2nd Dawn Revealed, This Time Fake Ghost Hunters Find Something Real – WGB
Sony used their recent State of Play show to officially reveal Until Chapter 2, bringing back the choice-driven horror formula that helped make the original game a cult classic.
While the first Until Tomorrow locked up a group of friends on a remote mountain, the sequel heads straight to the tropics. The revealing trailer introduced a team of ghost hunters who have made a career of investigating the supernatural and filming their adventures for an online audience.
There’s just one small problem: according to the developer of Firesprite, all their previous investigations were false.
This group has apparently spent years fabricating evidence, creating fear and misleading viewers. Now, after signing a major television deal, they are sent to investigate a mysterious tropical island with secrets dating back centuries. Unfortunately for them, this time the horror seems very real.
The trailer followed the crew as they explored abandoned properties and tried to discover the truth behind the island’s dark history. As expected in an Until Dawn game, things quickly spiral out of control as the body count begins to rise.
Firesprite also signaled the return of its trademark-driven gameplay series. One series showed a character named Luke near the edge of a cliff while another character came running around the corner being chased by a monstrosity and faced with a split second decision. An option flashes on the screen: push as you like, or just jump yourself. The trailer of choice is a shove with Luke, sending both characters tumbling off a cliff, and Luke crashing to the rocks below to a gruesome death. Sorry, Luke. I will remember this when I play the full game.
That moment reinforced the message shown at the end of the trailer:
Everyone Can Live. Everyone Can Die.
Like the original game, it seems that every major character will once again reside in the hands of the player.
“This time, the way you handle the relationships between the staff is more important than ever, with certain branches based on where things stand between the characters. It’s not just the big moments, even the smallest character moments can trigger the Butterfly Effect, sending your story forward to unexpected outcomes…” says a post on the PlayStation blog.
While the disclosure did not provide a firm release date, Sony has confirmed that Until Dawn 2 will launch in 2027.
More than a decade has passed since the original Until first arrived on PlayStation, making this one of the most surprising announcements of the night. I think the Until Dawn remake last year really set the stage for a revival.
Whether it can recapture the magic of the original remains to be seen, but the premise of a group of fake detectives suddenly encountering real supernatural horrors is certainly a solid place to start.
But one question remains: where are all the Wendigos? We need Wendigos. Wendigos on a tropical beach. Screw it, let’s just make it a Wendigo holiday simulator or something.
