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.
