As Dusk Falls

First of all, this is not a game. It's an interactive drama, a bit like those rare Netflix shows where you get to make decisions in a few places.

That said, you might think you'll love it if you know interactive stories and 'choices matter' around like your kind of thing. In most cases, you'd be wrong for two reasons:

1) It's not a TV show. It's a bunch of photos of a TV show strung together. Half way between a show and a comic book. But the result is one of those things that gets the worst of both worlds, rather than the best: there are too many 'photos' to leave anything up to the imagination like a comic book; but half the emotion and action you'd get from video is lost.

2) MOST importantly, the vast majority of CHOICES DO NOT actually MATTER, for a range of reasons. Most common is that your choice is twisted to fit the story (eg. Choose to help someone instead of ignore them, and your character trips over on the way, ultimately failing to help). Less often is that all the choices are similar (eg. Hit a cop or abuse a cop). For ones that involve exploring a scene, it's almost always that only one option actually does anything - the rest add a little dialogue but the story doesn't move on until you choose the key one. And for 'quick time' events, even if you want to purposefully fail, almost all of them just repeat and repeat and repeat until you get it right.

Some choices seem to matter, and if I'm right, they can have a huge impact on the story. But they're so few and far between that the lack of impact is overriding.

There are a few positives: one character is easy to empathise with, which makes you want to follow the story. Some of the voice acting is decent. And the 'photos' have that 'pencil drawing' style effect that you can get on cellphone photo editing apps, which has a surprisingly pleasant aesthetic.

Despite this, it's boring most of the time (you're barely involved but have to have the controller in hand just in case), and frustrating other times (why bother with choices and quick time events if they do nothing!!!)

"As Dusk Falls" is a moving and emotional masterpiece. The voice acting ranges from solid to excellent and is always believable, and the story is a film-quality narrative. Do your self a favor and get lost in this artfully-crafted labor of love.

It's a great game with brilliant writing but the art style will likely put people off. It's a little bit like the storyboard prototype of the game we could have had. It doesn't destroy the game, but I don't think it helps it =(

An unfinished game with no hint at the devs ever making a second or a DLC. How can you release a game with no plans to continue the story? Would've been a 10/10 otherwise.

I have to use more characters for the review, but I don't have much more to say. I'd like to know what the heck happens next in the story of these two families. Also, the description says it's over the span of 30 years, but so far they have only covered 14. Also for some reason my computer just crashed playing it? Hmm. I'm just so frustrated with the ending (or lack thereof). 50 more characters than I can submit this review.

I Must Apologize...

I always thought these story based games where decisions are the primary way of interacting were dumb. I am sorry I am stupid, I was wrong. If you like telltale games, but wish co-op was an option, this game evolves that formula perfectly.

My positives:

• Real choices with real consequences that lead to many different branching paths.

• The story is thrilling. Gripping, and heartbreaking.

• The cast of characters are amazing and loveable.

• The plot is complicated and never what it seems.

• THE CO-OP IS BRILLIANT! Play this with 7 friends!

• The QTE are actually hard lol and have consequence (eh hem god of war)
• Art direction is beautiful.

• Love the modern western setting and feel.

Negatives

• My only negative is a positive, there are so many arcs and branching paths it would take a long time to see everything in this game!