Decisions have unintended consequences. If someone is looking for theme ideas that link the story of As Dusk Falls to its game structure, it’s hard to avoid that statement as a motivating message. Life is filled with decisions big and small that shape the future, and we don’t always know how ultimately a wrong word or a turn to another path might end. Interior/Night’s emotional and risky first game doesn’t care about letting you choose how your character’s life plays out; As in real life, it’s unpredictable. Instead, the studio created a series of complex portrayals of the characters, linking them together with common hurts and asking players to decide how to move on. The nuanced story unfolds as rewarding, often painful, and often engaging.
As Dusk Falls is a crime story that primarily focuses on two families linked together by a heist that goes wrong and the ensuing hostage situation, along with its associated and lingering consequences. Two sympathetic characters take the lead – an underprivileged middle-aged father and a conflicted young man torn by his family ties – but the broader cast is believable. and memorable.
Dramatic scenes play out in smaller intimate moments and larger high-energy action scenes, like car chases or police raids. In both cases, the conversations are spontaneous, thoughtfully written and acted, and full of emotion. Situations have a heavy tone at times, but even those moments feel right for the kind of TV story that can be an inspiration, like Break, Reasonableor Fargo.
While it does take some getting used to, the unique art style helps put a lot of emphasis on key moments and helps make decision-making feel less jarring. Real-life actors play the scenes, then paused motion art is overlaid. The constant flow of dialogue interspersed with gently animated frames of the image reveals some of the best features of both the movie and the comics.
Through a combination of using a controller, a mobile app, and even chatting on Twitch during the broadcast, As Dusk Falls takes a strong approach to multiplayer. Majority rules when choices play out, lead to a series of often unexpected and intriguing outcomes, and it’s likely that many conversations start like, “I can’t believe you chose…”
While multiplayer is handled well, it’s undeniably an odd topic for a shared experience and certainly not played for laughs. The story is not so smooth in the approach to the content. It covers important issues such as troubled marriages, danger to children, post-traumatic stress and depression, and even suicide – although the final section is given a pre-textual warning. with the skip option. If you choose to play with friends, expect a compelling story, but not an exciting one. With that said, thanks to its playability on phones and the underlying theme, As Dusk Falls is a great game to share with the non-gamers in your life, illustrating the potential of the series. interactive TV series.
I also appreciate the background play system for contextualizing and navigating the story. A branching tree of narrative choices visible at any given time, and a clever approach to saving the game and discovering decisions allows you to see the path not taken if you wish. When a key character dies, you’re likely to be tempted to go back and do it a different way – even if that might go against the message the game is trying to convey. I also love how your choices and approach to play are tracked and fed back to you after completing the chapter, providing insights into both the characters as you shape them and perhaps even the characters. your trend.
Since Dusk Falls hides many secrets in the winding streets of its story web, and by its very nature, you won’t get the full picture in any single level, encouraging possibility play again. But you may also be tempted to play through one turn of the story and then walk away, the content you’ve seen “your” version of. Either way, it’s a heavy and satisfying excursion into interactive drama, confident enough in its writing to not rely on superpowers or fantasy. For players interested in the progress of interactive narrative frames, it was a commendable success. But even for someone who never played the game, it still works. That’s because good characters and storytelling make for a global experience, and this is a project that does both.
