This is perfectly fine, but just be aware that it is a very narrative-heavy experience should you choose to check it out.Īs Dusk Falls’ unique art style doesn’t see the characters or their movements fully animated, instead it’s presented as static digitally rendered art that I would compare to reading a graphic novel panel by panel. While the gameplay aspects of As Dusk Falls are pretty sound, they are more so the bits that break up the extended dialogue and cutscenes. This also goes the other way, as you can easily overlook certain details that could have potentially led you down a different path. In several instances, you’ll stumble upon some bonus information that can inform your decisions down the road. There’s a pretty small window to complete them, and there were a couple that I actually missed along the way.Įxploring the various locations is pretty standard, as you check cabinets, open windows, and complete tasks that reveal more about the story and characters. As someone who’s played plenty of similar games, I found the QTEs in As Dusk Falls to be refreshingly challenging. The quick time events in As Dusk Falls task the player with tapping and mashing buttons, as well as swiping and rotating the analog stick when prompted on-screen.
Perhaps it was designed to be played with a mouse or touch screen, as there is a companion app that players can download and use as a controller. Luckily, the game does let you use the dpad to snap directly to different options. It was as if there was the slightest delay on my input. Playing on Xbox, I found the on-screen cursor to feel a bit clunky as I moved it around with the analog stick.
The gameplay in As Dusk Falls revolves around selecting dialogue/action options, completing quick time events, and exploring the immediate area point-and-click style.
Elias Toufexis (Vince) and Jack Bandeira (Dale) stuck out to me as particularly impressive performances in the game, although everyone brings their A-game. The characters of As Dusk Falls are all fully voiced, and they give a lot of emotional weight to the story material. While there is some excellent writing here, a lot of the credit should also be attributed to the vocal performances. It made it far more challenging for me to make those split second decisions in the more intense moments. Although there are “good guys” and “bad guys,” there’s actual nuance to what’s unfolding in the story. Though I favored some over others, they all felt like genuine people with unique motivations and life experiences. The branching pathways show just how many directions the story can go, and encouraged me to go back and replay certain sections after I was finished with the chapter.Īs Dusk Fall really captured me with its characters. It’s the best illustration of player choices and their respective consequences I’ve seen in the genre. The results of these decisions can be both small and large, and the game actually lays out every choice you made and what outcome it led to after every chapter. You constantly have to choose between different dialogue choices and actions. This non-linear approach helps to shed context on the relationships without constantly dumping exposition onto the player.Īs an interactive story, the narrative in As Dusk Falls is dictated by player choice. The story is told out of chronological order, as we frequently jump back and forth in the timeline to experience key moments in the lives of our characters. There are themes of loyalty, betrayal, and perseverance. Early on, their lives are intertwined forever following a robbery job gone wrong. This choice-based adventure tells a riveting narrative that stuck with me long after I walked away from it.Īs Dusk Falls follows the story of two families over the course of three decades.
Developers such as Supermassive Games and DONTNOD have established themselves quite well in this field, and INTERIOR/NIGHT is the latest to take a crack at the genre with As Dusk Falls. Interactive adventure games have become a vehicle for some of the most immersive and cinematic stories in gaming. Home Tribune Premium Content Entertainment Pop Culture Video Games As Dusk Falls review: Interwoven destinies As Dusk Falls review: Interwoven destinies Video Games JA scene from As Dusk Falls.