10 Biggest Differences Between Until Dawn Remake And Original

10 Biggest Differences Between Until Dawn and its Remake

Welcome to MojoPlays, and today, we’ll be taking a look at 10 key differences between the original “Until Dawn” and its 2024 remake.

Visuals

One of the first differences fans will notice is how the visuals have been drastically changed. Many environments now feature new lighting to bring a little more life into set pieces. For starters, the opening scene where Sam makes her way to the mountain has more appropriate lighting given the time of day she arrives. However, at the expense of all this color grading and lighting adjustments, we have lost the dreary blue hue that gave the original its unique appearance. Character models, on the other hand, do boast more texture for clothing and faces here than they did in the original. Heck, even Matt got a new hairdo for the remake.

Opening

Another noticeable change in the remake is how the game starts off. Upon starting the game, players now get a glimpse of the ill-fated party that would spiral into Hannah and Beth’s deaths. You get a better idea of how everyone viewed the prank in the moment and how out of hand it became. Not only that, but Beth’s entire sequence in searching for her sister is no longer just quicktime events. You now have to walk through the forest and move Beth yourself. There’s even a sequence where you are ambushed by the stranger in one of the entrances to the mines. At the end of the day, this change is going to fall on whether you like the faster opening we saw in the original or if you prefer the additional context and presentation the remake brings.

Matt & Emily’s Relationship

In the original version of “Until Dawn”, Matt and Emily were clearly in a troubling relationship as Emily would boss Matt around. Doesn’t help that they had conflicting personalities. At times, it even seemed like they kind of didn’t want to be around each other or that Matt was probably a rebound for Em. The remake is changing this aspect of their relationship and has added an entire section that shows their more flirty side. There is still a bit of tension if Matt discovers remnants of Em and Mike’s relationship. However, if you felt the two were way too hostile towards each other, the remake offers a different take on the matter.

New Camera Angles

Part of what made “Until Dawn” a memorable game for players was its unique and imaginative camera angles. There are many scenes that manage to reinforce an unsettling fear inside players just through thoughtful composition, lighting, and character positioning. It evoked a lot of the anxiety and terror seen in so many classic horror films of the 80’s. The remake has altered so many of these shots to be completely different from the original game. Whether they hold the same depth and meaning in their own unique way is within the eye of the beholder. However, in our time with the game, it definitely felt like camera angles were chosen more for basic readability than for meaning.

Totems

Aside from quicktime events playing a less significant role, the remake of “Until Dawn” has another layer of gameplay added in, specifically in totems. In the original game, all you had to do was pick up a totem and rotate it til its mouth was exposed. In the remake, all of the original totems have different placements, and some will show premonitions different than the original. Not only that, but you will have to manipulate the totem piece until you can see a shimmering crack in order to see these premonitions. Oh, and there is now a sixth type of totem to find - the Hunger totems, which will help provide glimpses into what exactly happened to Hannah and Beth.

Exploration

As we saw with Matt and Emily and their relationship getting more light, the remake of “Until Dawn” puts a bit more focus on thorough exploration. Pathways now feature additional areas that can provide more lore about the mountain, lead to a new totem, or even new interactions between the characters. Some of this new dialogue can be for laughs, other moments might reveal new details about their relationships. That said, if you see your companion walk in one direction, it may not hurt to walk in the opposite direction to search for hidden items and interactions.

Music

OG fans of “Until Dawn” might hold some resentment towards the remake for this change. The 2015 original featured music composed by Jason Graves, who had previously worked on music for games like “Alpha Protocol”, “The Order: 1886”, and the “Dead Space” series. Of course, no one can forget the haunting opening song, “O Death”, sung by Amy Van Roekel. Well, the remake replaces all of that. Replacing Graves is Mark Korven, a film and TV composer who has worked on “The First Omen”, “The Black Phone”, “The Lighthouse”, the second series of “The Twilight Zone”, and many more horror films and shows. As for the opening song, “Until Dawn’s” remake features a new song called “Out of the Shadows”, sung by Mae Stephens.

Controls

While going through playthroughs of both the original “Until Dawn” and the remake, there is one glaring issue we found in the remake: the controls. Upon hearing this, one might jump to conclusions and think the motion controls for standing still are utterly busted. On the contrary, the remake is significantly more accurate than the original game was. What the remake truly fails in is making basic movement functional. There were plenty of times where characters weren’t moving in the correct direction we wanted them to, sometimes not even moving at all. And if there is indeed a sprint button in this game, it sure wasn’t working for us for the majority of our playthrough.

Technical Performance

Now, this might be the biggest crime of “Until Dawn’s” “remake”. Sony, Ballistic Moon, you guys went and touched up the visuals, made the game pretty and everything under a brand new engine for a modern gaming console. Why in the hell does this run at a wildly unstable thirty frames per second? For reference, the 2015 original runs at sixty frames per second on PlayStation 4 Pro, and the PlayStation 5 replicates that experience. So, what’s the remake’s excuse? Too much snow physics? Skin pores too highly detailed? Mike and Ashley being too damn sexy?? Why spend sixty bucks on a “remake” when the original sells for twenty bucks and runs at a buttery smooth sixty as EVERY game should??

The Ending

Yes, folks, this is supposedly the biggest selling point for the remake - a new ending, and in all honesty, it isn’t even that special. We won’t spoil it if you want to witness it for yourself, but if you’re shooting for it, you will need to choose a very specific sequence of choices during the sessions with Dr. Hill. On top of that, make sure you pick up the Scrawled Journal item in Chapter Ten. Once you’ve done all of that and make sure Sam and company survive, you will be treated to an ending that winds up leaving open an opportunity for a sequel…a whole nine years after the original game came out.

Are you playing the “Until Dawn” remake? Let us know down in the comments, and be sure to subscribe to MojoPlays for more great videos everyday!