As Dusk Falls (2022)

 

As Dusk Falls (2022)

“The truth is there's still too much to forget."

“I won't sleep much tonight, I never do. I'll try again tomorrow.”

“We just cover up one mistake with the next one.”

“Wherever you run your problems, run after you.”

-As Dusk Falls

Choice, when you think about it, choice is a remarkable thing. Even the smallest of decisions can lead to the most unforeseen circumstances. Circumstances that are by all estimates out of our control. That is a quintessential promise of interactive storytelling, choice. A driving barometer in the interactive media space is its willingness to give us the freedom to choose. To give us in a sense, the opportunity to decide an outcome or a person's fate without real world consequences. We want to be given the ability to experience someone else's life without the detriment of mental or physical anguish. Though perhaps with a bit of irony, it strikes me that video games are not really the proper avenue for choice without consequence.
In truth this interactive medium thrives on the idea of failure and the concrete realities of choice. Certainly, these choices are not our own. They belong to the characters we are asked to control as players. However, we must initiate those choices for the story to progress forward. Character decisions then become ours by proxy. It is our free will that ultimately determines the outcome of a curated interactive story, such as those found in video games. That is yet another deeply compelling aspect of an interactive story, its capacity to thematically emulate life by evoking the uncertain nature of choice and consequence.
As Dusk Falls is a stirring example of this mentality. This interactive motion comic of a burglary gone wrong, conveys with nuanced eloquence the impact of our choices. Even the ones we do not consciously make. At its core, this narrative experience is a meaningful examination of the human psyche as it processes the fallout of a life altering event. In essence, this video game allows you to orchestrate the outcome of the story. While also using your choices as the characters to illustrate a simple yet profound truth. That being, the impact of a choice is not defined by its weight in the moment, but by where and when that choice is or is not made.
Delivering an intriguingly layered understanding of its interactive medium, alongside an engrossing crime driven narrative drama, As Dusk Falls is interactive storytelling at its most compelling and insightful. Developer Int./Night calls us to look inward with As Dusk Falls, asking us an age-old question. Do your choices truly matter in the grand scheme of things, or are they just dictated by the trials of life that are thrust upon you? The choice is yours. And that answer is ultimately up to you…

Rated M 17+ for Blood, Strong Language, Suggestive Themes, Use of Drugs and Alcohol, Violence

I found As Dusk Falls to be meaningful, thematically rich and thought-provoking. I hope in some way you do too.

As Dusk Falls can be purchased on Windows PC, Xbox series X and S, as well PS5 Video Game consoles.