As Dusk Falls is an interactive drama game developed by Interior/Night and published by Xbox Game Studios. The story of As Dusk Falls feels like playing through a premium TV show, with potentially multiple players acting as the writers for a story that can go in a number of directions, as the stakes constantly rise and danger threatens the main characters at every turn, resulting in a unique title that manages to be entertaining from beginning to end.
The story of As Dusk Falls is told across six chapters, switching between different characters and points in time. The three main characters are Zoe, a young woman who is trying to overcome the trauma she experienced during a hostage situation as a child; Jay, the youngest of three brothers, who took part in a robbery gone wrong that led to the hostage situation; and Vince, Zoe's father, who must keep his family alive and prevent a shootout between the police and his captors. There are also brief segments where side characters become playable, before returning to the main cast. The player's actions determine the course of the story and the end of each chapter reveals all of the potential routes that can be taken, though they can't be played at different points until the game has been completed.
The gameplay in As Dusk Falls mostly involves making timed choices and completing QTEs, though there is an accessibility option that turns these into single button presses for those who don't want to bother with them. The story moves at a breakneck speed and the player rarely gets a breather, with only a handful of sections in the game where the player can explore an environment. This fast pace works well for As Dusk Falls, as the game is constantly ramping up the tension and putting the characters in dangerous situations, with morally ambiguous choices offered to try and get them out of them. The pace is such that it's actually worth taking a break after each chapter, treating the experience like watching a TV show.
The majority of interactive dramas and visual novels are intended as a solo experience, with the player enjoying the story at their own pace. As Dusk Falls has taken the unusual approach of offering a multiplayer mode, where up to eight players can play locally or online, with a Broadcast mode that will allow Twitch users to play along. Each player gets a chance to vote on a course of action, with the game randomly determining the winner in the case of a tie. The person setting up the game can also grant every player up to nine Overrides, forcing a decision to go their way, though other players can spend their own Overrides to override it.
As Dusk Falls isn't exactly a light-hearted party game but it's still a lot of fun as a multiplayer title with friends, so long as they're comfortable with dark themes and content, including suicide, murder, and children being in danger. There are lots of important decisions in As Dusk Falls that can steer the story in drastically different directions, and many of them involve performing questionable actions. As Dusk Falls inspires a lot of discussion about the correct path to take in any given situation, with the limited supply of Overrides forcing people to commit to specific actions, at the risk of not being able to intervene later in the story.
The visuals in As Dusk Falls are unusual, as they use a technique similar to rotoscoping, where all of the scenes were acted out with real actors, and then animated as single frames, with all of the environments and vehicles created as 3D models. The strange animation style is jarring at first, but it's incredibly well done, with some fantastic lighting effects that help give the world the feel of a living comic book. The performances in the game are excellent across the board and the actors should be commended for bringing their characters to life behind their animated sprites. The world of As Dusk Falls has a unique look, though it may take some time for the initial weirdness to wear off so that players can be able to appreciate the work that went into creating the game.
The strength of As Dusk Falls lies in its strange but captivating narrative, with a great cast of lovable and hateable characters, who are thrust into dangerous situations and uncover secrets along the way. As Dusk Falls has lots of fantastic action set pieces, separated by quieter character moments, yet they both feel as weighty as each other. There are also opportunities for players to purposely screw up and get their characters into even more trouble, which is especially fun in the multiplayer mode. There are no game overs in As Dusk Falls, so the players are guaranteed a safety net for the main cast, but all bets are off for everyone else. The only real complaint is that the present-day version of Zoe is barely in the game compared to the other playable characters, with Jay and Vince actually making the bulk of the important decisions in the story.
As Dusk Falls is going to launch on Game Pass on day one and it feels like the perfect game for the service, and that's meant as a compliment. It's a strange experiment of a game, with an odd aesthetic and concept, that people might have otherwise overlooked. As Dusk Falls is worth checking out, especially with friends who can commit to experiencing the full story, as it's one of the few video games that have captured the feeling of controlling the story of a TV show, so long as everyone is fine with experiencing some HBO levels of dark themes, and the risk of sad endings along the way.
As Dusk Falls will be released for PC, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S on July 19, 2022, with a day one launch on Xbox Game Pass and Xbox Cloud Gaming (Beta). Screen Rant was provided with a digital code for the Xbox Series X/S version of the game for the purposes of this review.
As Dusk Falls
As Dusk Falls is an interactive, narrative-focused drama centering on two families after a robbery goes wrong. Developed by Interior/Night and published by Xbox Game Studios, this game sees players piecing together parts of the dramatic and cinematic story with choice and direction, with plenty of ways to see the game unfold differently upon multiple playthroughs.