Game review: Until Dawn

A scene from Playstation 4 game Until Dawn.

If you're looking for blood, you've come to the right place. Until Dawn splashes the thick red stuff across walls and has it clotting on floorboards. It also throws it into your face: within the game's first 10 minutes, there's blood spilling out from bodies at the bottom of a cliff. Along with frequent scare-jumps and grisly deaths, this will test the hardiest of hearts.

But for those who venture into the claustrophobic confines of Blackwood's snowy mountains, you'll find a game that revels in getting messed up in its own weird little world. You will too. If you're into horror movies, but haven't picked up a PlayStation controller for years, this will get you back.

Until Dawn begins with a typical horror movie setup, as eight cut-and-paste characters arrive for a weekend in a snowy cabin. They're being stalked by several entities, including a masked Freddy Krueger-style character, and a Predator-ish heatseaking being.

Characters are split up, toyed with and offed in wicked ways. Then the ouija board comes out. Without offering spoilers, things get even stranger, with scriptwriter Larry Fessenden having plenty of fun mucking around with what you think you know about his 10-hour game. But Until Dawn's best device is its constantly evolving story.

Gamers face decisions at every turn, choosing what to say, where to go and even which of their friends will die. Like a Choose Your Own Adventure novel, you're involved in the story-making process. And because Until Dawn thinks nothing of killing off your favourite characters, there's more at stake here than others that offer movie-style experiences (Beyond: Two Souls, we're looking at you).

Despite the odd-looking characters and some confusing camera angles, this is a brutal chillfest that will leave you wide-eyed, scared and questioning your own motives. You can't ask more of a horror game than that.

Game: Until Dawn
Rating: R16
Platforms: PlayStation 4
Verdict: Time for a new pacemaker.