There’s plenty to admire about As Dusk Falls simply existing. While Interior/Night are a small studio, publisher Xbox Games Studios would usually be seen to play it safer than a heavily stylised tale of fate loosely draped across something resembling an adventure game.
Whichever genre of As Dusk Falls you pigeonhole it into, that genre is an indie stronghold where risks are taken gladly. Not one you expect to see given such a backing by Xbox.
A Vibe
As Dusk Falls is set mostly in Two Rock, Arizona, and mostly in 1998. It tells the convoluted tale of a robbery gone wrong crossing paths with a family’s attempt at new start.
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The choice of the late-90s is interesting, seeing as the multi-thread caper that’s too clever for its own good was the height of film-making sophistication around that time. Films like Magnolia, Go and Memento spring to mind.
It was also peak twist era. Before people took the mickey and you spent every second of every film wondering what the mad turn was. Films like The Sixth Sense and The Usual Suspects, Fight Club and The Game delightfully pulled rugs from under viewers. As Dusk Falls does the same though it grants players some foreshadowing here and there.
The late-90s was also an era when American culture took to the desert. Music videos had an obligatory driving-through-the-desert-in-a-muscle-car scene. Films and TV were saturated with the webs of personal tales you only seem to get in dying southern US towns baking in a sandy heat.
As Dusk Falls nails this aspect of its presentation. Clothing, music, cars and the general decor sell the era, establishing a strong sense of time. This is important in a game that liberally hops decades to tell its tale. Especially so given the complex interleaving of destinies at play.
A Tell Tale
Comparisons with the progenitor of the last wave of the genre’s mass appeal are unavoidable. The quick-time events, the heavy emphasis on story and dearth of traditional gameplay are all Telltale Games staples.
Considering how quickly their popularity sank once people grew tired of the format, it’s a little surprising that a big-budget game of the sort has emerged so quickly.
Most of that style of game’s faults are here. The lack of interactivity. The sometimes misalignment of character tone with circumstance. The feeling that the story may have been better told in another medium.
One fault that is missing from As Dusk Falls is the lack of consequence that dogged Telltale’s output. As Dusk Falls is, at times, painfully consequential. At times, the feeling that you have made a significant difference is palpable.
A quick check of the narrative map will show you that entire scenes can be skipped, altered or otherwise rearranged by your choice alone.
While Telltale’s games had few true branching story paths, As Dusk Falls seems to revel in its sense of performed permanence. At least in one playthrough until you have a chance to right your wrongs. And wrong your rights if you are a completionist.
A Nuisance
There are times when a choice is foisted on a player without any context while controlling a character who would be privy to the truth behind the options.
There are a few times when this happens; it’s jarring when making the ‘correct’ choice and infuriating when you feel you’ve gotten it wrong.
Another annoyance comes from the very nature of the game. Long passages where you are sucked in by its storytelling and gripping vocal performances are common. As are four quick-time events back to back to interrupt them.
Quick-time events are derided nowadays, even their use as part of a healthy control breakfast is frowned upon in 2022. As Dusk Falls is dripping with QTEs and they represent the primary challenge in the game and the vast majority of what I remember doing during the game.
The point and click aspect is undercooked – it’s mostly used to make a choice or pick which action to perform first. There isn’t any puzzle aspect to As Dusk Falls despite opportunities to do so to break it up.
The only puzzle of sort I remember is that there is a password that can save you a scene. No spoilers.
Art-Style Divides
The art of As Dusk Falls is suitably bold. A mixture of still frames of cartoonised real-life actors over more dynamic backgrounds is certainly striking.
The facial expressions of the actors and the work done by artists to enhance them are elevated by the style.
Characters will sit still in a car while the background moves, lights flash casting their light in real-time on the still cutouts. It’s a little distracting at times and a little fatiguing at others.
Taking a break is the answer but episodes last an hour and tend to keep a player seated for the 60 minutes.
Audio-Style Unites
Aside from the children, the voice acting in As Dusk Falls is uniformly excellent. Aside from moments when the tone doesn’t fit the circumstance due to complex narrative balancing, which isn’t the actor’s fault, each sentence uttered by an adult is believable.
Tension is audible in voices where appropriate. Joy and relief will make instill the same feelings in players. It’s so well voice-acted that playing the game without visuals is probably possible and I expect blindfold playthroughs to be a staple of the video game speedrunning scene in future.
Admirable Ambition
As alluded to in the opening paragraph, I think it’s admirable to attempt a game of this style at this particular budget, with this particular level of expectation. The story, the atmosphere and the sense of consequence all gel into something almost great.
The problem is that there are many points where you may ask “Why can’t I just watch this instead?”. Like once you’ve been duped with withheld info a few times too many. Or you’ve fumbled a QTE because you were enjoying a long period of doing nothing. Or once you just become tired of QTEs in general.
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The story of As Dusk Falls is certainly worth experiencing. Though many of you will be happy enough to just watch or join a livestream instead of actually playing it.
Review code provided by publisher
