As Dusk Falls Review

As Dusk Falls had me hooked from start to finish. I’ve played a lot of narrative-based choose your own adventures over the years, and loved a lot, but there’s something that bit extra special here. The entire cast are written and performed excellently, and that eye-catching art style lets us linger on specific frames as each character talks, be that the sudden dawning of a terrible realisation or a simple laugh at a friendly joke. I’ll admit I wasn’t overly sold on the style in the trailers but in action, it feels as natural a choice as anything.

Speaking of choice, the entire game and story are based around exactly that. We assume the role of several protagonists throughout the run time of As Dusk Falls, some more involved than others, and despite this change of perspective I found that the tale was still solidly told and explored. I do find in other titles when we move between characters that I can almost contradict parts of their personality but here, no matter the options presented, I felt they all fit within whatever else had gone on prior and would come along after.

In fact, the characters here are some of the most well rounded and lifelike I’ve seen in a game of this style. From father Vince, looking to protect his family to Jay, seemingly caught up in shit he has no interest in being involved with, as well as the myriad of other characters, they all exhibit strong characteristics and motivations that aren’t as black and white as ‘you bad, me good’. Each and every scene had me gripped until the end despite most being around an hour long, with twists and turns that genuinely caught me off guard. Of course, there’ll be no spoilers here, but I’m already on my way back through again to see what I can find and do differently.

To aid in this, each chapter is able to be viewed as a time line chart. Here we can see our choices and path through the story but also so much more; what choice affected a specific outcome; what changed the path entirely; why a character may or may not have lived. It is honestly a little overwhelming at times, seeing just how things can change based on a simple choice in the moment. Some choices affect subsequent chapters which isn’t as easily seen, but for the most part we can figure out what to do should we want to unlock unseen scenes. Add in the fact that each chapter usually has two stories running concurrently and you can see the sheer depth on offer here from INTERIOR/NIGHT’s debut game. Some of the leads on the team have previous experience in the big budget space, including CEO Caroline Marchal who worked on Heavy Rain and Beyond Two Souls at Quantic Dream – the former being one of my very favourite games in this genre – so the expectations were fairly high, but boy, they have delivered.

I must mention that fantastic art style in a little more detail. Presented as a motion comic (even the game is broken up into two ‘books’ each with three chapters), the characters move and animate at certain key frame moments. I can see why some might find this style a little jarring but for me, it’s a stunning looking game. The stylised renders of the real life images are blended seamlessly into the virtual backgrounds and as I mentioned above, really let us focus on key moments in a conversation.

Having a handful of tough choices to pick from while a character’s static, anguished face stares at us is far more effective than them filling the dead air and looking around the environment. Sometimes patience can be a virtue as a sneaky extra option will appear if we wait for a few seconds as well. Faster scenes, such as those with quick time events, up the ante by adding in a few more frames and screen effects, to great success.

Audio work is also sublime. The music is perfectly paired with the action and key moments have some tunes which will be finding their way to my playlist soon. As mentioned briefly, the cast all deliver absolutely brilliant performances throughout. No name-based favouritism but Jay in particular hit it out of the park, coming across as… well, I really don’t want to spoil anything at all. Just rest assured that the entire ensemble put in the work, and the entire experience is just gripping from start to finish.

Multiplayer features too, with up to eight participants (either on or offline, or indeed both) able to make choices together. A mobile phone companion app is available so we don’t need a ton of controllers, and the host can still choose to override a choice should they wish too.

Another neat feature is the ability to back out of a choice. Accidently pick something (or have a change of heart) and we have a second or two to back out. Handy, as the only real nit-pick I have with As Dusk Falls is the interface. We can drag the cursor around to pick the options or examine the environment, but this is as slow and fiddly as it is in other titles. Luckily we can also quick select things using the dpad, but this isn’t always as accurate as I’d like. One example saw me press left to pick the option only for it to default to the right hand one. Granted this was a rare example, but that ability to back out of a choice quickly came in handy.

As Dusk Falls does a great job of signposting what key actions accomplished in the moment too. We’ll get a little prompt up top if something significant has changed, which then feeds back into the timeline I mentioned above. In other titles I found this could sometimes be too intrusive or immersion breaking but here, I really appreciated the information and it made me more keen to get back and try something else. The game also tracks players styles, granting us cards at the end of a chapter based on not just what we picked, but how. Rapid fire answer the choices and we get one card, while constantly back out, or always choose one style of answer and we get another card. It’ll be interesting to see how different players fare in this regard, especially in a multiplayer session.

There’s so much more I want to say about why I enjoyed As Dusk Falls but to do so would be to ruin the experience for others. Even several days since I finished the story I’m still thinking about potential outcomes and actions I’d like to try next time, and the knock on effect they will have down the line.

Conclusion

All in all, As Dusk Falls is a stellar example of the narrative adventure genre. A fantastic cast of characters are used brilliantly throughout, with twists and turns galore. The sheer breadth of choice and consequence mean there is scope for several playthroughs, and even when we’re bouncing between characters there’s cohesiveness to the story rarely found in gaming. Top it off with a stunning art style and soundtrack and we have not only one of the best examples of the genre, but one of the best titles of the year so far.