Until Dawn: where every door is a NOPE waiting to happen

[spindizzy]

Well. Okay. That didn't quite go as anticipated.

Spoilers through to chapter nine.

• So I clocked Josh in the face with a two-by-four, but in my defence he FUCKING DESERVED IT.


• Okay, right, so, maybe I skipped ahead a little bit there.


• Literally every time I had the controller and we went into a new room, I said "I don't want to go in there." EVERY TIME. BECAUSE IT WAS ALWAYS TRUE.


• Me: Everything is fine, everyone is fine, Jessica is gonna stagger out of the mine at the bottom of the mountain, Sam is having a nice nap...
  splend: Josh just needs to pull himself together!


• I can't believe that Matt saw an axe sticking out of a door and was like "Yep, this is fine."


• Also Em is SO BRAVE, because seriously, there COULD HAVE BEEN MURDERERS IN THAT BUILDING and she went through the window anyway.


• splend and I have really different reactions to Emily, because when she's not being a catty bitch over who gets Mike's dick (See also: how you can tell that men wrote this game), I really like her! She is scared and trying to think through worse case scenarios like "What if the radio is broken?" and I am honestly okay with her being grumpy and a bit upset seeing as someone LITERALLY JUST GOT MURDERED TEN MINUTES AGO. Whereas I think she annoys splend WAY more than she annoys me. It doesn't help that she's wearing a $600 dollar top for a tramp through the woods. ... Maybe he has the same issue with her that I have with Mike – when they're on their own, they are perfectly fine and bearable, but when it comes to them hanging out with other people... Well.


• But she got the radio working! She managed to radio for help despite being in a panic! She managed to find a flare gun so that she wasn't immediately murdered by cave monsters! She saved herself from being impaled on spikes!


• Matt did good too, although I DID hiss through my teeth every time he told Emily to calm down. In this situation, mate? You're lucky she didn't kill you before the building finished collapsing. splend and I were CONVINCED that they were going to be stampeded off the cliff by deer, but it... Surprisingly went well? He was very chill about the deer, the deer were very chill about him.


• Does this mean that throwing the rock into the woods was the RIGHT choice? We were worried that we were going to get gored for throwing that rock earlier, but possibly if we hadn't startled that deer out of hiding, the wendigo would have got us a lot sooner.


• ... Emily was SO CLOSE to getting crushed by a safe, oh god.


• I saw the radio tower poles and was immediately like "oh god that could be taken down so easily" but also I assumed that as it was made of metal maybe it wouldn't IMMEDIATELY FALL APART AS SOON AS SOMEBODY LOOKED AT IT FUNNY.


• We were so cross that Matt left the axe behind. SO CROSS. Like, CONGRATS MATT, WAY TO PUT THE INSTRUMENT OF YOUR OWN DESTRUCTION INTO SOMEONE ELSE'S HANDS.


• Sam was pretty sure he remembered something about a logical choice to do with this actually being totally wrong, so we had Matt jump to safety, and not gonna lie, I have NO IDEA if he made it. I assume he's the one that rocks up at the end like "Hey guys, what happened?" but I honestly have no idea whether he's been like... Stomped on by deer or something. I guess the plus side either way is we definitely got Emily out of the mine alive!


• How long has Sam been in that bath though! It's like 1am! Why are you still in the bath at 1am!


• Mate, you honestly expect me to believe that Sam managed to stay in that bath and not hear everything kicking off because she HAD HEADPHONES IN? Really?!


• ... UGH I hate it when murder clowns creep on me in the bath.


• (And knowing that murder clown was Josh? Dude, she was KIND to you. She was your FRIEND.)


• Splend: I'm pretty sure we have to do this section in a towel.
  Me: No. I refuse. Can't make me.
  Game: *literally steals Sam's clothes so she has to do this section in a towel*
  Me: GOD DAMMIT WHY WAS THIS GAME MADE BY MEN.


• My rage is ever burning at the "Well of course Sam gets attacked by a murder clown while wearing a towel that somehow magically stays in place! Why wouldn't she!" bit, because... Are we SURE this isn't a Rabid Rage game? Creepy guy kidnaps a female lead and menaces her while she's tied to furniture SOUNDS like a Rabid Rage game!


• The section where she's wandering around the house looking for her friends is so tense even though nothing is happening! It's empty! There are ominous balloons! I spent the entire section going "I don't want to go into the basement and you can't make me! Well you can, but I'd rather you didn't!"


• The bit where Murder Clown is like "Could these be the last peaceful moments of her life?" just made me go "... Wow, how did you manage to precisely channel the voice of my anxiety disorder in this way.


• Because I was controlling this part of the game, I chose for us to RUN RUN RUN DON'T HIDE JUST RUN because a) I was really hoping we'd find the baseball bat and could hit the Murder Clown with it, and b) I have very specific nightmares about trying to hide from something that wants me dead and not being able to see it, therefore not being able to tell how close it is to finding me? No! I choose life! I do not want this! We did not find the baseball bat and we did in fact get caught. If we hid somewhere, maybe we could have gotten away with it? But honestly I'm not sure if any of the points it suggested hiding were good enough? Like, sure, hide under a bed, that isn't INSTANTLY OBVIOUS. ... I'm assuming that there is a way to escape, because there was a butterfly for "Sam had to be rescued by Mike" but I don't know what it is.


• The "wander the basement looking for Sam" thing was SO UNNECESSARY and SO CREEPY, ugh! Like, I figured that the ghost was maybe fake (splend was very confident that someone was using projectors to make it LOOK like there was a ghost, and I guess the jump scare through the door when it has a face was probably a puppet!


• Ashley is apparently really bad at cues when she's suffering from trauma, because she keeps trying to talk about the "So you chose me over Josh!" thing even when Chris is like "CAN WE NOT." I was expecting from the butterfly effect screen saying that she felt "indebted" to Chris that she was going to do something like sacrifice herself to save him from something, and I'm kinda glad she didn't.


• Somehow I'm unsurprised that Ashley is the one who believes in ghosts, now that they're in a spooky situation. ... I wonder if we'd chosen different options, there would have been real ghosts?


• ... Why is there a doll house diorama with evil dolls with melting eyes? Why are all of the dolls naked? WHY WAS HANNAH'S DIARY IN THE DOLL HOUSE! Also it apparently doesn't count as a clue, so I have no idea what the last entry said apart from "♥♥♥ MIKE IS COMING TO MY PARTY ♥♥♥"


• There's an option to make Ashley refuse to sympathise with what happened to Hannah, and I can't do it! I can't imagine getting to that point and not realising that you didn't mean to, but you CRUSHED your friend in one of the cruelest ways possible!


• I am somewhat irked by the fact that Chris and Ashley didn't actually stop to look at the FOOTAGE on the camera they find. I mean, you're sure you saw a ghost! Why not check the camera to see what was there!


• "Go suck an egg" and "Holy cannolli" are both sure things that teenagers say. I can't judge, really, because I will occasionally mutter "What the frickety-frack is that?" or "Christ on a HADDOCK!" but no one is scripting me as a teenager! I'm a weirdo twenty-nine year old!


• Of course the doll head is full of spiders. OF COURSE. We knew as soon as we saw it.


• MANY PIGS DIED TO BRING YOU THIS MURDER.


• ... My brain just presented me with "This bitch empty" about the dead pig, oh god.


• OKAY but what the hell is going on with those pictures. Why is Mike's the only one that's crossed out. How in the name of fuckination did they recognise the photos as taken with a telephoto lens, when literally all that needed to happen was a quick sweep over facebook.


• WHY IS THERE A MURDER ABATTOIR. WHY.


• We didn't peek into the workroom because I was very sure that the door was going to slam shut in such a way that either we were never going to be able to find Chris again, or we were going to get cut in half by a door.


• Why did they not take the creepy murder puppet down to stop it freaking them out on the way back? I would have definitely freaked myself out on that REPEATEDLY.


• Of course Sam is drugged and tied to a chair, why wouldn't she be. ... Is there a route where that DOESN'T happen?!


• GO ON MY GIRL, STAB THAT CLOWN WITH SCISSORS! I BELIEVE IN YOU!


• OF COURSE CHRIS ENDED UP IN A POSITION TO CHOOSE WHO GETS TO DIE AGAIN. OF COURSE. I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE THEMATIC MEANING OF THIS ASPECT OF THE GAME.


• OF COURSE THERE ARE MORE SAWS, WHY IN THE NAME OF FUCKINATION WOULDN'T THERE BE.


• We did find the totem for this scene, and our assumption was that it was going to be Russian roulette, so honestly it could have been worse. I'm glad it wasn't! We just also didn't really dare to move the gun in case the game slapped us for pointing the gun at ourselves/Ashley.


• Mike! He found Sam! rionaleonheart's ship is now leaving the docks! I'm he got there and could help, I'm sad that I messed up our apparently ONLY CHANCE TO MENTION THAT MIKE IS DOWN SOME FINGERS.


• ... Seriously why is there not an option later to have Mike yell at Josh because sure, sure, it was a prank, very funny, he had to cut off his own fingers.


• But yay for the game letting Mike and Sam actually have interactions that don't involve Mike being a douche! Although when Sam put her backpack on and left without even at least putting pants on, I WAS ready to start throwing down with the game, because I don't know about you, but I would have wanted to put at least some pants on before I went exploring the murder house, but fortunately as soon as Sam was in a safe-ish place she did stop to put on clothes.


• (I am still in the nebulous "I don't actually ship anyone with anyone" stage of Until Dawn, which probably means that I am going to end up with one RAVING OTP that no one else ships at all.)


• OH MY FUCKING GOD JOSHUA


• I FUCKING CALLED THAT IT WAS JOSH USING THEATRICAL TRICKS, I CALLED IT! OR AT LEAST I POSITED THAT IT WAS POSSIBLE AND DIDN'T THINK THE GAME WOULD BE THAT NICE TO ME AND MY THEORIES!


• And this means that there were no ghosts, it was in fact Josh screwing with the ouija board!


• Okay, but I have so many questions, because I was SURE that this was going to turn out to be a thing with at least two human killers dressed as clowns! Because Ashley stabbed the clown with a pair of scissors, and Josh at no point acts like or mentions being stabbed with scissors! And he doesn't seem to know what the fuck Chris is talking about when he mentions that Josh punched Ashley in the face! And... No, apparently the machete dude and the stabbing fell into a plot hole somewhere.


• But also holy hell, literally his motive was "You videoed my sister going through a horrible thing, now I'm going to traumatise the shit out of you FOR THE VINE!" ... What was his plan? Literally just rock up at this point in the game and yell SUCKERS! Hide out for the rest of the weekend, then rock up at school after unleashing the videos onto the internet like "looooooooooooooool you should have seen your faces!" If no one has died by this point except for Josh, does that mean that Josh DOESN'T crack up at this point?
• I was SO SURE that Chris wasn't involved in the "prank" – I thought he was passed out on a table with Josh, but I might need to go back and watch the opening on youtube to be sure. If he wasn't involved, then I don't know why Josh is terrorising him as well as everyone else! Same for Sam – she was trying to stop the prank! Why include her in the revenge?


• ... Also holy shit can you imagine what could have happened if you chose Ashley in that scene with the saw?!


• I feel IMMENSELY validated that most of the spooky shit was theatrical tricks, because CALLED IT! I know that these things CAN be done, just not how!


• THE CAMERA ANGLES MAKE SO MUCH MORE SENSE, BECAUSE THEY ARE LITERALLY CAMERAS IN THE HOUSE AND/OR WOODS AT WEIRD ANGLES, SO OF COURSE IT'S A WEIRD VIEW POINT. Oh that makes much more sense!


• So Josh DID know about the prank! And that's why all of this is happening and they didn't all spend a year lying to everyone about why the twins went into the woods.


• I was honestly expecting that the game was going to present us with a serial killer taking advantage of Josh's death traps (and "death traps".)


• Honestly, I think I would have been more surprised about Josh being the killer if he hadn't told Chris that he and Ashley needed a shared trauma to bond over back in CHAPTER ONE.


• WHY DID YOU LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND INSTEAD OF STAYING TOGETHER AS A PACK.


• So yes, I did talk myself and splend around in circles trying to work out what would be the best and most moral option for dealing with Josh that didn't involve shooting him, and my conclusion was to hit him with a two-by-four.


• IT COULD HAVE BEEN WORSE.


• BEING UNCONCIOUS PROBABLY SAVED HIS LIFE FROM THE DINOSAUR-VISION WENDIGOS.


• I was really really sure that Mike was sending Chris back to the lodge because he wanted to shoot Josh in the face without witnesses, so please imagine my surprise that Josh was actually alive to be eaten by wendigos!


• I've been informed that the actual repercussions and monsters of this game depends entirely on the evidence you find/who survives? I don't know how accurate that is, but does it mean that if we'd found less evidence of the cannibalism, there wouldn't have been cannibals? If we'd found more information about Beth and Hannah disappearing, Beth or Hannah would have come back as the villains? Or... I can't actually remember what the middle mystery was, to be honest, the one that wasn't about the twins or 1952. Are the endings really different? I mean, they must be pretty different – if you kill Ashley in chapter... Four? Five? She can't be there trying to get you to kill Emily in chapter eight, but I don't know how much they spread out from there.


• At the point where Peter Stormare was yelling at us for torturing people, and then the killer clown rocks up? I was there going "WAIT, are WE being personified as the murderer? Has this gotten incredibly meta? Is he yelling at us because we're doing terribly at this game and the only ethical thing is to stop? Is he being attacked because the clown is a personification of the guilt we're supposed to be feeling?" And then... Nope! We're Josh!
  
  • Okay, but all of the questions about who we hate the most have such different connotations now! Because Josh's favourites are probably so different to ours, like maybe he ranks Chris higher in the liking list than we did! Or maybe he hates Chris more than we did, because Chris chose Ashley over him!
  
  
  • The way the office changes when Josh is "winning" and when he's being dragged away are really cool? Like, it returns to a fancy office - possibly Josh's command centre in the house? – when Josh is feeling in control and like he's pulled one over on everyone, and in the forest the office is completely overgrown! It's cool! Except for the ways that it reminds me of the VR office in Heavy Rain, actually.
  
  
  • I just! Have so many thoughts on how knowing that we're playing as Josh for these bits change how I react to them as a player! Because all of this is in his head – this office, Dr Hill, the beration and the mind games – so it's no longer about what scares me or what scares splend, it's about what scares Josh, what he is willing to inflict on himself to make other people suffer!
  
  
  • I thought that the party we found the invite for (the one with the scarecrow) was hosted by Sam, but if that was the invite for this party, then that explains a lot.


• WHY IS AN OLD HOTEL CONNECTED TO AN ABANDONED SANITORIUM, CONNECTED TO A MINE. I know the horror tropes reason for it, but I want to know the Watsonian explanation for why and how this was built.


• When we found the grave markers and things in the cave, I was very much going NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE.


• ... Oh, oh no I understand what happened here. Her and Beth fell into the cave, and Beth died, but Hannah didn't, so she made Beth a grave marker and started counting the days till her rescue that never came, and eventually, she got hungry. Hungry enough. ... That's so grim. Hannah is a wendigo, Hannah is haunting this mountain and trying to eat her friends and all of this is because of stupid adolescent bullying.


• Does this mean that if you drop Hannah, she's the one that dies and Beth's the one that resorts to cannibalism? Why on earth would Old Man Smithers, who KNEW THEY'D FALLEN DOWN THAT CLIFF, not mention it to anyone? Especially when he knows that this mountain is plagued by flesh eating monsters!


• WE WEREN'T ACTUALLY WRONG ABOUT OLD MAN SMITHERS BEING THERE TO YELL AT KIDS ON THIS MOUNTAIN! LOOK! WE WERE RIGHT! Of course there's a weird old man on the mountain who knows what's going on and can explain it to the protagonists! Of course!


• Are we SURE that he's not Chris from another timeline? Our best guess is that he's Billy Bates, but we've got minimal proof of that.


• WE FOUND OUT WHO THE FUCK PUT AN ARM IN A BEAR TRAP AS BAIT! It was Old Man Smothers! Here to trap wendigos!


• I was kinda hoping that we'd find Jessica somewhere in the mine while we were wandering around as Emily, but apparently not. I guess the wendigos dragged her away? ... Seriously, I am now assuming that on any route where you don't keep people with you, they are immediately eaten by wendigos.


• Also we do all understand that somewhere on this mountain is a wendigo jail, right? Boxes upon boxes of wendigos. That are all doubtlessly gonna be released or killed so that their spirits can become a super wendigo. What the actual fuck.


• WHAT DOES RELEASING THEIR SPIRITS INTO THE AIR EVEN MEAN BECAUSE IT CLEARLY DOESN'T MEAN THAT THE WENDIGOS POSSESS SOMEONE BECAUSE OLD MAN SMITHERS IS FINE.


• ... So there were already wendigos on the mountain, from the sound of it? Because the year Hannah and Beth disappeared, SOMEONE was blowing shit up on the mountain. Which means that either some of the twelve miner wendigos lived, or a surprising amount of people resort to cannibalism on this mountain.


• ... I assume that this means that machete guy is Old Man Smithers?


• So, we very foolishly went out to get Josh, which I'm gonna be honest: CHRIS, THAT WAS POSSIBLY THE WORST PLAN YOU EVER HAD. EVEN OLD MAN SMITHERS KNOWS IT. And then I fucked up every QTE by managing to shoot the wendigo, not the thing that would set the wendigo on fire – except for the last one, in sight of the house, where the wendigo leapt out at us and I was too slow switching to try to shoot the barrell.


• RIP Old Man Smithers and Chris.


• (Also, Old Man Smithers TOTALLY LIED about the wendigo stripping the skin off you while you're still alive, because that wendigo RIPPED CHRIS' HEAD OFF. AND THREW IT AT THE FRONT DOOR FOR NO GOOD GODDAMN REASON EXCEPT THE DRAMA.


• Seriously Ashley, did you not realise that by kissing him you'd doomed him to die? THAT'S HOW RESOLVING A ROMANCE SUBPLOT IN A HORROR MOVIE WORKS! But I guess Mike gets points for being good to Ashley about it.


• Seriously, I would not trust the basement of this building considering how many secret tunnels apparently link up in this mountain.


• But bless them all trying to figure out what's going on at the eleventh hour now that it's too late to change any of it.


• Mike: *explains the plot*
  Everyone else: Ugh there's no time for that now.


• Ashley is back on my shit list because wendigos and vampires are different and there is literally no reason for her to assume that being a wendigo is infectious.


• I'm with Emily, Mike pointed a GUN at her. Fuck him.


• Also he took the gun with him, what was he expecting Ashley and Sam to do, beat Emily to death with a chair?


• Why is there an option to NOT tell everyone that Emily isn't going to turn into a monster? That doesn't make any sense!


• I assume that Sam either saw the "DO NOT KILL WENDIGOS, THAT IS BAD FOR YOU" note, or there was something on the page after the bite that basically said "If Mike is a dumbfuck and tries to shoot a wendigo with a handgun, he's gonna get eaten and you'll all die."


• "UNDERSTAND THE PALM OF MY HAND, BITCH!" I take back all of my complaints about the dialogue of this game, this is the greatest line committed to video game history.


• I tried to refuse to bolt the girls in and the game wouldn't let me, what is this patriarchal bullshit involving BOLTING PEOPLE IN WITH A BOLT ON THE SIDE THAT THE MONSTERS WILL BE COMING FROM YOU DUMBFUCK CHILD HAVE YOU NEVER SEEN JURASSIC PARK.


• ... Oh my god these idiots are all younger than Jurassic Park WHO ALLOWED YOU TO BE UNSUPERVISED ON A MOUNTAIN OH MY GOD.


• ... I still have no idea what the totem warning about Ashley catching fire was referring to. Or maybe I was wrong about it being Ashley and it was actually Emily on the radio tower?


• Every time there's signposting for a jump scare, splend blames the wolverine. IT COULD BE, OKAY.


• We met up with wolf friend! We petted the wolf some more! I feel very bad that I didn't give it a bone earlier and this probably means that wolf friend is going to die!


• I still think Mike should have taken the cigar with him. It's a classic for a reason.


• Apart from that... Oh god, I don't want to go in there, that's a terrible idea. Tip your waitress. If one of your friends sets up elaborate death traps without warning you, definitely hit him with a two-by-four.

Comments

[rionaleonhart]

OKAY but what the hell is going on with those pictures. Why is Mike's the only one that's crossed out.

Interesting detail: the person who's crossed out is the person you said you most disliked in the therapy session! Which makes a lot of sense once you realise you're playing the therapy sessions as Josh.

Of course Sam is drugged and tied to a chair, why wouldn't she be. ... Is there a route where that DOESN'T happen?!

There is! If she managed to get away from Josh, she has a segment where she wanders around finding clues, and I think Ashley and Chris find her clothes on a dummy instead.

yessssss, Mike and Sam interacting at last

Seriously why is there not an option later to have Mike yell at Josh because sure, sure, it was a prank, very funny, he had to cut off his own fingers.

I'm now so sad this doesn't happen.

You're right; Chris was not involved in the prank and I don't understand why so much that Josh does seems to be focused on torturing him and Sam specifically. Maybe he just wanted an excuse to torture his friends.

Also holy shit can you imagine what could have happened if you chose Ashley in that scene with the saw?!

There's some interesting trickery here: the lever you pull as Chris is labelled with Josh and Ashley, but whether you're choosing to kill them or to save them is not specified. Pulling the lever either way will send the blade towards Josh. (If you previously had Chris declare his intention to save Josh, he'll go OH SHIT I MADE A MISTAKE.)

But I guess Mike gets points for being good to Ashley about it.

I really love how gentle he is with Ashley if Chris dies. MIKE MUNROE: NOT ALWAYS THE WORST (please ignore him being the worst in the following scene)

FUN FACT: if Chris makes it back to the house while being pursued by the wendigo, Ashley will open the door and let him in! ...unless he chose to shoot her to save himself earlier, in which case she will just stand there and watch him get torn apart.

Also he took the gun with him

He didn't, actually; he left it with the others! So many Let's Players scream WHAT ARE YOU DOING, BRING THE GUN at the screen at this point.

Why is there an option to NOT tell everyone that Emily isn't going to turn into a monster?

This option makes a lot more sense in playthroughs where Mike kills Emily.

I'm so glad you mentioned 'UNDERSTAND THE PALM OF MY HAND, BITCH.' Best line in the game.