MovieChat Forums > Until Dawn (2015) Discussion > You don't play certain characters that m...

You don't play certain characters that much.

posted 9 years ago by zyicep
19 replies | jump to latest

Mike and Sam hog up the game so much that the other characters didn't get to shine. If I had to rank the playthrough parts for each character in terms of length(assuming everyone lives to the end), it'll go something like this.
1. Mike
2. Sam
3. Chris
4. Ashley
5. Emily
6. Matt
7. Josh
8. Jessica

Mike and Sam anchor the game. Chris and Ashley had good balance of playthrough with Emily following. Matt disappears halfway into the game. Josh is barely playable and doesn't happen until late in the game. And Jessica was pathetic. Only thing I remember from her was playing snowball fights with Mike. And the whole scene was just a QTE.

[–] matt_shade 9 years ago

It's a play on horror movie storytelling. In a sense the first four are the Laurie Strode- and Ash-types, the others would get killed early on in stereotypical horror movies.

I figure, anyway. Whether we think that makes the game good is another issue, of course.

"Need" is just a fiction. As is "should", "must", "value" and "importance".

[–] shwonsh 9 years ago

Josh is really one of the most important characters along with Mike and Sam. However yeah you play him in one scene. He's still a great character though.

At least Chris's death scene is before Emily's main death scene which is getting shot in the face by Mike. Classic sequence. She goes all that in the mines just to get shot by her Ex Boyfriend.

Jessica and Matt are really meant to die early. Sure you can change that, but it doesn't make it good.

Ashley is the character that can go either way. Decent survivor, or can get killed before Josh.

[–] matt_shade 9 years ago

Emily can die soon after leaving Flamethrower guy.

And you do play Josh in all Dr Hill scenes.

"Need" is just a fiction. As is "should", "must", "value" and "importance".

[–] zyicep 9 years ago

Well I guess there is a good reason why Josh isn't playable for the length of the game. He's the psycho, so it wouldn't make sense for him to explore and find clues in his own house. His only playable parts is the hallucination and when he and Mike tries to find their way out. You can make a case with Dr. Hill since its him behind the camera.

Jessica and Matt were inexcusable and underdeveloped. Yes they were probably meant to die sooner. But I don't think that's a good excuse for the devs to get lazy about those characters if you choose to keep them alive. Halfway through the game and we don't see them until the very end where all they did was a simple escape from the mines that took like 5 minutes and its back to Mike and Sam hogging up screen time again.

The Makers should have been more cleared with their intentions with the game. The butterfly effect was suppose to be the driving force behind the story. Yet the story doesn't change much, nor can you select a character to play more as the main hero.

[–] shwonsh 9 years ago

Still a great horror movie though. I just kill off the characters in this order..

Jessica

Matt

Chris-Let him get the first 3 shots in, then miss the 4th shot. Killing him right in front of the house.

Emily-It's alot better for her to regroup with the rest after she get's bite.

Ashley-Investigate noise, ha dumb bitch.

Josh-I prefer him getting his head crushed by Hannah Wendigo, no post credit scene.

Mike and Sam- Work together and are the only survivors.

[–] Jams25 9 years ago

I agree. Josh and Jessica should have had more playability. Especially since a lot of people were buying this to mess with the clichés, like the black guy and slut always dying early. It's a shame they are obviously supposed to die early.

[–] CatrionaM 9 years ago

I don't think black people die in movies as much as some people make out. I think Jessica's survival actually kind of works, not Matt though.

[–] JosephCurwenJr 9 years ago

it's inspired by horror movies, right? so there is mostly 1 or 2 main characters and the rest just fill in

[–] Jams25 9 years ago

They usually think . I've watched at least 150 slasher films and the black people survived in about 3 of them. The ones that comes to mind are 'I Still Know what you did last summer' and 'House on Haunted Hill' remake.The 'bitchy blond' character tends to die more often though. The only examples that I can think of where it doesn't happen are Scream tv series and Scream Queens.

[–] MBloom_25 9 years ago

That is what I got from it as well. They were banking on most people killing off Matt and Jessica in their first playthroughs, so their playabilities were low. I agree that Josh should have been playable more often.

[–] Jams25 9 years ago

No, I meant most people DIDN'T want to kill those two off early because they always die in slasher films. They wanted them two to be important characters. Just go on any gaming site pre-release. Everyone wanted to play as those two. Especially Jessica since she's a fan fave and Matt was liked because you could avert the 'black guy always dies' cliché. Instead they just ended up being filler characters. Josh was criminally under-used for such an important character.

[–] YvonneBrennan 9 years ago

I don't think it would be possible for all characters to be equally relevant to the story, there has to be a basic story to be told and there has to be a basic pattern as to who can die when and where. Matt and Jessica were decently presented for the amount of time they had, particularly Jessica. Emily was maybe the best example in the narrative regarding usage after a possible death and feeling present in the group. She can potentially not survive the mines or, depending on choices, can survive but have a dramatic moment back in the lodge. They also couldn't have Josh controlled that much since he's behind the scares for about half the game. Looking at Until Dawn as though it were a movie or TV show, I imagine everyone would die apart from Sam and Mike, and perhaps one of them would die too at the last second.

[–] SubtleShade 9 years ago

I agree that there should have been more balance among all of the characters. I would have liked to play Jessica more than I did. They could have switched Chapter 3 and had Jessica be the playable character. That would have been a little better. Or perhaps brought her back in earlier and had her playable instead of Ashley. I also wish she would have reconnected with Mike at some point.

[–] YvonneBrennan 9 years ago

Actually, according to the Until Dawn Wiki. Chris has the most controllable chapters, with Sam and Mike being equal second. And apparently Matt was controlled more often than Emily. Josh is the least controlled.

[–] ScorpionTDC 9 years ago

This doesn't account for chapter length, though

Death Awaits (Horror forum)
http://w11.zetaboards.com/Death_Awaits/index/

[–] YvonneBrennan 9 years ago

That's true, Mike's scenes in the institute went on a little long.

[–] briangcb 9 years ago

Well, technically you play as Josh through all the Dr. Hill scenes too. lol

But yeah, Sam and Mike are your typical "final two". Most horror movies have 1 or 2 survivors at the end. Either the main girl or the final girl and the heroic guy.

When Ashley lags behind the group in the mines and she hears a voice and your options are "regroup with the others" or "investigate voice" I knew the latter was the cliched horror movie choice and it's what the dumbass curious character always winds up doing to get themselves killed. So I naturally chose to regroup with the others and voila, she made it.

It was fun to be able to actually watch a horror movie and make it play out the way you'd want it to go, for the most part of course. Make characters make smart decisions instead of the villains only succeeding because the "good" characters are morons is the main difference between a good movie and a bad one.

Though hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's impossible to win an argument with an idiot

[–] shwonsh 9 years ago

Agreed to some extent. Ashley is your proper 3rd survivor with Mike and Sam.
The others pretty much have to die to keep the story flowing correctly.
However Ashley is a character that shows her dumbness after her man Chris get's decapitated. She feels vulnerable, so it's funny when she decides to investigate noise.
Actually technically you can still choose that option and can still live. Just simply walk by the trapped door..don't open it. She still regroups with Sam.

[–] YvonneBrennan 9 years ago

I think Chris could be a survivor as much as Ashley. Also Ashley can investigate the noise without being upset about Chris, if he's still alive.