As Dusk Falls (2022)

As Dusk Falls can only really minimally be called a "game". The only interactions are timed story decisions and very light QTEs that can either be done with a controller/keyboard, or you can link up your phone to the game and control the game You-Don't-Know-Jack-style from there.

The game is split into two parts. The first revolves around a hostage situation in a motel, where you control the viewpoints of two different characters. I kind of liked this part of the story.

The second picks up on the aftermath of the hostage situation, and I found this part to be significantly less interesting. It's extremely unfocused, having you control many different characters with their own conflicting goals. As such, it's hard to feel invested in the characters and the story.

I found the graphics to be actively off-putting. Every character is represented by photographs that are run through a Photoshop oil-painting filter, and then stuck on a cardboard cutout that gets replaced every few seconds. I usually applaud unique art styles, but this just comes off as... ick.

The voice acting for the various characters ranges from average to 90s CD-ROM-era bad.

3.5 stars for part one. 2.5 stars for part two.

As Dusk Falls is a great entry into the modern adventure game genre. The star of the show here are the great performances from the cast and the grounded story that felt high-stakes for a small town & cast. It gives players difficult choices to make about how to handle situations, and mostly avoids the feeling that those decisions did not matter and that the story was always going to follow a set course. I’ve heard some mixed feedback about the art style, but I personally loved it. The painterly art style of realistic portraits reminded me of the sorts of artwork I saw in textbooks and magazines constantly as a kid growing up in the 90s which made the time-setting of the story feel more authentic without feeling like it was pandering with cheap pop-culture references.

A special shout-out should also be given to the co-op/online options here, which flexibly allow a small or large group of players, anywhere, on a console or a mobile device, to experience the story together in a way that doesn’t feel cheap or pointless. It was an ambitious feature for a new studio and I enjoyed the game and story a lot more with some company thanks to it. I hope the game did well enough for a sequel, it really exceeded my expectations for the genre and I’d put it above anything I’ve played from Telltale, Life is Strange, or any other modern adventure games personally.

Honestly, As Dusk Falls is a pretty tough sell. It’s priced quite higher than the typical indie narrative adventure game, and while the production values are definitely there when it comes to some aspects, other aspects, like some of the action scenes and gameplay, don’t quite manage the job of holding up the game on their shoulders. As Dusk Falls feels like one of those games that ends up being the perfect argument in favor of a subscription service like Xbox Game Pass.

It’s going to be difficult to convince people to buy into a game that most would only play through once, especially with the game’s $30 price tag. With Game Pass, however, it becomes an easy recommendation, owing to its interesting narrative, well thought out characters, and phenomenal pacing. I just wish the gameplay involved more than simplistic quick-time events.

As Dusk Falls is a pretty grounded, character-driven story of small-town crime, family, and other messy things, told through a lightly interactive choose-your-own-adventure format. Its story branches off in lots of directions, and features some great decision points and role-playing opportunities with consequences both big and small.

Besides making a ton of choices, the other element of gameplay is a ton of quick time events. This can often be a bad thing in games, but I think this game does it pretty well. One thing about it that I liked was that they tend to give you pretty standard patterns throughout the game, but during certain especially tense or unusual situations, they'll throw you a curveball that makes you think on your feet just like the character. None of it was particularly a pain to execute, and it adds a nice tangible feel to what's happening.

A major element of this game that can be off-putting is its visual style, which basically looks like a series of photos of real actors put through some kind of painting filter, with rare instances of 3D animation. It looks weird, but I found I got used to this style very quickly and thought it worked fine for the game. They get both the advantage of characters that basically look like expressive, real people, and the flexibility to include loads of small variants of each scene without re-rendering/re-recording them all. Characters are pretty well voice-acted and emotive, so it all ends up working.

Player choice and presentation don't ultimately matter if the story itself isn't great, and I thought this one was very solid. They have good control over giving each chapter a satisfying arc, knowing when to do a flashback or switch perspectives, and so on. Most importantly, they made me feel something about all the main characters, whether positive, negative, or somewhere in between. It's full of dramatic setpiece moments, but also a lot of interesting player-driven development of the characters, and room to explore connections between the events of the past, present, and future.

When evaluating this as a complete package, I can't ignore a bit of structural awkwardness with the final episode. [Non-specific spoiler:] Basically, the game leaves off on a big cliffhanger for a sequel without answering a couple questions that it raised in the first episode. While they wrap up most of the different character arcs and plot threads, it does leave the final episode in a sort of build-up to something that doesn't come. The fact that I care about this cliffhanger is sort of a win, but it does slightly cheapen this as a standalone experience.

I'd fallen out of caring about this specific style of Telltale-adjacent adventure game (though this specifically feels more like Detroit actually), but this is the best one I've played in quite a while thanks to its memorable characters and story. Definitely looking forward to seeing what this developer does next with the experience from this game, and hopefully a bit more of a presentation budget.

I’ll be honest, going through As Dusk Falls was sometimes a bit of an ordeal. Though I eventually got used to it, the art style is not my, well, style. At all. It almost resembles a collection of watercolour paintings of characters that try to capture emotion in a sort of Still Life manner. I understand that this may have been the more financially viable option for a game of this nature and scope, but it still misses the mark most of the time. This, and the almost absolute lack of gameplay - which essentially amounts to choosing dialogue and passing frequent 1 button QTE checks -, will probably be the biggest deterrents people will face when deciding to play the game.

If they do get past these two, however, ADF truly begins to shine in what it does best, and that is creating an encompassing, well told, refreshingly grounded and impressively branching story. The branching trees are easily this game’s calling calling card: the amount of freedom you get in shaping the story is nothing short of incredible, especially for an indie studio’s first-time effort. So much so that there is a genuine pull to go back to the game right after finishing so you can replay it differently, just to see where else the narrative takes you. This is when ADF is at its best: when it gently plucks at your heart strings here and there; when it makes you agonise over a decision you know will have massive ramifications, even if you still can’t see them; when it turns your character investment into something bigger than a simple 6 hour-long game. This is a particularly good experience to have with a couple of people, since its well designed system includes not only choice majority but also an override mechanic, which is bound to create some memorable moments between you and your friends or family.

To some, the game might suffer from some sense of ‘story normality’ - if I were to describe it, I’d say it is a much more toned down take on a Fargo-type narrative. This may be seen as boring to some, and it is a fact that ADF doesn’t nail its pacing as well as it should have. On the other hand, not inflating the intensity of an already intense story can sometimes go a long way in establishing rapport between game and player. I feel this was the case here, and I was surprised at how often I found myself thinking back to my decisions, overanalysing my choices and even regretting them on occasion. This was only possible because there is this tangible feel to the narrative being told that makes it feel closer to you in reality terms.

The visual style and lack of gameplay will immediately drive some people away, understandably so. But if you like choice-consequence, and you feel like you’re the type of player that can get past these aspects when the narrative journey is good enough, then As Dusk Falls will likely be a story you’ll enjoy shaping. It isn’t perfect - and I do take issue with how rushed the conclusion felt towards the end -, but there is something special about this game that deserves to be experienced firsthand. 7.5