Picture this: you are a young adult heading with friends to a secluded mountain, in the dead of winter, to spend what is supposed to be a fun getaway weekend a at a friend’s family cabin. This weekend, however, has some serious I Know What You Did Last Summer vibes. The prior year, two of your friends went missing on the mountain and are presumed dead. Also interesting, the two friends were twin sisters, you are staying at their family’s cabin, and their emotionally unstable brother is the playing host. I suppose it is also important to mention your friend group consists of individuals ranging from good to questionable, and some of them may or may not have inadvertently bullied the, now presumably deceased, sisters. Ready for a weekend of F-U-N? Well, you better pack for a weekend of F-*-C-K ME.

Welcome to Until Dawn.

With the spoopy season upon us, it is time to look at the 2015 survival horror classic from Supermassive Games, the fine folks who continued refining their talents for macabre storytelling with The Dark Pictures Anthology. Now, I am not a regular horror game consumer. I have never played the likes of a Resident Evil game, and, as a kid, my palms would sweat buckets whenever I heard the shark coming after me in Banjo Kazooie. Until Dawn, however, intrigued me with its recognizable cast and emphasis on decision making. I say the cast was a selling point, because it is not just recognizable names providing the voices, they also provide the character models. For parts of the game, I am playing as Hayden Panettiere or Rami Malek, and during  interludes I get to watch Peter Stormare’s character drape his craziness and thick accent over an increasingly batshit crazy backdrop. You are essentially playing out a horror movie, and that’s amazing. I would shovel handful after handful of popcorn into my maw while watching this movie. In fact, there were plenty of moments where I wanted to watch what was happening rather than play through it.

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Like a movie, Until Dawn wraps you in an experience. The setting is horror-perfect, with the mountain cabin cut off from the surrounding world by an encroaching blizzard. The group is isolated together in the luxurious but never welcoming cabin, and then one-by-one, experience their own arcs that put them, and you as the player, through hell. As you control each character and build their personas through decisions and actions that shape their respective end  games, the mountain’s sordid history and present mysteries come to light as you try to survive the night. The setting, character backstory, and persistent sense of unease create a layered storytelling experience that keeps you uncertain of the outcome. The different endings make this game nerve-wracking in your pursuit of total survival but worthy of multiple play-throughs. Everyone will see dawn, or nobody, or some combination in between. It is important to pay attention to the dialog and be ready to complete a quick-time event, whether that requires smashing a button or remaining completely still. Until Dawn does a good job lulling you into a sense of simply being a witness before pulling  out the rug. I loved it and also hated when the game caught me napping.

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If you are looking for a good game to give you some October spine tingles during nighttime game sessions lit only by the glow of TV or monitor, Until Dawn should be at the top of your list if you have not already played it. Since playing, other Supermassive games found their way onto my backlog, and I am encouraged to venture further into this typically untapped genre. What better time to explore the spooky corners of the gaming universe, right? Hopefully, if you spend some time with this group of friends at their cabin, you can do a better job at keeping them alive. The night was long, but at least one saw the morning.