Horror is one of my all-time favorite game genres, largely because it’s so flexible. The genre naturally lends itself well to both single-player and multiplayer experiences, and over the years, co-op horror has really earned a special place in my heart. But one well-loved title has never really managed to grow on me, largely due to all of its characters looking like they were born in the uncanny valley: Until Dawn.
Casting a recognizable actor in a game is always going to be a controversial choice, but it’s one I can usually look past in a game I’m otherwise enjoying–Detriot: Become Human and Respawn’s Star Wars trilogy both fall into that camp for me–but the stiff, stilted in-game versions of the original Until Dawn’s star-studded cast are so distractingly bad, I’ve never really managed to move past them. Until Dawn has great bones when it comes to gameplay, but its skinsuit has always been kind of awful, as is the case for the rest of Supermassive Games’ horror catalogue, including the Dark Pictures anthology. Because of this, I’ve been looking forward to the sequel since I first found out it wasn’t being made by Supermassive Games. Surely with a new team and technological jumps in animation, we’d get a game with a cast that doesn’t look like creepy wax figures of the humans they’re meant to portray.
Unfortunately, after finally getting a good look at Until Dawn 2 via Sony’s recent State of Play showcase, it seems the game’s characters are once again trapped in a nightmare set in the uncanny valley.
Don’t get me wrong, the story–which follows a group of obnoxious 20-somethings who livestream their ghost-hunting shenanigans on social media–seems pretty solid. I love the idea of paranormal clout-chasers accidentally biting off more than they can chew. We’ve got Neil Newbon stepping into a villain role, which is something I am very much looking forward to, and to be absolutely fair, his character model doesn’t look too bad.
Detailed and instantly recognizable as Newbon, his character Sebastian is definitely the best-looking of the bunch. (I am admittedly biased here, as Newbon is already a very handsome fellow, made even more attractive by his award-winning performance as one of the most charismatic, lovable video game characters of this decade.) Despite playing a guy who is clearly meant to be creepy, Newbon’s character model somehow manages to be the least-unsettling one in the trailer.
But the rest of the group–while better than their OG Until Dawn counterparts when it comes to body mo-cap–are still dead-eyed, and their facial animations all scratch the part of my lizard brain that’s responsible for fight or flight. Every single one of them has a bad case of Video Game Mouth Syndrome, showing way too many teeth and grimacing more than emoting.
Honestly, it felt a tiny bit cruel for Sony to air the trailer right before the absolutely breathtaking reveal of God of War: Laufey, which featured a very realistic, non-nightmare-fuel character model of Daredevil actress Deborah Ann Woll. Woll’s in-game counterpart looks absolutely fantastic. Her eyes have light behind them and don’t roll in unnatural ways. Her skin isn’t waxy and weird. She breathes, blinks, and emotes in intervals that feel natural and don’t remind me of a sleep-paralysis demon. She looks alive, which is wildly ironic given the fact that she’s playing a dead woman. The cast of Until Dawn 2 are all actually alive (for now), but they feel like skinwalkers, not people.
Like I said, I’ve never really loved the whole, “Lets put recognizable actors in our game!” thing. I tend to find it distracting at best and unbearably corny at worst. But if you’re going to fill your game with freaky, mannequin-like approximations of faces I recognize, I guess a horror game is the best place to do it.
I just hope they keep the awkward, jilted sex scenes to a minimum. The glimpses we got in the trailer were more than enough for me.
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