What you need to know
- Earlier in the year, PlayStation announced a rebuilt version of Supermassive Games’ Until Dawn, a narrative-driven horror game where the choices players make determine who lives and dies.
- The Until Dawn remake is being handled by Ballistic Moon, a team in the U.K. that includes some of the original staff from Supermassive Games.
- This new version of Until Dawn now has a release date of Oct. 4, 2024, where it’ll be available across PlayStation 5 and Windows PC.
We’ve got an exact release date for returning to Blackwood Mountain.
The Until Dawn remake is launching on Oct. 4, 2024 across PlayStation 5 and Windows PC, as shared via the PlayStation Blog on Wednesday. This new version of Supermassive Games’ 2015 narrative horror experience is being built by U.K. studio Ballistic Moon, with a team that includes some of the original developers.
Using Unreal Engine 5, Ballistic Moon has worked to recreate and update the experience, improving visual fidelity with features like raytracing and providing alternate camera angles. You can take a look at some new comparisons in the video below:
While Ballistic Moon has been working to avoid changing the narrative of the game, the team does confirm that the prologue has been expanded. Per the developers, they’ve added some additional context and interactions in order to help better kick off the inciting events of the game while giving players a deeper understanding of the Washington family.
Other changes include small new areas and interactions, as well as new collectibles to be on the lookout for. The team has also added new accessibility features, though details here are light for the moment. As previously shared, the game features a completely new soundtrack that’s been composed by Mark Korven, who previously worked on the soundtracks for films like The Witch and The Lighthouse.
Preorders for the Until Dawn remake are slated to open up on August 21.
Analysis: A good spooky time
I absolutely adore Until Dawn. It’s easily of the best PlayStation first-party games of the PS4 generation, and the way it weaves careful foreshadowing and horror tropes together into something special is a masterclass of narrative horror storytelling. I’m certainly excited for this remake, especially if the accessibility settings and PC version can make it more approachable for players that haven’t been able to try it before. It’s always great to see the list of PlayStation Studios games available on PC growing, and putting the release date near Halloween (as I previously expected) makes perfect sense.
I am curious about the changed camera angles however, as the fixed camera in the original game was used to great effect in order to sell the scale and “cinematic” nature of everything that was happening. I’m not sold on the changes we see in the comparison trailer above, but it’s entirely possible these handful of moments are the minority, not the majority.
I’m also curious if there’s any story tidbits that have been changed or added. Just small things, perhaps something that could indicate if we’ll finally see a sequel in the future or not.
