Until Dawn (2024 Remake)

Until Dawn (2024 Remake) is a remade version of the original 2015 game, rebuilt in Unreal Engine 5. The game was released on October 4, 2024. It is playable on PS5 and PC, as opposed to the original PS4-exclusive.

Development[]

In January of 2024, Sony announced that it would be porting Until Dawn to PC and PS5 and tasked UK studio Ballistic Moon with this job. In May of 2024, Sony announced the release date of the Until Dawn remake during their State of Play.

The game, powered by Unreal Engine 5 (as opposed to the original game's Decima engine), features heavily improved visuals, animations and environmental details. Controls and camera adjustments have been made, as well as new adjustments to the story.

Differences to the original game[]

Following is a list with changes and additions from the original game.

Note: spoilers for endings and outcomes are below.

Gameplay[]

The game has 29 trophies, 10 more than the original game. The trophies were revealed on September 26, 2024, featuring 20 new trophies, with 10 from the original version being removed (The Quicker Man, Night of the Totem Hunter, Four Daughters of Darkness, Scream Too!, Instant Inferno, Don't Scare Jessica To Death, Ashley Snaps, The Exorcism of Emily, Let eM In, and Fatal Grudge).
- Some new trophies are updated old ones, such as An Omen? for Night of the Totem Hunter, Saw That Coming for Scream Too!, and Nightmare on Ash Street for Ashley Snaps.
- The trophies come a lot earlier in the game, where the player will get one just for completing the prologue. By contrast, the original game did not have the player unlock the first trophy until they cut off Mike's fingers in the Sanatorium.
There are 10 new interactables the player can find. Collecting them all will award them the trophy It's Shining.
Multiple new Bonus Content segments in the game's menu, including those about Hayden Panettiere's return to the game and the game's score.
The "Don't Move" mechanic returned with a new "Stay Calm" mechanic as an alternative for "third party peripherals that do not feature a gyroscope or for players who prefer a different challenge."
A new type of totems called "Hunger Totems," showing visions of Hannah’s transformation into a Wendigo through her point of view.
The clues, when they are discovered, are instead indicated through a magnifying glass popping up, rather than a brief flash of light in the original game.
The original totems have been re-hidden in new locations.
- Additionally, some totems have new premonitions.
- The player is required to manually rotate the totem in order to find the premonition instead of simply turning the totem.
Exploration is rewarded with small new areas and interactions.
New and changed sound effects.
- An example of this are the Wendigo screeches, which now sound more like roars or growls rather than the long screeches and screams. They also gurgle, which they did not in the original game.
Running is automatic and only possible in certain moments.
Players can choose their aspect ratio.
Matt's second playable segment in chapter 2, which was only present in the pre-order and extended versions of the original, is a permanent feature in the remake.
The way the death scene caused by the Point Blank Butterfly Effect plays out has been reworked and reframed.
Updated more realistic character deaths and an update to the 'injury mask system,' allowing elements like cuts, bruises, tears, snow and water on the character’s bodies.
A modern third-person camera with over-the-shoulder camera views. This replaces the fixed camera angle of the original game.
- Additionally, many cutscenes consist of different angles.
A new score composed by Mark Korven, known for composing the music for the horror films Cube (1997, dir. Vincenzo Natali), The Witch (2015, dir. Robert Eggers), and The Lighthouse (2019, dir. Robert Eggers). Until Dawn's original soundtrack was previously composed by Jason Graves.
- As well as a new intro song called "Out of the Shadows" by Mae Stephens (the full song is out on Mae Stephens' YouTube channel).
- The song that plays during the end of the game is also a new song, titled "Forgive and Forget - So Below."
- The song that plays while Hannah prepares to see Mike is "Lucy Hayes - In For The Kill (La Roux Cover)."
- The song that Jessica plays on her phone during the walk to cabin in Chapter 2 is “Maverick Sabre - Let Me Go.”
- The song that plays during Jessica and Mike's snowball fight is "SG Lewis - Warm."
- The song that plays in the Prologue on Hannah's laptop is "Obedear by Purity Ring."
- The song that plays while Sam is in the bath is "Delegation - Oh Honey (2012)."
Previously, some dialogue had to be manually triggered by the player, such as when Jessica gossips about Emily to Mike, and when Emily thanks Matt for helping her find her bag. In the remake, these scenes now automatically play out.
- Similarly, Beth's Head will automatically be found by the player and trigger a cutscene when Emily moves the chain-link fence in the mine.
The time was moved 2 hours earlier, starting at 19:00 and ending at 5:00.
The Important Discovery Butterfly Effect has been replaced by the A Second Chance Butterfly Effect.
The "Previously On Until Dawn" cutscenes that played before the start of a new chapter were removed.
The game size on the PS5 is 56 gigabytes, 10 more gigabytes than the original game, owing to the new features and the changed story.
When the player is idle, the screen no longer focuses on the face of the character the player is controlling as it did in the original game.

Prologue[]

The Prologue has been mostly reworked, as previously confirmed by Ballistic Moon Creative Director Neil McEwan: "Although we have committed to keeping the original narrative intact, we felt the Prologue would benefit from some adjustments to its narrative pacing. We’ve given the Washingtons extra screen time to explore their close family bond and get to know them a little better. We have also reframed some of the original scenes and developed the context around the infamous prank. We hope it enhances its emotional impact."^[3] For all the changes, see the main page.
The player now takes control of Beth for a longer period of time. She is able to freely explore the lodge and find several new objects, such as a camera, and even go outside.
- Beth also now has a Don't Move segment in the first scene.
A new scene with the Washington siblings, where Hannah and Beth move a passed out Josh to the couch, was added.
- Hannah now wears a red hooded jacket and gray yoga pants with black vertical lines before changing into a black, lacy blouse and blue jeans when going to meet up with Mike.
Many new prank-related scenes have been added or reworked. Hannah is shown finding the note from Mike and getting ready for the meeting, while the group is shown making preparations for the prank.
Beth's sections in the woods have been switched, with her first exploring the woods and then starting to run.

Chapter 1[]

Chapter 1 takes place entirely in evening light.
Matt and Emily's car and Josh's truck are parked in front of the lower cable car station.
Characters have new personality traits and labels during their introduction screens.

Chapter 2[]

Jess complains to Mike about finding and firing up the generator quicker.
If Sam says they should investigate the noise together, Josh will walk and stay in front of Sam the whole way until a masked Chris jumps out at them, unlike in the original where Josh lets Sam ahead before the end of the hallway.
The DLC segment with Matt and Emily from the original game has been added to the remake as a permanent feature.
- The Stranger is not seen watching Matt and Emily go down the path early on in the segment anymore in the remake.

Chapter 3[]

Jessica tells Mike he "looks cute when he's scared" after pranking him and Mike deletes the video of Jess' prank on him from her phone.
In the original game, if Mike scares Jess into the lake, she is guaranteed to stay in her winter clothes for the rest of the game. However, in the remake, Jess will still be able to undress to her undershirt and jeans.
In the original game, the Wendigo stalking Mike and Jess was clearly breathing heavily when it was spying on them through the cabin window. In the remake, the breathing is much harder to hear.
- The Wendigo is also quite a distance away from the cabin in the original game when Jessica is ranting outside the door since she thinks it's a prank. In the remake, the Wendigo is closer to the cabin and slowly advances to the edge of the tree-line to keep out of Jessica's sight. This also explains how it was able to get to the cabin door so quickly after Jessica finished her rant, since it was much closer to the cabin in the first place.

Chapter 4[]

Mike has a new free roam section after he finds the lantern and lights it up, where he is still inside the mine and has to find a way out, unlike in the original where he gets out of the mine immediately after taking the lantern.

Chapter 5[]

Matt and Emily discuss the Sanatorium on their way to the fire tower.
While in the bath, Sam listens to pop music instead of classical music.
- If Sam doesn't move for a while, “O Death”, the theme song of the original game, can be heard through her headphones.
Once Sam exits the bath, her skin will have water running off of her for a period of time, unlike the original where she is depicted as completely dry immediately after getting out of the bath.
When the Psycho shows Sam the footage of Josh being killed, the saw is not making any noise, in contrast to the original where the saw was clearly audible in the video.

Chapter 6[]

Ashley can find an additional entry in Hannah's diary that Hannah wrote during the Prologue right before meeting up with Mike.
When the Psycho gets ready to capture Ashley after knocking Chris out, he is not audibly breathing.

Chapter 7[]

Emily is forced to find Beth's Head in the mines as a cutscene rather than an optional interaction.
When Mike knocks out Josh with his pistol, rather than the realistic sound that occurred in the original game, the sound the pistol makes when Josh is hit in the head is a small clink.

Chapter 8[]

If Chris shot Ashley in Chapter 6, instead of intentionally locking him out, Ashley now instead hesitates and is too late to open the door. Ashley is seen pacing around further inside the lodge while Chris bangs on the door, then eventually looks up and runs to the door, but the Wendigo catches and kills Chris right before he is let in. Chris and Ashley's lines and reactions are different to the original scene.
- This is also stated in the new trophy (Nightmare on Ash Street) description: "Ashley hesitated and failed to let Chris inside in time." Meanwhile, the description of the original game trophy (Ashley Snaps) states: "Ashley snapped and let Chris die."
- Mike also has different lines and reactions to seeing Chris' dead body and when consoling Ashley.
Mike now has to complete two QTEs to kill Emily: with the first QTE he loads the gun and with the second QTE he shoots.
- If Mike refused to shoot Emily, she will briefly be seen recovering from the shock and Sam will try to unsuccessfully comfort her.
During the therapy session, Josh has the choice to say "They need to change" alongside "It was just a game" instead of "I'm so sorry" if Josh chose "I didn't hurt anyone" before or based on answers from previous therapy sessions. Whichever option Josh chooses here will trigger a new butterfly effect, which doesn't happen in the original game. The choice "They need to change" also doesn't exist in the original.

Chapter 9[]

During Ashley's segment, the Wendigo can be briefly seen crawling under the tunnel through a hole in the floor.

Chapter 10[]

While hallucinating, Josh is able to fully walk around the cave.
- Beth and Hannah's hallucinations' voice lines are modulated differently.
- Josh now also says "I swear I tried to find you" after he says "I didn't want you to die, I swear."
While Sam and Mike are wading through the underground lake to find Josh, Mike makes a cold buns joke to Sam.
When Sam and Mike enter the Wendigo's lair, they no longer claim there are multiple bodies and exclaim in agony if only the Stranger was killed, correcting an oversight from the original game where they act as though there are numerous bodies even if the Stranger was the only one killed at that point.
During the final confrontation, the Wendigo is repeatedly seen drooling before it shrieks, and more spit is shown coming out of its mouth when screeching.
If Sam opts to hide for the final time, it shows Hannah noticing Sam moving, before it cuts to Mike leaving the lodge, explaining how Hannah was searching for Sam in that area in the original game.
If Mike and Sam survived the night, Mike will grab Sam's hand instead of her arm while looking at the burning lodge.

Credits[]

The montage of the protagonists' deaths lacks their names and time of death.
Besides death and transformation into a Wendigo, Josh now has a third ending in which he survives and is still human when the police find him, having not resorted to cannibalism. To achieve this ending, in addition to Sam finding the Scrawled Journal, Josh must show remorse for his actions in the Chapter 8 therapy session, and none of his friends were killed throughout the night.

Epilogue[]

The remake has an epilogue that appears if Sam survived. It takes place several years after the main game and shows Sam in her home in Los Angeles, California, seemingly struggling to cope with the events on Blackwood Mountain and possibly suffering from PTSD. Unable to sleep the whole night, Sam gets up and shuts off the alarm. She then notices a strange scar on her arm bleeding incessantly as the screen turns red and a voice calls out her name, at which point the epilogue ends.

System requirements[]

Minimum	Recommended
OS: Windows 10, Windows 11	OS: Windows 10, Windows 11
Processor: Intel Core i7 4790K / AMD Ryzen 5 1500X (or similar processor with AVX support)	Processor: Intel Core i5 8600 / AMD Ryzen 7 2700X
Memory: 8 GB RAM	Memory: 16 GB RAM
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1660 / Radeon RX 470 (or equivalent card with minimum 6GB VRAM)	Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce RTX 2060 / AMD Radeon RX 6600XT
Preset: Low	Preset: Medium
Storage: 70GB on SSD	Storage: 70GB on SSD
AVG Performance: 720P @ 30 FPS	AVG Performance: 1080P @ 60 FPS

Reception[]

The 2024 remake of Until Dawn received mixed reviews from critics. While many praised the enhanced graphics and additional content, concerns were raised regarding its performance issues and pricing. On OpenCritic, the remake holds a "Fair" rating with a Top Critic Average score of 69, and only 38% of critics recommend the game.^[4] PC Gamer praised the story of Until Dawn: "Technical issues and lack of a substantial upgrade aside, Until Dawn remains the perfect interactive horror movie."^[5] While IGN echoed the same praise for its story, they criticized its performance issues and price point: "Until Dawn is an overpriced and under-featured remake that seems less like a must-have bit of moonlit murder and something closer to a case of daylight robbery."^[6] Furthermore, some players have reported soft locks during specific chapters, general crashes, and other bugs. While many have been patched since then, some remain in the game.

Naming[]

Because of the game’s title simply being Until Dawn and lacking an explicit "remake" or "remaster" label, confusion about its nature often arises. Considering the game was rebuilt in another engine, more content was added, the score was recomposed, among other changes, it is more accurately categorized as a remake than a remaster, which typically involves a visual upgrade only, and thus is referred to on the Wiki as such. PlayStation refers to the remake as a "rebuilt and enhanced version for PS5 and PC" in its marketing.

Trivia[]

The remake further confirms that the protagonists are from California:
- In the epilogue, Sam is shown living in Los Angeles.
- Matt's car has a California license plate, which can be found near the entrance of the cable car in Chapter 1, next to Josh's truck.^[7]
- There are hints in the original game indicating the group is from California as well: Matt and Emily having shopped on Rodeo Drive and Josh’s medical records being delivered to Burbank.
  - In an interview, the original game's director, Will Byles, stated that the Washingtons also have some connection to New York, hence the pictures in Hannah's bedroom and outside the cinema room. This is also a reference to the game's original recording location for the PS3 version.^[8]
The Japanese version of the remake is censored like the original, but it now shows edited versions of the deaths rather than a black screen.
A concept art reward was added to the PC version of the remake, through a patch on September 24th, 2025, featuring certain sections of the game's script, including cut dialogue.