An intelligent, impeccably crafted and beautifully written point-and-click that adds an intriguing couch-multiplayer spin.
As Dusk Falls is worth our attention for one reason that is nothing to do with its merits: it’s that rarest of objects otherwise known as an Xbox exclusive. Series X owners shouldn’t perhaps get too overexcited on the back of that, or at least those who crave fast-twitch action games. The first game made by developer Interior/Night, it very much falls into the modern point-and-click adventure game category, billing itself, accurately enough, as an “interactive drama.”
Interior/Night’s Creative Director is Caroline Marchal, an industry heavyweight who established her reputation at Quantic Dream, and As Dusk Falls does possess a similar sort of vibe to Quantic Dreams games like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls. At least, it does so in conceptual terms: its gameplay is minimal, but its storyline is rich and deep, and you can have a vast amount of influence over how it pans out.
The general vibe of As Dusk Falls’ crucial narrative, however, along with its painstakingly constructed characterisations, does feel markedly original, however, sitting at a satisfying distance from the oeuvre of Marchal’s old workplace. Bookended by modern-day flash-forwards, it mainly tells the story of a fateful day in the wilds of Arizona in 1998, in which the fortunes of two families collided to tragic effect.
Initially, all seems rosy, although a tense undercurrent soon emerges which will be explained after the story flashes back a short while. A family – father Vince, his wife Michelle, their daughter Zoe, Vince’s elderly father Paul and his dog Zeus. Driving down Route 66 from Sacramento to start a new life in St Louis, the family has a run-in on the road with a pick-up driven by three unruly local youngsters; abandoning their car, they pitch up at the Desert Dream Motel.
Meanwhile, those local delinquents turn out to be the Holt brothers: soon you find yourself controlling the youngest brother, Jay, as they rob the house of the local sheriff, Dante Romero. Before long, the two families converge at the Desert Dream, swiftly followed by Dante and his cops, and mayhem plays out, punctuated by flashbacks that explain why the Holts committed their burglary and why Vince and his family felt the need to migrate to St Louis.
Gameplay-wise, As Dusk Falls will feel reassuringly familiar to devotees of the likes of Supermassive’s games: you must carefully choose dialogue options and, at crunch action-points, execute the correct button-presses swiftly. But As Dusk Falls goes beyond the established norms of such point-and-click-style games. For example, it tells you when the storyline is at a crossroads, so the branch it takes depends on your input.
Moral dilemmas abound – not least when you play as Jay Holt, the youngest and gentlest of the three brothers – and you soon find that, as Vince, your primary task is to try to keep all your family members alive. As Dusk Falls’ storyline might just be one of the most convoluted narratives ever shoehorned into a videogame: your actions can trigger wildly different outcomes, and at the end of each chapter (there are six, each of which takes roughly an hour to play) the game actually shows you a visual representation of the narrative path you ended up taking.
On top of all that, you can turn a play-through of As Dusk Falls into a group exercise, via an accompanying app that can let up to seven people vote on dialogue choices – whoever has the controller can sometimes override the majority verdict, but it turns the game into a fascinating exercise in groupthink if, say, you play it with a group of friends after an evening out.
Visually, As Dusk Falls is highly distinctive, with a lush, comic-book-style look reminiscent of cel-shading, and a sort of keyframe-to-keyframe style of semi-animation. The voice-acting and dialogue is simply superb – most such games will have one character whose delivery is wooden, and at least of fistful of lines that at best are clunkers, but not As Dusk Falls.
The characterisations, too, are brilliant – easily up to the standards of the sort of Hollywood movies that would be described as “cerebral”. Characters who initially seem monstrous slowly reveal their motivations, until you actually begin to warm to them and feel for them. There are some great soap opera-style subplots, too, which – as you rack up the play-throughs – you learn you can resolve in different ways.
The overall effect is of a six-hour, high-quality road movie over which you can exert an unprecedented amount of control, to the extent of completely rewriting it. You will replay it many times, in search of that perfect outcome (although goodness knows whether that is even possible). Your influence over its story renders it a delightfully immersive experience. And if you play it as part of a group armed with the app downloaded to various devices, it actually morphs into a curious form of dinner party entertainment – although be warned: it can trigger heated arguments.
Those who crave nothing more than non-stop action from their games will inevitably find As Dusk Falls disappointing – it’s about as far away from an action game as you can get. But those who value games that are built on intelligence and storytelling – and who appreciate the highest production values – will love it with a passion. It won’t be for everyone, but it’s a very impressive debut from Interior/Night.
