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AUGUST 2015

JB Hi-Fi

www.jbhifi.com.au

066

visit

www.stack.net.au

FEATURE

GAMES

Supermassive Games are trying their hardest to scare the living daylights out you.

Cabin Fever

W

hy on earth would you want to go

and stay in a cabin in the woods for

the night? Do these people not

watch films? Clearly not.

Until Dawn

is a horror survival game

from Supermassive that has been gestating

for a number of years. Development was

originally undertaken for the PlayStation 3,

but it soon became clear it would be a good

fit for a PS4 exclusive – thus the project was

moved to Sony’s latest platform.

We were fortunate to get some hands-

on with the game in early July and can

confidently report that it will certainly scare

the life out of you.

The elements of your stereotypical slasher

movie are all in place, but this time you’re

playing one instead of watching it, and that

is a totally different proposition altogether.

On the anniversary of the disappearance

of twin sisters, a group of eight friends head

to the cabin (why?) for a morbid reunion.

The characters – all controlled at some point

by the player – are typical horror film teen

stereotypes. The big twist in

Until Dawn

is,

ultimately, players are directly responsible

for keeping these characters alive, or

alternatively leading them to the slaughter.

In what is known as the ‘Butterfly Effect’,

each choice that is made in

Until Dawn

has a direct consequence that will shape

the outcome of the game. Once someone

dies, they stay that way, so repercussions

are ruthless. This becomes clear early in

the demo, where players are tasked with

making a significant decision whilst dangling

precariously off the edge a cliff face.

While it soon becomes apparent that

the eight are being stalked by a killer, clues

Bring in the experts

“We have Larry Fessenden

and Graham Reznick as our script

writers,” explains Harris “They

are horror encyclopaedias in

human form and have worked

on all sorts of acclaimed horror

movies, like

The Innkeepers

and

Stakeland.

The element of surprise

“What we’ve tried to do is

ensure that if you’re a fan of

horror movies it will feel familiar –

and that’s absolutely deliberate,”

says Harris.

“What we want to do is put

you in a playable horror movie.

We want to make you feel like

you know what’s going on and

that you’re in your comfort zone.

Then we can yank you out of it

extremely hard as the twists and

turns play out.”

Always have willing test

subjects

“One of the things we realised

very early on is that once we’ve

been scared by something, that

scare quickly diminishes every

time you play,” Harris explains.

“And of course we play the

game an awful lot, so you start

questioning whether something

is scary, forgetting the fact that

it scared the life out of you six

months ago. So we do a lot of

user testing. We get players in

that are completely fresh to the

game, so we can check that

we’re still making an impact.”

Harness the science of fear

“We do a lot of work with

galvanic skin response,” Harris

continues.

“We have testers strapped

into apparatus that monitors

their temperature and the level

of moisture in their skin. We’ll sit

and watch the data as the person

plays the game, and if we get a

Producer

Jez Harris

talks through

his five-step

formula for

guaranteed

scares.

Once someone

dies they stay

that way, so

repercussions

are ruthless