The title debuted as a PlayStation 4 exclusive, and it’s still not available for other platforms. Either way, the fan and critic’s response was positive, and the studio kept going with their formula. And such a formula is what we’re searching for. More than games, and more than a gameplay loop, it’s about near cinematic stories with a game format.
Selecting Games Like Until Dawn
Selecting games like Until Dawn requires us to see its individual pieces. We don’t want to miss anything; instead, we’re aiming our choices to feature a mix of the following aspects:
Genre: Until Dawn is an interactive horror game. You play the characters’ stories by making choices and performing quick actions. Then, you see how your choices play out until reaching an end. Replayability: because the game has multiple branching paths, you can replay it various times. In specific, Until Dawn has six unique endings. Branching paths: the developers used the “Butterfly Effect” as a core design idea. It means small decisions can lead to massive events. In other words, any decision you take can have positive or negative consequences. Clues: players have to find “clues” in the environment on top of choices. This helps players solve the Blackwood Pines mysteries, ultimately going to a better ending. Various protagonists: the story happens across eight protagonists, and the story changes perspective over time. However, any character could die at any moment, and the story will go on. Danger: the game puts players in constant danger. Any choice, at any time, could bring terrible consequences.Relationships: the game also focuses heavily on relationships., Each character is traveling with a companion. Depending on your choices, the companions develop a positive or negative reception.Playtime: Until Dawn is not a long game, for better or worse. It offers about nine hours of playtime, although you can replay it multiple times.
Overall, the gameplay itself is watching the story, but you play a key role in making decisions. In other words, you’re the story’s “writer,” and your writing leads to different paths, relationships, and endings. That said, we’re focussing on interactive storytelling on other games like Until Dawn. But, overall, Until Dawn is eerie, atmospheric, and scary. In particular, we’re focusing on three elements: horror, interactivity, and choices. We believe Until Dawn fans could latch on to either of these gameplay mechanics on the games we’re recommending.
Games Like Until Dawn
House of Ashes
House of Ashes is the latest entry by Supermassive Games. It’s also the third part of the 8-part anthology series The Dark Pictures anthology. Therefore, it’s part of stand-alone interactive horror video games that started after Until Dawn. Yet, it follows the formula the older game presented. Like its predecessors, it’s an interactive horror and drama game. You control five characters, soldiers, and operatives during the Iraq War in 2003. They are lost in a set of underground caves, where there is a new threat: an ancient monster, a demon lurking in old Sumerian ruins. You’re to “play the movie” by taking character choices. On top of options, you’re to perform quick actions. Your choices and actions determine the story’s path, leading to branching paths and endings. Moreover, the story changes perspective, and either character may die at any moment. Lastly, the game also focuses on companionship. Characters will travel in groups, and your choices influence their relationships. Moreover, the game focuses heavily on working together vs. sacrificing others.
Little Hope
Little Hope is the opening title of The Dark Pictures Anthology. Even so, it’s still relevant and still a popular entry in the interactive game genre. Overall, it’s the next step forward after Until Dawn, albeit it focuses even more on story-driven choices. You play as four college students and their teacher, trapped in a nightmarish town. There’s a fog pursuing them and manifesting the deepest fears of each character. This setting delivers a series of intense choices, branching paths, and defining moments. Over time, the characters discover that the town, Little Hope, has close relationships with them. Their new goal is figuring out the motivations of the fog apparitions, reason enough for you to find clues in the environment. Finding these “Secrets” could lead you to better paths. Overall, Little Hope is another scary and eerie interactive horror game. Unlike House of Ashes and Until Dawn, the horror is mostly psychological. Moreover, the story comes through the environment rather than larger cinematic cuts. However, compared to Until Dawn and House of Ashes, the story feels a bit messy and even cheesy at the end.
The Inpatient
The Inpatient is a psychological terror game, also by Supermassive Games, and it’s also a PlayStation 4 exclusive. Additionally, it’s available as a virtual-reality experience for PlayStation VR. Lastly, this is a prequel to Until Dawn. You played as a patient suffering from amnesia. You’re inside a controversial and historical institution in the 1950s. The game focuses heavily on backstories, cinematics, and interactivity with such a setting. That said, there’s not much to do in terms of gameplay. Like other games like Until Dawn, you make choices that affect the story’s outcome. Your decisions also trigger unique character responses and open various branching paths. Lastly, the game delivers plenty of jump scares and clever twists. A voice recognition system also works via the PSVR headset for an immersive yet frightening experience.
Man of Medan
Man of Medan is the first episode of The Dark Pictures Anthology. The developer’s idea was to keep terror and horror anthologies alive but with a gaming format. It also represents refining the formula Supermassive Games used on their horror debut. The Dark Pictures opening game focuses on four young adults trapped on a ghost ship. The gameplay is similar to Until Dawn. The game swaps the perspective between the characters and forces you to make story-changing decisions. Moreover, the game adds a “movie night” multiplayer mode, just like House of Ashes. It allows up to five friends passing the controller with each other to decide for the character they control. However, it doesn’t change the fact that either character can die at any moment. In fact, Man of Medan has six endings, and these depend mostly on the characters that survive until the end. Because of its multiplayer mode and storytelling focus, House of Medan is fun to play and watch. Also, the story is riveting capable of surprising hardcore horror fans. All in all, House of Medan is an easy recommendation for Until Dawn fans.
Phasmophobia
Phasmophobia is a 4-player psychological horror co-op. You and your teammates are paranormal investigators, hunting down paranormal activity. You can play with your friends or find random parties online. Either way, it’s terrifying, ever more son on VR. The goal is to find evidence of the unexplained with your ghost hunting equipment. Then, when you gather enough proof, you send the ghost removal team to clean up the location. You don’t get to be a part of the action, though: your job ends once you order the mission. The setting explains its gameplay. You and your friends explore dark, frightening areas for clues. You pick up evidence and use your tools to study it. Once you find enough evidence, you finish the location and move towards the next. However, make a mistake, and a ghost will catch you in the corner for a scary game over. Phasmophobia is a team ghost-hunting game. You explore first and interact with the environment to go past each challenge. Overall, it’s a fun game to play with your friends, and it’s an experience horror game fans should try out.
The Walking Dead: Telltales Definitive Series
The Telltale Definitive Series complies with every episode and season available. The Walking Dead is an interactive horror title with four seasons, where each season has 23 episodes. You play through each episode by following an original character and recurrent faces like Gleen, Michonne, and Morgan. The experience goes towards a single ending for each episode and each season. By “ending,” we mean the main character. You may affect any other life with your decisions, so the safety of secondary characters is unsure. Moreover, the game forces you to make difficult decisions while facing terrible odds. You and your group face starvation, disease, infection, thirst, cold, and other primary necessities that may force you to make immoral paths. It’s about balancing the group’s good vs. right and human. Overall, The Walking Dead has a strong narrative with plenty of choices to interact with the story. Overall, it works as a spin-off content perfect for franchise fans or fans of the genre. That said, you can play these games without knowing a single thing about the survival zombie series or comics.
Hidden Agenda
Our next choice is Hidden Agenda, an interactive action-adventure crime thriller for PlayStation 4. In particular, the game uses the PlayLink feature, as it allows users to use a smartphone as the controller. Hidden Agenda delivers jump scares, branching paths, and interconnected stories, as this is another Supermassive title. Various characters are trying to solve a case. However, each character has a personal secret that could endanger the investigation. The protagonists have ties to the criminal they are hunting. Like Until Dawn, the setting leads to shaky alliances, accusations, and relationship measures. If someone does something suspicious, it may affect your upcoming decisions. Then, your choices lead to different paths and endings. That said, you play as detective Becky Marnet in third-person, and you’re trying to capture The Trapper, a serial killer. Lastly, through PlayLink, up to six players can join your campaign. They can use their Android and iOS devices to vote on specific decisions. It’s a unique gameplay feature that makes the game uneasy, akin to the multiplayer game Among Us.
Detroit: Become Human
If you’re looking for a stellar interactive experience, Detroit: Become Human is the best option. It’s not a horror title, though, as it’s instead a sci-fi drama by Quantic Dream. Also, it’s perhaps the most popular game in the genre. The game followed their androids in an interconnected story. In the near future, androids have taken many roles and jobs from humans. For example, the three characters fill the role of a detective, a housemaid for a widowed man, and a caretaker for an old man. They are, of course, in Detroit. Soon, the characters find themselves in the middle of an android/human conflict. The gameplay is about interacting with the environment for clues and paths and making choices. The game has dozens of alternative endings, hundreds of branching paths, and as many consequences as you’d like to see on multiple replays. It’s a massive game, and it’s complex. Lastly, Become Human has top-tier graphics, music, and animations. For example, even though action segments rely on quick action buttons, these parts still feel fluid, hard, and great to see. Ultimately, though, the story fleshes out what it means to be human, so the story is overall compelling and heart-wrenching.
Heavy Rain
Quantic Dream has various interactive titles on its shelves. However,r if we’re looking for something offering an uneasy feeling, it would have to be Heavy Rain. This was their first experiment in the genre, and it’s a game that solidified many aspects of interactive storytelling. You play a detective in the middle of a case. You’re hunting the Origami Killer, a serial murderer who leaves origami art on every crime scene. Even so, the Origami menace is very good at evading the police, as he leaves no clues to investigate. The one thing you know is that crime can only happen when it’s raining. So, as you investigate, you’ll have to find clues by interacting with the environment. On top of that, you’ll have to make fast choices and perform fast, quick actions. These elements, together, deliver branching paths and multiple endings. Overall, Heavy Rain is a dark, noir, and a thrilling game to “see.” It’s also a multi-award-winning entry. Even though it’s an old game, it’s still quite significant in the story-driven interactive drama genre.
STEINS;GATE
Anime fans would recognize the title. Steins; Gate debuted first as a visual novel, then a manga, and finally an anime. Either version has the same thrilling sci-fi premise about time-traveling. Aside from the plot, its characters and minimal interaction could draw you in. Many consider it the best visual novel that exists. If you’re wondering what kind of gameplay this means, it’s simple. It’s like reading a manga, or a comic, only that there’s music, full color, and minimal animation. However, at times, you’re going to have to make decisions, and these decisions will lead you to branch, increasingly complex paths. You follow a band of tech-savvy but outcast young students. They discover how to change the past by sending emails back in time. Their experiments spiral out of control, and they become a part of a conspiracy around SERN’s Large Hadron Collider. To make the mystery deeper, John Titor introduces himself as a visitor from a “dystopian future.” Your interaction with the game happens with the “phone trigger.” Thus, the system allows players to receive text messages and calls. The players have to decide whether to reply or not, which changes the plot’s outcome.
The Evil Within 2
Moving forward with non-interactive games, we share Evil Within 2. Any survival horror fan should be familiar with Shinji Mikami’s title. If you’re unfamiliar, Mikami pioneered the genre as the creator of the Resident Evil saga. Evil Within 2 follows a detective as he searches for his missing daughter. He must travel towards an alternate world known as STEM within his mind to complete the mission. On STEM, darkness and monstrous creatures roam free. Like Until Dawn, the Evil Within series puts players in constant danger. The world is terrifying, full of enemies, and ready to scare the players at any corner. Aside from these elements, the game also has a neat story, cinematic moments, and a deep psychological theme. Lastly, Evil Within 2 is a third-person survival horror shooter. Detective Sebastian has to scavenge ammo, count his bullets, and save ammo by using melee to survive. He also needs to manage healing supplies, fend off monsters, and find a way to dispose of powerful enemies.
Vampyr
Vampyr is a unique and cult-following game. It mixes RPG systems, branching paths, choices, first-person combat into a horror setting and story. It is as story-rich as Until Dawn fans would expect. The story happens during WWI in London. The protagonist is a man of science who became a vampire, Dr. Jonathan Reid. As a vampire, he learns to hone his powers and takes center stage in a conflict within himself. You’re going to make big choices that affect the plot, as well as for deciding between spilling blood or retaining your humanity. On top of that, as a doctor, you can save the city’s citizens from a disease, even if your survival depends on eating them. On top of that, the game offers a great combat system. Reid has a mix of ranged and melee weapons, plus skills he unlocks as he plays. The streets, though, are full of horrors, and the game has a consistently frightening atmosphere and plenty of atmospheric storytelling. So, if you’re seeking a horror adventure game, Vampyr is the title for you. It’s a story about morality, humanity, and survival. Bear in mind the game is action-driven and has real-time combat, though. That said, Vampyr is a third-person horror action-RPG game.
Dying Light 2: Stay Human
We left Dying Light 2 for last, but not because it’s a bad game. Rather, it’s quite different from Until Dawn, but interactive fans could still enjoy the newer title. Moreover, we dearly recommend this game, so don’t confuse its position for its quality. So first, the gameplay. Stay Human is an open-world first-person action-adventure game. You play in a post-apocalyptic world, where a zombie epidemic took over humanity. Just like the first game, you rely on parkour for traversing the map. Aside from parkour, there are smooth first-person combat and branching paths. Because of the haunting setting, their jump scares, and the horror, we consider Dying Light 2 similar to Until Dawn. Moreover, you make several significant decisions with the protagonist character, the Wanderer. Your choices will shape the world, unravel secrets, and put a faction in power. Another neat element is a day and night cycle. At night, the Infected become more vicious and quotations. Lastly, a co-op feature allows you to play with up to four friends online. You can host games, so others play on your campaign. Alternatively, you can join other parties and see how their choices have created different paths than yours.
