Platforms: Xbox Series X, Xbox One, PC
When Cartoon Network rebooted 1980s kids classic ThunderCats as the more comedic ThunderCats Roar in 2020, many viewers said they disliked the “animation”. However, the animation – exquisite and fluid – wasn’t actually the problem. What many naysayers actually meant was that they disliked the wackier, Teen Titans Go-influenced character designs and art direction.
With As Dusk Falls, the interactive drama from British indie devs Interior Night, the opposite is true. There’s a lot to like in the art and character design of this thriller, baked in orangey hues of a dustbowl Arizona town and with painterly renditions of its cast of brilliantly performed characters. But the actual animation – how characters move and interact – is borderline static. Characters move jerkily through key frames every few seconds, at odds with the flowing, captivating voice acting, often undermining any dramatic tension. The approach renders this more of a choose-your-own-graphic-novel than a typical video game, but lacks even the stylistic commitment to embrace a comic book aesthetic – actual panel transitions would be a better fit for the pacing than the pseudo-animation here.
If you’re coming to As Dusk Falls from the likes of similarly narrative-driven adventure games such as Life Is Strange or The Quarry, this may feel like a step backwards mechanically, too. There’s not even the veneer of interaction with the world – rather than explore the town of Two Rock, where the fates of two families entwine during a fateful 1998 summer, players are ushered through a rigidly-presented story, the only interaction being regular choices that can drastically steer the direction of the plot.
The pressure to choose and choose quickly is As Dusk Falls' greatest tool to leverage tension
Still, the choice and consequence system is effectively woven into the fabric of the game, often in clever ways. While bigger choices are signposted – literally, with signpost-shaped warnings on screen before major options are selected – it’s often smaller decisions that have the greatest impact. As soft-spoken Jay Holt, the youngest of three brothers engaged in a spot of breaking and entering, you’ll be presented with several options to investigate and find a hidden safe, but only have enough time to choose two – impacting whether you get the goods and get out or not. Meanwhile, Vince Walker, a father moving his family to Missouri for a new start, may have only seconds to choose a dialogue option that will rebuild or further damage his relationship with wife Michelle.
That pressure to choose and choose quickly is As Dusk Falls’ greatest tool to leverage tension over the course of its roughly six hours of story. Sometimes you’ll have 20 seconds to decide, others five, others not even enough time to read the various options presented to you, all while characters’ fates are hanging in the balance. It’s unexpectedly gripping, and given the relatively brief time runtime, players drawn in by the complex characters and multifaceted relationships between them will likely be compelled to play through a few times to see just how varied the tale can get with each diverging path taken.
Great acting and writing can’t save the game from feeling unpolished though – in fact, it often seems like a mobile game scrubbed up for console and PC release. While there is a companion app for smartphones which allows multiple players to make decisions and skew the outcome, the whole presentation seems tailored for touchscreens, right down to instructions to “tap” icons despite playing with a controller, or to “swipe” to complete the odd Quick Time Event. Combined with the jarring animation – or lack thereof – and absence of any real gameplay beyond endless choices, As Dusk Falls won’t be challenging the likes of The Dark Pictures Anthology for the ‘movie game’ crown, even if its story ultimately holds up as one of the genre’s best.