The last thing I expected to see from this week’s State of Play was a bonafide sequel to Until Dawn. But it turns out that Firesprite Games (best known for Horizon: Call of the Mountain) has been hard at work on a follow-up for quite some time. This isn’t just another rail shooter made for a virtual reality headset like Until Dawn: Rush of Blood, but a narrative-driven horror experience with big stars, big choices to make, and plenty of big scares. Sign me the hell up.

But despite my initial excitement, I was also left with a lot of lingering questions. It’s been over a decade since the original Until Dawn, and during that time we have seen both survival horror and the formula this game helped popularise evolve in nuanced ways. Original developer Supermassive isn’t working on the sequel, but has spent the past several years creating The Dark Pictures, a sprawling anthology of horror adventures that experiments with the Until Dawn formula yet ultimately still tries to deliver the same unpredictable narrative-driven scares.

Characters can die at the drop of a hat and completely evolve each playthrough, making you feel like a single mistake can change everything. I will never forget playing Until Dawn for the first time in university and screaming in delighted glee with friends by my side as three of our favourite characters bit the dust in a haze of sweaty anxiety. If the sequel can deliver this, I’ll be happy, but I sincerely hope it does so much more than that.

The Dark Pictures Proved That Until Dawn Needed To Evolve

Whenever another title in The Dark Pictures anthology comes out — six have currently been released, plus the similar standalone title, The Quarry — I always hear people online commenting something along the lines of ‘I wish they would just make Until Dawn 2 already’, even though approximately twelve people played the recent remaster only for the studio behind it to swiftly shutter.

The remaster, in fairness, was largely panned for its subpar visuals and numerous glitches.

There is a desire for linear yet impactful horror experiences, but the mixed critical and commercial reception to every single entry in The Dark Pictures proves that the millions required to make them a success are not turning up. But I have a feeling they will for Until Dawn 2, and Firesprite will seek to recreate the mechanics and narrative cadence of the original rather than take massive risks. At least, that’s the vibe I’m getting from the reveal trailer.

You have Neil Newbon playing a muscular wildcard who could secretly be a bizarre villain in disguise or turn out to be your most valuable ally, alongside a load of obnoxious youngsters with s**t-eating grins eager to film their fake ghost-hunting show so they can spend all their time on a mysterious island getting drunk and having sex. Much like Until Dawn, I bet we’ll end up forming immediate first impressions of a lot of these characters only to have our feelings subverted again and again as the plot progresses. I am begging for a moment in the introduction on the same level as ‘It’s just a prank, Han!’

The Dark Pictures took that gameplay formula and used each new entry as an opportunity to experiment with different gameplay mechanics and character perspective, while also making use of whatever horror theming was present to play around with the aesthetic to boot. Actors like Will Poulter, Jesse Buckley, and Lashana Lynch leading the charge didn’t hurt either.

More recently, Directive 8020 gave us more direct control over each character while also adding in more involved combat and exploration mechanics that goes far beyond the Telltale-inspired horror of earlier entries. We don’t know a lot about Until Dawn 2 yet, but I won’t be surprised to see Sony and Firesprite go back to basics to capture the mainstream audience it wants.

Until Dawn 2 Can’t Just Be More Of The Same

Image via Supermassive Games

But I desperately want to see it take risks, or ask us to think more strategically about some of the decisions we make and how they come to impact the narrative. Until Dawn allowed us to pause the game and analyse the different personality traits of each character, but seldom did these ever have much of an impact on gameplay. What if switching perspectives provided us with access to unique abilities when choosing dialogue options, or perhaps choosing to pick a lock or leave a door open, as one character will save another hours down the line.

I’ve seen a few fans worry that this game doesn’t earn the Until Dawn namesake due to its setting, but if it’s anything like the original, there are several locations and characters we haven’t met yet that will have the mystery go much deeper.

Having a layered combat system is a terrible idea when everything about Until Dawn is built on running away from untold horrors and surviving by the skin of our teeth, but giving us new tools or strategies to deal with those threats instead of insta-fail quick time events would be a step in the right direction.

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It needs to give us enough mechanical agency to make it feel like we’re making a legitimate difference. Even if there are only so many roads, the story can truly go down before repetition sets in. The Dark Pictures has spent almost a decade figuring out how this formula can evolve upon itself, and Until Dawn 2 would be foolish not to learn a few lessons of its own.

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Until Dawn 2

Adventure Horror Systems Released 2027 Developer(s) Firesprite Publisher(s) Sony Interactive Entertainment Prequel(s) Until Dawn Number of Players Single-player PS5 Release Date 2027
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Genre(s) Adventure, Horror Powered by Expand Collapse