Day-to-Day

As a fan of the horror genre, Until Dawn caught my eye months before it was actually released. One thing most horror games have in common though is the fact that they aren’t actually scary – I speak from a PC gamer perspective, where you can find plenty of shooters and survival horrors that are based on jump scares and methodically dealing with your opponents. The last – and also the first – horror game that really scared me – and also hooked me on the genre – was Silent Hill 2, which is still my go-to title about “how scary games should be done”, and I played that in 2005.

Since then I tried almost every major title that came out, never finding one that actually made me worry for the sake of my character. When I first read about Until Dawn, the key piece of information that caught my eye was the developer, Supermassive Games, the studio that just a few months back had released The Order: 1886, a huge let down in terms of linear gameplay and no consequences or options for the player to affect the outcome of the story, but an unmatched visual quality. The Order and Until Dawn had this in common, they both looked great, so I decided to go through and buy the game.

After just a few minutes in I was already immersed and really enjoying the experience. To some extent, it felt a little like Heavy Rain, with all the choices, but less like Heavy Rain in the sense that you don’t have to execute EVERY SINGLE action the character is doing. There are a lot of cutscenes, but the lighting, camera placement and performances work so well together that you just lay back and watch, but never fully relaxed since at any point a fast timed decision might jump at you. About the characters, there’s little left to imagination and filling in gaps for low-poly geometry. The characters were modeled based on the likeness of the actors that play them – plus a ton of motion capture – which works like watching a very stylized mix of live action and animation movie.

I know I keep saying “movie” and “watching” while at the same time I bashed The Order for lack of interactivity so let’s make this part clear. Until Dawn is filled with choices. Path choices, conversations, hard decisions and “hold your breath and don’t move a muscle” moments, which affect directly the outcome of the game in the long run and, most of the times, also what is just about to happen. There are jump scares, of course, but more than that, this game kept me on the edge of my seat even when I knew nothing would happen right away.

The plot revolves around eight friends that end up trapped in a huge mansion at the top of a mountain during a snow storm. They were there the year before and that developed into tragic events – it’s the playable prologue of the game, to set the mood and introduce the characters. You get to control them all individually as the night progresses, sometimes in simultaneous events since they scatter around the mountain in different tasks or end up separated by unexpected events. The beginning feels strongly like a teen slasher movie of the cheapest kind but fully self-aware of that, which is what makes it great and fun, since you kind of know the stereotypes, how they should behave and what will happen soon enough, so the game reels you in with this little sense of security about the genre just to hit you back with something else when less expect. I stopped playing a few times just because I was too afraid I would kill the characters by making stupid choices. That had never happened before in a game for me.

You know when you’re watching a slasher flick and people make THE STUPIDEST decisions? Well, playing this game, I made several stupid decisions on my own, and I started to empathize with the characters and understand those moments. Sure, you want them to survive, but at the same time, I tried doing everything I could to make them help each other and that didn’t turn out so great many many times. When I got to the final scene, I could try to save some more people, but I was so worried that I would get everyone killed in the process that I ended up just blasting ahead and saving less characters the first chance I got.

Until Dawn made me realize that even though I knew what I was doing was stupid ahead of time I still didn’t change my plan and opted for a safer route. At some point I was chasing a kidnapper that took one of my characters in the woods and I had several choices of safer paths, but I kept going for the fastest/riskier ones because I NEEDED to try as hard as I could to catch up with that monster and rescue my girlfriend, even though the chances of getting hurt in the process increased dramatically. Another thing that amazed me was that you got choices and, once in a while, it’s best to not do anything and let them time out, because that is also a choice. This ended up getting me an ally at a critical point and it really made me feel a little safer while exploring some haunted ruins.

The game has clearly two main parts that blend well together and it doesn’t feel like “part one is over, now let’s move on to this other totally unrelated plot”. Part two sets roots during the first part, and it definitely does kick up a notch in terms of scary and worrisome bits. Being unable to load from previous saves also puts a lot more stress in how much you’re messing up those characters, since one bad decision can cripple you for something that will jump at you later on, and, wow, that happened a few times and I literally screamed at the game because I understood those were consequences of my own actions. I was also surprised by some unexpected events along the game, and that is not something that usually happens, since most horror movies are quite predictable, so lots of points for that!

By the time I got to the end and the credits started rolling, the first thought that came to mind was “I really gotta play this over again and change some of my decisions to see if I can make it through keeping everyone alive”. For some cases I know exactly when I messed up and got someone killed. Other parts aren’t as clear and I’m not sure how the larger numbers will affect the later events in the story, so I might be saving someone from death at that point in order to get them dead just a little later. The main point is: you definitely feel like you can change the outcome of the story and some of the middle too. You can imagine what would’ve happened if you took a different path.

All in all, Until Dawn was one of the best horror games I ever played AND one of the most exciting horror films I’ve watched in a while. Achieving these two points is not usual and it definitely gives it a “must play” status. It was funny how, after it was released, the internet was going crazy about the game, calling it a sleeper hit and people demanding it to be a franchise. I would surely play whatever comes afterward, specially if they make it an anthology thing, with different characters and stories.

No que parecia o começo do tempo de todos os tempos, dois barquinhos se conhecem na saída do cais. O dia é bonito, ensolarado, o mar é azul e sereno. Nossos dois barquinhos se preparam para suas jornadas, cada um com a tripulação ansiosa para desbravar correntes desconhecidas e passar por aventuras que seriam contadas e lembradas até o fim dos tempos.

Alguns meses depois da partida, o mar parecia mostrar um apreço especial por aquela dupla, os dois continuavam seguindo pelo mesmo caminho. Não como se um estivesse seguindo o outro, mas sim lado a lado, impulsionados pelas mesmas lufadas de vento. Os capitães começam a achar isso uma estranha coincidência e, numa manhã quieta, um dos barcos escuta uma cantoria vinda de não muito longe. Ao sair para o convés, vêem uma grande comemoração acontecendo na embarcação vizinha e são logo convidados a bordo. A essa altura do campeonato já sabem que não são piratas, e que estão à procura do mesmo tesouro, um tesouro que não tem exatamente forma física ou lugar, é como um sonho distante rumo ao qual ambos navegam.

Desafios surgem, monstros e tempestades, mapas são perdidos e novos são traçados, cada barco sustenta suas baixas e cura seus feridos. Léguas e léguas são percorridos e a tripulação percebe que, se lutam juntos, os problemas são divididos ao invés de duplicados. As recompensas, por sua vez, não são afetadas. Começa um longo processo de trocas. A princípio algumas cordas são jogadas de um barco para o outro por onde a tripulação pode passar, se arriscando sobre o mar que encara, veloz, lá de baixo.

Os capitães lideram seus marujos em muitas aventuras, acumulando experiência e riquezas, acumulando histórias tão inacreditáveis que até pescadores desconfiam. As cordas balançantes evoluem para nós mais firmes, pranchas e redes. Eles não querem arriscar perder ninguém no espaço entre si. Unidos tão fortemente, os dois barcos agora são uma fortaleza que percorre os mares por belos poentes e céus azuis. De quando em quando retornam ao porto, para encontrar amigos e familiares que acabaram ficando para trás na jornada.

Certa manhã, mais que inesperadamente, um brilho no horizonte chama a atenção de nossos intrépidos capitães e não é o Sol. Se as lendas forem verdadeiras, é o tesouro pelo qual eles tanto procuraram. Avaliando seus suprimentos e estado de espírito da tripulação, decidem que a chance de recompensa é maior que o risco. É uma jornada como nenhuma outra que eles fizeram até então. Serão meses, talvez anos, até que retornem ao porto, sonhando e construir sua própria vila à beira mar, em outra costa, em outro continente.

Nos preparativos, concluem que é possível que um deles vá na frente, mandando notícias e prevendo o que eles podem enfrentar. O que eles não contavam é que a jornada era árdua e apelava para aquilo que ele tinha de mais frágil, ao mesmo tempo que o mar era calmo e o Sol brilhava. O desafio não estava do lado de fora, mas sim por dentro. Nesses poucos meses que passaram sem pontes e cordas, algo começou a mudar. Era um risco daqueles tão fininhos que você nem leva em consideração, chama de poeira, esquece que existe. Mas a maré não esquece e continua a bater, incessante, dia após dia, até que o risco não é mais risco e sim uma falha, que cresce cada vez mais rápido.

A construção da vila é tão intensa e corrida que falta tempo e atenção para cuidar do problema. Vai passar, é fase. Mas não é, e não diminui nunca, só aumenta, até que você se dá conta que aquele furinho tá jogando cada vez mais água sob o convés, e que as pontes não cobrem mais a distância entre as duas embarcações porque cada uma delas acabou seguindo seu próprio caminho em meio a tantos caminhos agora possíveis. A distância é tanta que os problemas não são mais divididos, e sim combinados. A sensação é que um aumenta os problemas do outro, por mais que eles tentem combatê-los juntos. Não é intencional, claro, eles são mais espertos que isso, mas ambos os barcos estão naufragando e a melhor solução agora é que se separem, para que um não arraste o outro para o fundo.

Enquanto isso a tripulação tem espaço pra lutar contra seus próprios buracos e construir um outro barco, menor, sim, mais frágil, sim, mas novo e capaz de navegar por conta própria. Aqueles grandes navios estão fadados a afundar e não dá pra trazer a bordo todas as riquezas lá acumuladas. Algumas preciosidades vão afundar, mas não deixarão de existir, e sempre estarão lá naquele mesmo ponto do oceano, reluzindo e cintilando sob o véu azul das águas para quando chegar o tempo de ir buscá-las ou visitá-las.

I see an end to where I don’t love you like I can
Cause I’ve forgotten how it feels
To love someone or thing for real
Darling when you wake, remind me what we’ve done
That can’t be shared, or saved, or even sung

It was about time I switched to a better bike. I think I wrote a few lines here and there about how much the old one was slowing me down. It wasn’t anything specific, it was the whole thing. Too heavy, too small and – this was a good part – too cheap. I fell a number of times from it, or absolutely lost control without falling – while hugging a fence or a sign and last Sunday was just like that, except the crankset bit nicely into my leg – now I have what looks like a large cat scratch on my right calf – and I snapped the front brakes. This was just coming out of the garage. I went back up, cleaned the cuts and came back down for the most thrilling seawall ride of my life: no brakes!

Monday morning, first thing I did was go out and get the brakes fixed while looking for a new bike. The ride itself towards the bike shop was a rollercoaster filled with moments when I thought just the rear brakes wouldn’t be enough to stop me if I needed, so I rode all the way there at half speed and pressing the remaining brakes all the way – not saying it helped much. I got there in one piece and the guy said he had one last Fuji Track Classic left, with end-of-summer discount. He fixed my brakes in three minutes and told me to come back in an hour, to test the new bike.

With an hour to kill, I went towards Jericho Beach. It was an incredibly sunny day and after exploring some trails here and there I just laid back and roasted a little under the Sun. Felt great.

Back to the shop, the new bike was like a dream. Less than half the weight of the old one, singlespeed, working brakes, beautiful, really. Now I had the issue of having two bikes to bring home. Of course I took the new one back first. I still had VIFF screenings that evening so the plan was to catch a bus from home, get to the old bike, take it to the theatre with me and then home.

The only problem is I thought I was going to a movie theatre one kilometer away and with less than half an hour to the doors’ opening I realized the theatre was actually TEN kilometers away. Now THAT was a proper send-off for the old bike. I swear I never thought I could go so fast with it. Google said I would take 25 minutes on the ride, I did it in fifteen. Lucky for me there weren’t a whole lot of uphills. By the time I locked the bike onto a rack I was soaking wet – and no, it wasn’t from rain. I was still radiating heat for good twenty minutes after that.

As the cherry on top of such day, the movie was amazing (La Isla Minima, or Marshland, mentioned in the previous post).

Oh, the title is the name of the new bike, this beauty here.