'Until Dawn'—A New Twist

Finally, it's that time again boys and girls! All Hallow's Eve is upon us and that means it's time for trick-or-treating, haunted houses, dressing up, and horror movies or in my case, horror video games.

One of my favorite horror games is the survival horror and PlayStation 4 exclusive title, Until Dawn. Until Dawn follows a group of 8 teenagers who revisit a cabin in the woods a year after a tragic event. Josh (played by Mr. Robot's Rami Malik), loses both his sisters and in an attempt to gain some closure in his situation, he invites all the friends he spent the weekend with at his parent's cabin a year prior. It's from there we see things start to take a turn for the sinister. Our teens seem to be hunted by...something.

For those of you who are fans of the game, and if you're a completionist like me, you've probably completed the game a few times. You've saved everyone, you've killed everyone, and you've collected everything in the game there is to collect. Or maybe you haven't been able to play it at all due to console restrictions.

Whatever your reason is, be it a fear of anything horror related, a lack of a PS4 console, or just plain disinterest altogether, there is a new way to enjoy this psychological survival horror. So grab your popcorn and a few friends (preferably one with a PS4 if you don't have one yourself), and get ready for a night of stereotypical teen horror.

Despite not having a multiplayer option, there is somewhat of a hack you can do to make it an immersive multiplayer experience for everyone. It revolves around a pass-the-controller type play style which actually makes the experience more competitive than cooperative.

Here's what you do: Each player takes responsibility of one or more of the 8 teenage players in the game and tries their best to keep them alive throughout. For example, a group of four players will take two characters each and try to keep them alive until the end of the game. For the best results, you're going to want to try and divvy the characters up evenly so all players get close to equal amounts of screen time. Keep in mind that Sam and Mike are the characters that will have the most screen time, Josh and Jessica will have the least, with Ashley, Chris, Emily, and Matt falling around the middle of the spectrum.

Where a normal play through of the game consists of a single player attempting to keep all the characters alive, this somewhat competitive spin on the game divides the responsibility amongst you and your friends. This really opens things up to some "friends becoming enemies" situations via backstabbing and selfishness. A word of advice though, every choice you make, no matter how big or small, can have dire consequences for more than just the character affected. Keep that in mind when the urge to kill one of your friend's characters comes up.

So when the movie marathon has ended, and the trick-or-treaters have all gone home, why not gather a few friends (and some leftover candy) for a night of good old-fashioned survival horror. Bonus tip: Why not make things more interesting by transforming your experience into a drinking game? Assuming all the participants are age 21 or over, have a drink whenever someone fails a quick time event in the game. Another drink whenever someone screws over your character. Finally, finish your drink if or when a character dies in the game. So, with that, good luck, have fun, and Happy Halloween everyone!