A few decades ago the masses believed video games were a waste of time for lackadaisical youths to pacify themselves while ignoring their responsibilities as both kids and young adults. As more and more people started understanding the benefits of gaming so too did the perception of what a video game is and, most importantly, the benefits gaming can bestow on a person’s life changed. Hi, my name is James Bullock and I am a gamer who has spent the better part of his existence testing the laws of physics, exploring the vastness of a world ruined, and been a champion inside various arenas courtesy of digitized worlds both driven by reality and created through pure unbelievable ingenuity unlike anything seen by human eyes. And as a gamer I’ve discovered something else video games provide: life lessons. Today I examine a game that proves even friends can’t be trusted when things go wrong, “Until Dawn”.
You Can’t Trust Anyone, Even Your Friends
Originally intended for release on the Playstation 3 as a way to entice people to purchase Sony’s “Playstation Move” accessory, “Until Dawn” entered developmental purgatory until 2015 when it finally reached PS4 gamers. “Until Dawn” lived up to the promise of delivering a narrative where the player’s decisions affected the outcomes of each character’s chances for survival against a potential supernatural force or crazed psychopathic murder wearing a creepy clown mask. But the story of “Until Dawn” is bigger than just a slasher movie turned into a video game by focusing on the power & tragedy failed friendships.
“Until Dawn’s” prologue showed how a prank can go terribly wrong as an attempt to playfully embarrass Hannah – one-third of the brother & sister trio who organized a party in their family’s cabin in the woods – & her crush on the stud Mike (played by Brett Dalton). The intended joke of filming a faux hookup between the two organized by everyone but Hannah, her sister Beth and their brother Josh – who was sleeping one off during this whole situation – turned deadly. An embarrassed Hannah ran into the woods on a cold, snowy night with her sister trying to stop her from doing something stupid. Unfortunately for the sisters they weren’t the only people or things out that night, resulting in the two falling off a cliff and apparently dying.
Understandably crushed over the loss of his sisters, Josh tried to find solace alongside the people who knew her siblings best – the same people who pranked Hannah a year prior and unintentionally sent them into the great beyond. As Josh and his friends tried to enjoy a night inside the rather spacey cabin, unexpected things began to occur including the arrival of a maniac ready to kill everyone including the host of this party as seen via a “Saw” style trap that resulted in Josh being cut in half … or so everyone thought.
The big reveal that comes no matter the choices made by the player is that of several friendships destroyed through conniving, cunning & grand planning to make someone feel the hurt & pain only someone who knows you best could unleash. “Until Dawn” isn’t just a showcase in how to turn the premise of a horror movie into a video game, it’s a vulgar display of how not even the best of friends can be trusted when things go horribly wrong.
Have you learned any major life lessons from playing “Until Dawn” or any video game for that matter? Leave them in the comments below and, as always, thanks for reading.