As Dusk Falls is a choosen adventure thriller that follows the lives of three people. The story begins in the late 1990s after a botched robbery, a moment when the two families involved are intertwined. You will spend hours with these families watching them grow and change as people, which is all determined by how you react to each encounter. As expected with any new game, there are things to keep in mind before you start if you’re looking for the best first experience possible.
There are the usual elements of getting to know the characters and the world and getting familiar with the story, although more details are waiting. These are the things worth knowing before clicking ‘new game’.
8 There are warnings before potentially triggering scenes
The story hits heavy subjects, you notice that from the start, but if you’re sensitive to certain subjects, the game will usually warn you before they happen. These warnings aren’t there for every scene of its kind, so looking for what each chapter is about might be something to keep in mind.
A good majority of these moments take place in chapter three– which is about halfway through the game – with scenes of suicide, PTSD, and intense violence. These things are expected in a thriller themed game, but it’s still important to know.
7 You have to replay chapters to unlock all achievements
Most players play on Xbox Game Pass, and when you do, there are fifty achievements to unlock. Most of these are unlocked by making certain story choices, meaning it’s impossible to get them all at once. Games like the Dark Pictures Anthology’s Little Hope, Man of Medan and House of Ashes, Quantic Dreams games like Heavy Rain and Detroit Become Human, and even those in the Telltale catalog all require multiple playthroughs to earn 100 percent. As Dusk Falls takes this concept and gets to work on it.
You get an achievement for every chapter you complete, important decisions you make and various activities, such as one where you have to win a darts match with a truck driver. If you go for a full house with performance, you are looking at more than 15 hours.
6 Each chapter takes about an hour to beat
The story is divided into six chapters, each of which takes about an hour to complete. Chapters one through three; Desert Dream, Economy 101 and Small Seconds, have the most intense scenes where you have to make heartbreaking decisions that will lead to the remaining game events. Chapters four through six; Shima, Paradise Found and Cascade, are the chapters where your choices kind of bite you in the ass. These are the hours when the characters’ endings begin to form.
While each chapter lasts about an hour, with the events neatly separated, these chapters tend to fluctuate between slow-paced and character-oriented to action-packed, choice-centric.
5 The animation can be shocking at first
The animation is bizarre at first glance and will take some getting used to; this is because while the visual look follows the style of oil paintings, making characters look as realistic as ever, they don’t move as you’d expect. Instead, the animation has a still image, where actions can appear jerky.
It’s one of those things you either love or hate that can be a huge roadblock while playing. However, if you’re invested in the story, it’s 100 percent worth sticking with it, even if the animation isn’t your favorite.
4 How the multiplayer campaign works
A month after the release of The Quarry, a multiplayer mode called “Wolf Pack” was launched where players could vote on essential story decisions. Multiplayer in As Dusk Falls works the same way, except there is also a companion app that you can download on your phone to make these decisions, allowing you to play with up to eight others. So, if you’re looking for a game that a bunch of your friends can join in, As Dusk Falls is a solid bet.
Multiplayer works much the same as singleplayer and doesn’t introduce any new never-before-seen scenes, although it does bring you closer to others as you have to make some tough choices.
3 The story spans three decades
Starting in 1998 with a botched heist for the Holt brothers, the lives of two families are turned upside down, and it’s up to you to decide their fate. This is the fundamental premise explored in Chapter One; the following chapters take you through the decades, mixing flashbacks and flash-forwards with current scenarios. It can be a little tricky to keep up with everything that’s happening with the constantly changing focus, causing some tempo issues in the second half.
Look out for protagonists Jay, Dale and Tyler Holt, along with Vince, Michelle and Zoe Walker. These six are the ones you’ll be keeping a close eye on, tracking some of them from adolescence to adulthood.
2 Important interactions are timed
Everyone has to deal with the stress of making a decision, such as when your friend asks, “where should we order food?” But of course you cannot respond in time, because what if you regret your order? Or do you change your mind halfway through? Or what if the other person doesn’t like what you choose? There are too many options and ways for the night to fall apart. Now think about making crucial decisions that may cost characters’ lives. Ordering food seems pretty easy right now.
It would be nice if the height of As Dusk Falls picks were tame and unimportant, but it wouldn’t be the same thrilling experience. Yet it is made even worse by the time limit you have for these unbelieving decisions.
1 It’s mostly a point-and-click adventure
Speaking of decision making, another genre the title falls under is point and click. It’s less like the classics Monkey Island and Grim Fandango, which are all about completing absurd tasks to progress, and more like the simplicity of how point and click works in Life is Strange.
The puzzles are simple enough, but there is quite a bit of research involved. These segments are spread across both the tense parts of the chapters and the moments where you can sit back and think for a while.
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