Dawn by Hayley McCullough. Just a curiosity to those interested in gender and video games. ↩︎#cinematic #horrorGames #multipleEndings #narrativeGames #playstation5 #poncleLtd_ #roguelike #shootEmUp #supermassiveGames #untilDawn #vampireSurvivors #VideoGames
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