One of the most exciting forms of storytelling that got me into reading books was the ‘choose your own adventure’ narrative. It gave me an engaging experience that made me feel as though I was actively contributing to the story as it unfolded. I guess you could say I have a soft spot for this idea, and interactive story games are the perfect tool to scratch that itch.

Developer INT./NIGHT has teamed up with Xbox to deliver their first game with a heavily story-driven focus, and eye-catching art style with local, online, and stream-based multiplayer. As Dusk Falls will launch with a day one release straight to game pass on Xbox One, Xbox Series X|S, and PC.

As someone who has played a plethora of titles in the interactive/story-driven genre, I was initially taken aback by the presentation of this game. I had become so accustomed to developers trying to make the characters and worlds with increasing realism to help sell a movie experience that I had almost forgotten how much artistic intent can impact a player’s experience. Every single character in this game is fully realised through a painted-style portrait as their avatar, portraits that move through each scene in fragmented pieces, similar to when you are trying to recall a fleeting memory. It was as if the story was being told through a slide show, and the more time you spent with them, the more your brain seems to fill in the gaps between frames.

The clever integration into the 3D environments helped to establish As Dusk Falls as a unique narrative experience. Using the opening sequence as an example, the Walker family are driving through the scorching Arizona desert, their car and the environments they are passing remain constant in a moving 3D render. Meanwhile, the characters cycle through still animations. Vince shows several slides of emotion as he tries to keep his daughter’s spirit up, bottle up his concerns from his wife, Michelle, and argued with his estranged father, Jim, who has just found his way back into his son’s life. It was enough to keep the illusion that the outside world was still moving while I processed and took mental notes on the story and characters.

I would have loved to be a fly on the wall during the storyboard and writing process, considering the dialogue is the lion’s share of the experience. Every small detail can be a game changer. I had to stay vigilant, even when I wasn’t actively interacting with my controller. There were a few moments that caught me off guard early, throwing my trajectory into some difficult choices that, in hindsight, could have been avoided with a keen ear or a focused eye.

Another sneaky little tool they had up their sleeve was turning the gamers’ instincts against them, throwing in a quick time event as simple as mashing a button or swiping left, there could be an instant of reacting first, resulting in a successful quick time event that could lead to an undesirable outcome. Whereas if I purposely let the event fail, it would send me on a whole new storyline, it was quite intuitive, one which I felt made up for the lack of any real challenge during the interaction sections.

Spanning over six chapters that are broken up into two books, with three per book, the narrative follows the events that saw multiple families crash together at the Desert Dream Motel, with the fallout carried out over the years to come. With emotional and riveting voice acting bringing the characters to life, finding the fine line between what I wanted to happen and how I thought the character would respond would blur the further down the line I got. Allowing myself to get invested in one side of the story, only to be thrown into the shoes of the antagonist’s perspective and make a choice that conflicted with everything I had built so far was a cruel but satisfying endeavour. Jumping to key moments in a character’s life, months, or even days before the events at the Desert Dream would influence an event in another person’s story later on, often in unexpected ways.

The marvel of it all was being able to reflect on the decisions made, at the end of the chapter when the game would show me how many different branches the story could have taken. Important decisions are always prompted on screen as a cross-road event, and being able to see how some storylines would have abruptly ended if I had made a different choice made my heart beat with excitement knowing I got through.

A big problem that I have with certain story games that provide specific choices is that if I went back to see what happened, it’s usually a short-lived event with minimal difference. When I went back and decided to use the replay feature and change an event in chapter one, I saw an almost entirely different course of events that led to a dramatically different ending. If it wasn’t for such a handy feature that also lets you save on a separate slot, then I wouldn’t have been compelled to experiment as much as I did to see how dramatic I could make this story.

It has become a bit of a tradition in my house that I get together with my wife and brother-in-law to knock out these interactive movies. So to know that I could get up to eight people involved on the same Xbox, either with a controller or the official companion app, which behaves as a touch screen version of a controller, made the quick-thinking portions of the game even crazier with majority rules voting to determine the outcome. To reward the players as they worked against each other in certain instances, insights at the end of each chapter show off the values, traits, and play style of each player for some bragging rights or self-gratification.

This is an option for the lead player to override a decision, but that probably would be more suited to the online co-op or the broadcast mode, which gives an entire audience a chance to influence the story. I wasn’t able to test this feature as the game was under embargo at the time, but I would be very excited to see it all go down with an explosive chat actively fighting to make their decisions be heard.

As Dusk Falls hits the scene swinging and isn’t afraid to pull their emotional punches. While playing solo provided an outstanding experience, replaying with a group led to a brand new experience with a course of events I never saw the first time through. The talented team at INT./NIGHT’s first release as a studio has certainly made a statement that they are here to stay, and I am personally very eager for their next project.

Written by: Shane Fletcher