This delivery also seems to save As Dusk Falls from a major pitfall of the genre: Without needing to animate each character based on your dialogue choices, conversations flow much better. Every decision weighs heavily as the story plays out like a top-notch crime drama. Paired with an audio experience that fills in each scene the way you'd expect to hear in an audio drama podcast, the characters manage to come to life despite their still-frame delivery while a playlist of licensed music further settles the story in a place that feels real and lived in. The game's motion-comic style means you aren't exploring the world in first- or third-person, which helps keep the story moving at a pace that mimics a serial drama perfectly, with smartly timed flashbacks that flesh out characters and cast so-called heroes or villains in new lights. ![]() As Dusk Falls focuses on these two families and several other characters who get caught up in the mess, and every single one of them is made interesting and dynamic.īecause this is a choose-your-own-adventure-style game in the vein of those from Telltale, Supermassive, or Quantic Dream, you'll steward each of these fascinating characters through the use of frequent dialogue options and quicktime events. But that's not to say they are predictable and one-sided. You'll quickly understand each character's place in the story and what kind of energy they bring to it. Right away, Interior Night showcases a keen understanding of pacing and exposition. Before long, the Holts end up there themselves following a robbery that goes south, and in their desperation, the Holts take the Walkers and others as hostages. Side-swiped by the Holts, who flee the scene, the Walkers seek salvation at the Desert Dream Motel, the closest sign of life on the desolate road. The Holts, meanwhile, are infamous locals that have been making noise in the otherwise quiet town of Two Rock for decades. The Walkers are moving cross-country to reset their lives after the patriarch of the family, Vince, was let go from his job as an airplane mechanic due to a controversy that might end in litigation. The game opens in 1998, when two families collide-literally-on a desert road in Arizona. ![]() As Dusk Falls swims in these complicated waters. To some extent, we're fated for success or failure before we even know we're on the playing field. Enough bad experiences, especially at an early age, can create fundamentally flawed people who routinely make poor choices, while a rosier upbringing can birth inspiring role models. Rationalization comes after the act, whatever it may be, as a way to make sense of ourselves. ![]() We often like to make up reasons for why we do something-drive recklessly, win the spelling bee, get a divorce, give an unhoused person some money-but ultimately, our behavior is more determined by our pasts than what feels like our split-second choices in the moment. Playing As Dusk Falls reminded me of something I think about a lot: how each of us is just the end result of every moment we've experienced before today. By way of incredible voice acting, a compelling and expertly written script, and a bounty of pause-worthy choices along the game's elaborate branching paths, it establishes itself as an instant classic in the narrative adventure genre. As Dusk Falls deftly explores themes of inherited hardship through the lens of two families who cross paths on one pivotal night. Sticking that scene on the end of As Dusk Falls is like supergluing a Funko Pop to the hood of a Rolls Royce.A dusty motel in the middle of nowhere doesn't sound like a typical video game setting, but debut studio Interior Night, composed of industry veterans, uses this peculiar place to create a game unlike anything else you'll play this year. The scene that plays out no matter who’s dead, arrested, divorced, or forgot to do the dishes. I’m talking specifically about the final scene the scene that everybody gets regardless of any choices they made beforehand. I’m so frustrated with it, it’s made me swear in a review for the first time in five years of freelancing. This is why I have to say that the ending is shit. However, when you love somebody, you have a duty to point out any important mistakes that they make. ![]() It probably sounds like I love As Dusk Falls, and that’s because I do. It amuses me greatly that the game features not one, but two dishwashing QTEs Trying to escape a pursuer over rough terrain hurriedly hotwiring a car getting a stubborn bit of food off a plate you know, that sort of thing. It amuses me greatly that the game features not one, but two dishwashing QTEs, but other than that, their inclusion makes sense, and often even adds to a scene’s tension. You know what? I didn’t even mind the QTEs.
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