Like Dusk Falls, a visually appealing interactive drama with a captivating storyline

It’s not easy to make your mark when you’re trying to walk through a maze that’s already been largely mined and mined by many interactive dramas over the years, with more or less success. However, this is an internal / night bet, which was founded in 2017 by a young London studio by Caroline Marshall, a former lead designer of the Quantic Dream studio, which works on games. pouring rain and Beyond the soul. The studio specializes in precisely interactive thrillers where the concept of choice and consequences should be at the heart of the video game experience.

First shown at the July 2020 X Box Showcase, Like Dusk Falls models its narrative structure on that of a TV series; In this case, six episodes of about an hour.

Here’s the trailer…

The story begins in 1998 in Arizona and unfolds over fifteen years. The Walker family travels to St. Louis, determined to turn their lives around and reset the counters. There’s Vincent, father of Zach Galifianakis’ family and quasi-video game counterpart; Michelle, his wife; Their daughter Zoe and grandfather Jim, who joined the trip along with his little dog.

After the accident, the family is forced to stay in a roadside motel. Shortly after their arrival, the Holt brothers, a family well known to the local police, also find refuge in the motel when the authorities chase them home for a more or less botched robbery by the local sheriff. What happens next is now in your hands.

Or, in fact, in the hands of several players, such as what the studio Supermassives Games experienced with its horror narrative games. Because the game is possible Like Dusk Falls Up to eight, using an X Box console controller, keyboard or mouse, as well as a free downloadable app, to turn your smartphone into an interactive control screen. The idea is to make the game as accessible as possible. In multiplayer, interaction is done through sounds.

Praise less is more

Overloaded genre, as we said above. The only way to break out of the game with this type of production is to have both a strong and attractive visual identity, along with a sufficiently well-crafted script.

artistic approach Like Dusk Falls is once the original; Still attractive. Designed as a graphic novel, the game builds its overall thread through sequential vignettes, like a kind of flip book. The animations are also very minimalistic. Tell yourself that at best, it will be a car that starts up and pulls away, the effect of wind on your hair, the effect of fire, to put it in perspective.

Interaction is also often kept to a minimum. Outside of a few QTEs (which by the way can be modulated in the options), we sometimes just scan the thumbnail, looking for an object or clue; But there is no question of going through everything with a fine-toothed comb, like a sneaky click.

However, a truly remarkable energy emerges from this subtle approach, which ultimately feels like a genuine apology Less is more. Thanks to the live actors, which are processed in the graphic palette, already give this interactive fiction a “realistic” aspect. The choice of framing vignettes, too, where the copious dialogue overlaps, creates a real dynamic in a story that never stops.

The second spring, no less important, is the script. Drinking from the sources of series like Justified or even Fargo, multiplying flashbacks and flash forwards, playing with several times, Like Dusk Falls departs from it with dignity and features characters that are sometimes charming, despicable or pathetic, but all deeply human, tinged with dramatic tension that is often unnecessary.

If, as is often the case in this type of game, you sometimes have the illusion of choice, or, more precisely, the feeling that at certain moments your choices won’t ultimately be as impactful, Like Dusk Falls However, it has many narrative branches that will be revealed at the end of each chapter.

You can also, if you wish, explore other branches from certain given points. useful Especially if a character dies due to an unfortunate choice on your part… at least it’s also a guarantee of welcome replay value that you’ll need to see the game through. All parts of the story together in a puzzle. Highly recommended.