If you, like my partner, asked me if I was enjoying As Dusk Falls at any point while playing, I would have given you a resounding NO. In fact, I’m still not sure I enjoyed it. However, I will give the game credit because I seemed unable to stop playing it.
Late one night, my partner had just finished listening to me moan and groan about the game when they suggested I stop playing, and I couldn’t find the words to explain that while I wasn’t having a good time, I wasn’t willing to throw in the towel. And that is the best possible way I can explain what As Dusk Falls is like.
As Dusk Falls is a painful sell. I’d be hard-pressed to call it a “game”. Instead, As Dusk Falls is best described as a series of photos with stylised filters over them and quick-time events splashed on top.
At no point during the sixish hours of playtime do you have any control over the characters, and the choices and QTEs you do have control over never manage to feel genuinely impactful; instead, the entire experience feels like its following one single script, and you’re just along for the ride.
I’ve seen many people online refer to the game as a motion comic, and I don’t know if I agree with that. Instead of the game ever feeling like an interactive journey through comic panels, all that As Dusk Falls presents is a collection of photos taken as the actors behind the game performed awkwardly stitched together.
Don’t get me wrong, this isn’t a format that I HATE, but it’s not one I like either, and in a game where you already have limited interaction, having some animation would have helped the overall experience.
The story behind As Dusk Falls revolves around two families brought together through a series of unfortunate events. I’m not going to go into more than that, though, because As Dusk Falls doesn’t have much more to offer than its story, so let’s not ruin it.
Now credit where credit is due, As Dusk Falls did have two areas that stood out for me. Firstly, the acting, both through facial expressions and voice, was faultless. While the manner it was presented could use some work, and I didn’t always love the story, the actors managed to keep me engaged long after the rest of the game had lost me. And secondly, the soundtrack is good. Surprisingly good.
However, those are pretty much all that I enjoyed. One of the worst parts of the game, beyond the shoddy presentation and the laziest QTE I’ve ever had to suffer through (the game made me wash dishes, not once but twice), is the games ending. I’m a big fan of story-based games, and one of their draws is often that your impact matters. In As Dusk Falls, it does not. The game ends as the game was written to end. It doesn’t matter what you did right; it doesn’t matter what you did wrong. How the game ends is the same for everyone and an insult to your previous choices and actions.
Now I’d be remiss to end my complaining without at least mentioning one of the more exciting additions to the game, Multiplayer. Even though the game is very clearly a single-player experience, the developers did go to great lengths to allow you to play through it with friends. The game can be shared via online multiplayer, local coop or via a nifty mobile app that connects to the game.
If the game is played in one of these ways, then all choices get voted on and whichever option wins is the one that the game accepts. However, there is no denying that this way of playing takes away from any personal connection you might have to the story, and honestly, it’s not like you want to play with diminished returns when the game is already supplying so little.
