As Dusk Falls review: a thrilling narrative adventure on Xbox Game Pass

Collision is the central theme of As a waterfall at dusk, The first game from the brand new studio Interior / Night. The world, the background, the family, the priorities all collide in a whirlpool of emotions and consequences, spill blood and bullets, tears and sweat, and in a fleshy story that never provides a clean answer. Great performance, clever art style combining motion comics and 3D animations, wide accessibility options, great writing, As a waterfall at dusk This is a promising start for the new studio and another great entry in the Xbox Game Pass catalog.

This is a story adventure where stories and cutscenes dominate the playthrough. It began in 1998 in Arizona, where the Walker family travels between states. After the car became unusable due to an accident, I had to stop by a dingy motel during repairs. At the same time, the Holt family is robbing their local home, but they have to get caught up in the act and escape. Holtz crashes at the same motel as Walker, and the robbers capture everyone. So the nail that desperate families try to manage innocent families, each gradually becoming a worse version of itself, and dissatisfaction that is not said to be a potential problem is a by-product of this life clash. The situation of the hostage that stings the beginning begins.

But things didn’t end in 1998. As a waterfall at duskSet in 2012, it reveals that the effects of the night have had a spillover effect for decades.

In this game, players can manage one member of each family in the same way. This is an interesting challenge. Because you can collide with the character you were just playing. Who do you prefer your priorities? Do you make a bad choice because you prefer another character? When the game does this, I absolutely love it, and I hope more of them do.

As with all such story-centric games, you are given dialogue and action options that lead to individual story branches that spill and intertwin with each other-they are all displayed as summaries and connected to charts. The path shows your result The choices after each chapter. There are also occasional quick time events, similar to Quantic Dream and Supermassive Games games. In this case, you can adjust it to suit your play style. (I extended the reaction time of the accessibility menu because I sometimes felt unfair, but Failure is also part of the play For games like this, do so. )

Using the summary screen above, you can easily go back and play a particular scene to reveal the path you weren’t following.And there is the whole story arc and your secret Will I want to meet you for the first time. For example, I did not encounter a large-scale exposure that seems to be central to explaining some “conspiracy holes.” (They were just holes in my playthrough plot. If I made another choice, that would all make sense.) This adds value to the replay. lord 2022 — Like any other game, borders are not allowed.

I didn’t have time to test, As a waterfall at dusk It’s also designed with multiplayer and cross-platform play in mind. You can play with friends and family, vote for decisions, make jokes, and create discussions to make your shared game pass experience fun.

This is the debut title from the new studio, but the game’s audio cast includes video game veterans: Elias Toufexis (Adam Jensen of modern Deus Ex), Jane Perry (with Hitman’s Diana Burnwood). Returns Selene), Sam Douglas (heavy rainScott Shelby). But even performers I didn’t recognize, like Elder Zoe Walker (Alex Jarrett), are excellent. Combined with a great sound design, everything is moving and feels real and realistic, even if it’s mostly composed of still images. As a waterfall at dusk The Quantic Dream game makes you feel like an immature piece of a violent teenager. It feels like watching mature golden time TV. This isn’t a small interactive experience, but it praises its excellent scripting.

Image: Interior / Night / Xbox Game Studios

The playing experience suffers from some technical disruption. In addition to the long loading screen (played on Xbox Series X) and the strange requirement of having to sign in to the profile every time, the game repeatedly displays a “how to play” message even when loading save data. did.

And one element of the plot makes a mistake: robbery, a bunch of rural boys in T-shirts without exceptional armor or powerful weapons can keep the entire police away. .. This helps to perpetuate the feeling of frustration and the inability to escape the situation, but for both families it feels like an incredible storytelling conceit. Whenever Holtz was able to fight the waves of police, he couldn’t help but keep his eyes on him, often without injury.

As a waterfall at dusk There is no good person, only those who are doing their best while the world grinds them. Robbery has good reasons for robbery. The Walker family is running away from mistakes. In the devil’s world, it seems important who has the bigger rake.Nothing is unique to gameplay, but Interior / Night’s efforts show that the studio is a bold new voice within the genre, easily getting old, and able to confront the following Jaguar notes: Is Until dawn When Quarry.. With its ability to always pull the rug from under you, As a waterfall at dusk The experience of an unforgettable story we have seen a thousand times will not diminish. Instead, it leaves its mark and is cast a long shadow by the sad but understandable character’s hardships drawn on threads that appear to be made of jagged wires. What bothers you is whether the thread you chose was really the best at the time. Like life, the answer is probably: Probably not.

As a waterfall at dusk It will be released on Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X on July 19th. The game was reviewed on Xbox Series X using the pre-release download code provided by Xbox Game Studios. VoxMedia has an affiliate partnership. These do not affect your edited content, but VoxMedia may earn commissions on products purchased through affiliate links.Can be found Click here for additional information on Polygon’s ethical policy..