As Dusk Falls review: a thrilling narrative adventure on Xbox Game Pass

The central theme of Collision Dusk FallsInterior/Night’s first game is titled?, In a rich narrative, where there are no clear cut answers, worlds, histories, families and priorities collide, it is filled with emotions and consequences that spill blood and bullets as well as sweat and tears. The film features great performances and clever animation that incorporates motion comics with 3D animation. It also has excellent writing. Dusk FallsThis is both a great start for a new studio, and a fantastic entry to the Xbox Game Pass catalogue.

It is a story-driven adventure where cutscenes and stories dominate the playthrough. In Arizona 1998, the Walker family moves between different states. They are forced to pull over at a motel for repairs while their car is being repaired after an accident. Meanwhile, the Holts are trying to rob a house in the area, but get caught and have to flee. After the Holts crash at the same motel where the Walkers are, the robbers capture everyone. So begins a nail-biting hostage situation, with a desperate family trying to manage an innocent one, and each gradually becoming a worse version of itself — latent issues and unsaid grievances the byproduct of this collision of lives.

But things didn’t end in 1998. The official opening of Dusk FallsThis 2012 figure shows that even though it was set in 2012 the ripple effects of one night’s events had been evident for years.

You can play as one of the members of each family. It can be quite challenging, as you may end up in conflict or even with an opponent of the one you’re playing. Whose priorities do you favor? Do you feel compelled to choose a character you don’t like? This is something I love about games and wish they did more.

two characters kneeling on the ground holding up their hands, looking up at the two men holding them hostage, who are wearing bandannas over their faces, in As Dusk Falls

As in all such narrative-centric games, you are given dialogue choices and action choices, leading to discrete narrative branches that spill into and entwine with one another — all of it displayed as a summary, with charts and connecting paths showing the outcome of your choices after each chapter. There are occasionally quick-time events, just like in Quantic Dream games and Supermassive Games. You can adapt them to suit your playing style. I extended the reaction times in the accessibility Menu because it felt sometimes unfair. But, you should remember that failing can also be part of the game.

You can easily go back to play certain scenes and reveal routes you missed using the summary screen. You can also find entire stories and secret passages. It willIt’s easy to miss what you did the first time. For instance, I didn’t encounter a massive reveal that seemed central to explaining several “plot holes.” (They were only plot holes in my playthrough; if I had made different choices, it would have all made sense.) This increases the replay value, yes, but beware the lack of a “skip dialogue” button — in the year of our lord 2022 — which, as in any game, is borderline unforgivable.

Although I didn’t have the time to try it out, Dusk FallsThe game is multi-player and cross-platform compatible. It is possible to have your family and friends play along with you. This allows for fun and engaging shared Game Pass experiences.

Despite this being a debut title from a new studio, the game’s voice cast includes video game veterans: Elias Toufexis (modern Deus Ex’s Adam Jensen), Jane Perry (Hitman’s Diana Burnwood and Returnal’sSelene), Sam Douglas (Heavy Rain’s Scott Shelby). But even those performers I didn’t recognize, such as the elder Zoe Walker (Alex Jarrett), are excellent. Combined with wonderful sound design, everything feels like it’s in motion, authentic and real, even if it consists mostly of static images. Dusk FallsQuantic Dream’s games can feel like immature, rowdy teens doing unsupervised work. It’s like watching prime-time television. That’s not a slight on it as an interactive experience, but praise for its excellent script.

a character wearing a backpack and a red jacket stands in the woods during golden hour in As Dusk Falls

There are some issues with the play experience. In addition to long loading screens (I played on my Xbox Series X) and the strange requirement of having to sign into a profile each time, the game repeatedly showed “How to play” messages even when I was loading a saved game hours in.

One aspect of the plot is false. The robbers are a group of country boys in T-shirts who have no superior armor or weapons and manage to stop an entire police force. While this helps perpetuate the sense of frustration and the inability to escape the situation — for both families — it feels like an implausible storytelling conceit. I couldn’t help rolling my eyes whenever the Holts managed to fight off waves of police, often with no injuries.

Dusk FallsThis is about the fact that there aren’t any good people. It’s all about those who try their hardest while the rest of the world grinds down. They have good reasons to rob; Walker’s family is fleeing from an error. It doesn’t seem to matter who has the larger pitchfork in a world full of devils. While there’s nothing unique about the gameplay, Interior/Night’s effort demonstrates that the studio is a bold new voice within a genre that can easily become stale, standing up even to juggernauts like Jusqu’à la DämmerungAnd Quarry. Its ability to pull everything out of under you is amazing. Dusk Falls doesn’t fade into a forgettable narrative experience we’ve seen a thousand times. Instead, it leaves its mark, with a long shadow cast by its sad but understandable characters’ hardships drawn across threads seemingly made of jagged wire. It will be difficult to determine if the thread that you selected was really the best at the time. The answer, as in all things, will be likely to be “probably not”.

Dusk Falls The game will be available on Windows PC, Xbox One and Xbox Series X, July 19. Xbox Series X was used to review the game using a prerelease download code from Xbox Game Studios. Vox Media is an affiliate partner. Although these partnerships do not impact editorial content, Vox Media could earn commissions for products bought via affiliate links. Find out more. additional information about Polygon’s ethics policy here.