![]() ![]() ![]() On my way to the event, a colleague told me she hoped for my sake that As Dusk Falls played better than the trailer at the Xbox Bethesda Showcase made it look. Maybe it’s just me but I can barely keep up with all the uncompromising crime dramas I’ve been told I NEED to watch on tv, a game attempting to do the same thing does not sound super appealing. As Dusk Falls focuses on advertising itself as an “uncompromising crime drama”. These are extremely vague and general ideas that many stories touch on. Interior/Night says the game aims to explore “love, loss, family, identity, sacrifice, and resilience.” The overarching story of As Dusk Falls follows two families whose stories are intertwined over the course of three generations, all stemming from one chance encounter at a motel in Arizona. It was our job as a communal body to make choices on how to react to the situation to get out with the best possible solution, and with no casualties, if it could be helped. Eight players were introduced to a man and his father being held up at a gunpoint in the lobby of a motel. That being said, if previous Quantic Dream games set the standard for Interior/Night, then there is some hope that As Dusk Falls could still succeed, provided it follows through and hits every beat it's setting up for itself.Īs Dusk Falls is set to release on July 19 for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.As Dusk Falls emulates graphic novels in a choice-based story about generational conflict.ĭon’t judge a book by its cover - The 45-minute section of the game I played was set part way into the first of six chapters that make As Dusk Falls. Players have already expressed some concerns with the design via social media and on the trailer itself, and if the game already has people worried it won't live up to player expectations, then Interior/Night's debut game may already be at a disadvantage. Physical movement is a huge means of conveying emotion and personality, even if characters aren't talking, so Interior/Night is taking a big risk here. Sadly, if the narrative itself doesn't pay off, this will ultimately undermine the design choice to limit its characters. Additionally, by embracing the design choice instead of attempting to hide it, the studio can focus itself on delivering its other goals such as the deep narrative at its core. ![]() With an ambitious workload, perhaps scaling back on the animation design helps alleviate the strain that would have left its staff. If the game lives up to the promise of an ethically difficult journey for all players involved, then it stands to reason that every decision made by players leads to an entirely unique course of events and outcome. While it would be nice to assume that Interior/Night has made the design choice for a purely aesthetic reason, it might actually tie back to its As Dusk Falls' ambitious 8-player co-op scope. It's a radical change, given that other visual novels don't scale back their design this much, but there may be a good reason for Interior/Night making this decision. Strangely, other elements of the game don't seem to follow this, as the trailer depicted a car traveling normally, suggesting the animation style is limited to its characters. The game doesn't feature much in the way of character animation, instead using still images to give the illusion of movement. However, as promising as this may seem, these aspects are being overlooked by audiences due to As Dusk Falls' unusual design choice. Given the previous ties to Quantic Dream, creator of notable adventure games such as Detroit: Become Human, it's unsurprising that Interior/Night would seek to somehow push the envelope of the medium beyond its competition. Games like these that offer a breadth of difficult moral choices aren't entirely new, but one of As Dusk Falls' most ambitious features is the 8-player co-op functionality, allowing several friends to come along for the ride and share the journey together. Set in Arizona in the 1990s, two families collide through circumstances of a hostage situation, paving the way for a great depth of moral challenges to fuel the narrative. The premise of the game itself is more straightforward than similar visual novels or interactive narratives on the market, since As Dusk Falls ventures for gritty realism instead of fantastical elements. ![]()
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