Digital Foundry vs Until Dawn

DF:
Until Dawn is a bizarre concoction, but one that leaves a good lasting impression. It's a sleeper hit with serious tech credentials to start, blending Heavy Rain's branching narrative design with Guerilla Games' latest engine - producing a superb physically-lit woodland and cabin setting. As a PS4 title it's a satisfying visual package, and its legacy on last-gen hardware is rarely on show - that is, outside of some unusual performance levels, suggesting the transition to current-gen hasn't been easy. The game's main disappointment is in its frame-rate, often ticking over at the lower end of the 20-40fps range.

[corroios]

People talk to much about rez and frames. This a cinematic game.

[suckingeggs]

Cinematic sleeper hit.. Play this with your girlfriend sitting beside you...after she will cuddle you all night

Favourite game this gen so far

[miyamoto]

Did frame rate drops stopped Resident Evil and Silent Hill from being universally acclaimed instant classic survival horror mega hit games?

The same goes for Until Dawn. The survival horror genre of video games needs some good ass kicking this generation and Until Dawn is that game. Even Hollywood is turning their heads again like they did with The Last of Us last gen.

[yarbie1000]

It has cinematic frame-rates.

[Genuine-User]

That is an inflammatory comment, if I ever saw one.

You could have discussed its technicalities, flaws and achievements or even your personal impressions. But I guess not.

[Juangie3]

Exactly and the frame rate does not hinder the experience and fun.

[UkrainianWarrior]

Xbox hater says people talk too much about rez and framerate when the ps4 isn't running smoothly? How convenient..

[nosferatuzodd]

OH look it Urkranian hater at it AGAIN..

[Tzuno]

This is what they do man , they are specialized in those kind of tests. Anyway what's with all those castor teeth and smile, all of them have that weird teeth and smile a la castor.

[rainslacker]

This wasn't a typical action game with explosions(well there were a few) and quick moving cameras. Even if it maintained a 20 fps throughout, I doubt anyone would notice because of no shaky cam, no sweeping camera shots, and even the running shots were from the close up perspective in typical horror movie style.

Outside of some rare moments where the actual texture/lighting quality dropped, which was made jarring due to how good it looked otherwise, and one technical screen glitch I only saw once, and a few randomly placed awkward animations, this game was rock solid in the graphics and frame rate department....at least perceptually.

I suppose if I was playing with testing equipment measuring each frame I'd think different...but somehow that might kill the experience of the game.

[Genuine-User]

Until Dawn is a visual treat. There are so many scenes where I just stop and appreciate the meticulously detailed world and characters.

[PhucSeeker]

And because of that beautiful visual, it has a price to pay which is lower framerate in busier scenes.

[Gazondaily]

Definitely need to get it. Shame about the frame rate.

[rainslacker]

The close ups of the characters were absolutely perfect. Beautiful work there. Teeth could have used a bit more care though.:)

The game play models could be hit or miss at times depending on the lighting. Sometimes they were great, others they were kind of like late last gen stuff(TLOU quality which isn't bad).

Environment was almost always great, although some of the "props" weren't as detailed and if you were really exploring they could stand out like a sore thumb.

Overall though, it's an amazing looking game, and beyond that, it built up tension throughout, had a decent story for a horror trope genre, good acting overall, and generally just a unique experience in the genre that has to be experienced to be appreciated. No review has really given it justice on the experience part yet.

@nei and Septic

This game is fine at the frame rate. Your camera never moves fast enough for it to be an issue, and animations are only awkward from their key-framing, not the frame rate itself, and even then it's rare.

[JMaine518]

Yea this is exactly what I expected from the DF analysis. During my play through I felt the frame rates dipping and being all over the place. Still didn't change the fact that the game overall is great.

[robtion]

Honestly frame rate is almost irrelivent for a game like this. It's not online, MP, or a twitch shooter.

It is a fantastic looking game, and a fun ride.

[1nsomniac]

Being someone who really, really wasnt happy about the cheesy American teen horror style the game went for I was massively surprised after buying it.

The first 5-6 chapters are awesome, epic even, building tension, great acting, smooth animation, genuine scares & most importantly not all that cheesy!

What moments are cheesy are outshone by the quality of the acting.

However after about chapter 6 you can tell that everyone involved had either started losing faith or running low on funds. Because the acting just crashes completely. The cheese factor gets ramped up right to 11. Then the animation blends start to become sloppy & the whole game starts to crumble. From something that started off an epic crossover of film to game into some generic attempt.

The only real breaking factor of the game though is the frame rate. It's genuinely awful at times.

[rainslacker]

Possible spolier

I think it's due to the mid game reveal(or whatever chapter Revelations was). I kind of expected that due to some of the collectibles found, but thought it would be the end game reveal, but there would be something unexpected that the mid game reveal antagonist didn't expect.

I agree mostly on the voice acting. I never really felt they stopped caring, just that the story itself did kind of drop off after the mid game to become a standard campy teen horror movie. This is likely due to what the antagonist was at this point. The mystery was there, but it wasn't terribly compelling, and given that it was supernatural in nature, it just takes the whole psychological factor out of it, which is usually what makes a good suspense/horror movie. There's just something scarier about a meticulously crafted villain over an all hating entity.

I felt Sam, Ashley, and Josh's actors did a great job acting throughout, especially Josh. I've decided to check out that TV show he's in that was advertised a lot. The fact that Matt, Jessica, and Emily really didn't have much of a part was rather disappointing since the whole premise of the game was to care enough about the characters to make choices that would determine if they live or die. Chris I couldn't really say what I thought of him. Decent enough at acting, but somehow, he just didn't sell the character.

[LoveSpuds]

Whether it has performance issues or not is irrelevant, I honestly didnt notice in my playthrough, the game was completely absorbing, a genuinely great game and an important exclusive for Playstation.

[OB1Biker]

Absolutely and DF are spot on IMO 'putting visuals above frame-rate makes sense for a horror title in this style, and though a rock-solid 30fps is on our wishlist, at least its ambition in character-building and set detail isn't compromised.'
You are immersed in the story and tension because of the atmosphere and graphics.
I didnt actually care about 'performance' as I was playing as it didnt get in the way of a great experience.

[KingKionic]

Jesus the framerate is all over the place. I dont know how people could play this with all the stuttering going on.

[bullproodhead]

Maybe because it didn't really matter in the big picture for this type of game. They should have capped it at 30 though instead of having it jump up to like 45 randomly.

[KingKionic]

O___O

Its ok for the framerate to go from 20-40 because of the type of game it is?

Ive heard lots of spins here buddy but that`s quite a big spin.

This is some rough performance.

[MysticStrummer]

@Warlord - Of course the type of game it is impacts how important the frame rate is. How can you not see that…?

[chrisco84au]

Maybe experience it yourself before passing judgement........

You have heard lots of spins, seems you also throw out some spins yourself. Sure the video above shows the frame rate moving from20s to 40s, indisputable but......

As the person above said, it's not as noticeable nor does it matter with this game, something you would know if you had played it.

You can watch a DF video and pass judgement with very little credentials or you can play the game, make your own opinion and have a little more credibility.

I suggest the latter next time.

[MRMagoo123]

He can't play it himself , he doesn't know anyone with a ps4 so he can only troll.

[Spotie]

You could at least read the damn article instead of trolling.

"Indeed, Until Dawn's performance shows its visuals don't come for free, though it's not intrusive enough to harm its playability."

That's how. You don't even need a PS4- which we all know you don't have- to find out that the framerate drops didn't hurt the game.

[CYCLEGAMER]

In classic fashion...the goal post has been moved yet again. Now all of a sudden we don't care about performance when it comes to a Sony exclusive??? I don't care either way, but can we make up our minds people?? LOL!

[chrisco84au]

'I don't care either way'.....

But I'll comment because I DO care. Simple.

[rainslacker]

I think in this case, one can not care about the frame rate issues, because despite what the numbers show, it's not as apparent as some people want to make it seem it would be.

The game just isn't set up that a sudden dip in frame rate would matter, which greatly minimizes the instances where people even notice it. If you go from a 60 to 20 fps in a scene which is rather static with out fast animation, you just aren't going to see it...unless of course you have test equipment.

Most of my job revolves around optimizing frame rates. It's in my job description even. Only once playing this game did I even notice it, and I spends hours every day watching for frame rate drops running test code.

What I'm trying to say is that it doesn't ruin the experience. There are some other visual aspects which are rather jarring that are much more prevalent than frame rates, but even they don't ruin the experience, although they do stand out more due to how good this game is and how quickly these visual changes could happen.

[uth11]

Wow, what's with all the stuttering in that video? I never saw obvious stuttering at those points in the game in my playthroughs

[miyamoto]

as usual, it's a rigged video to downplay the Playstation brand

[rainslacker]

IMO, they were probably there. However, if you're not looking for it, you probably won't notice it in this game. IF you're going in, with a nice meter to show you when it happens, then you're suddenly looking for it and it's obvious.

I've only seen a few people I know played it say it was noticeable, and it was typically in the scenes that were more action, and even they state it's not that obvious or even jarring as it could be in a game like a FPS/TPS or other action game.

[uth11]

I did notice stuttering at later parts of the game, just not in the places they showed and not as frequently. Maybe it happens in different points of the game for different people, who knows

[apostolis81]

Why the PS4 which has powerfull hardware has this frame rate isues with this exclusive?

[DigitalRaptor]

Because every developer is different and this studio is new to PS4 hardware.

Check out Supermassive's history in making games and you'll see why they may have had issues with the performance of their game. If you go from low-budget indie games to AAA graphical powerhouses, there's going to be some steep learning curves involved, and it's not like they wrote the engine they used.

[Ra3v3r]

Exactly the same arguement I have.

Supermassive aren't an EA/Rockstar/Ubisoft sized company but have put out a well received, graphically impressive game that has occasional but not game breaking performance. People assume everyone has the same experience with the hardware and want everything to look like the world outside their window but in reality it's a big ask. Especially when they used someone else's engine and had to overhaul it from a PS3 Move title to a PS4 interactive adventure.

[S2Killinit]

Amazing game. Gotta try it.

[AstroCyborg]

here i thought no game in 2015 would pass the witcher 3's awful fps until dawn has just topped it

[raggy-rocket]

I have an Xbox, only seen this on youtube and without playing it, it's already my favourite horror game of all time. Amazing animation, gameplay, dialogue, story, everything. Excellent. Amazing exclusive for PlayStation. Didn't notice any bad performance. I acknowledge it's bad that a game is having such poor performance in frame rate but I got so sucked in, I didn't notice. Shame about the performance, but in my humble opinion, the quality of the game makes up for it.