Review: As Dusk Falls (Xbox Series X)

As Dusk Falls

Xbox Series X

According to the tenets of Hinduism and Buddhism, Karma is a bitch. And so your decisions in this choose-your-own-adventure game will inevitably boomerang back on you. The story is set in the empty plains of Arizona, where a bickering family are crossing the state to start a new life until they collide (literally) with a gang of hoodlums. As the characters intersect, you control the course of events, searching environments for clues, making conversational decisions and engaging in quick action events. You also swipe directional buttons to avoid being chomped by Dobermans or driving your car into a ditch.

Animated actors present the story in a cel-shaded style reminiscent of the movie A Scanner Darkly or videogame adventure Disco Elysium. Fans of Telltale’s The Walking Dead, or Detroit: Become Human, will feel at home in the immersive narrative. Memory-based puzzles require you to pay attention and your responses to the moral conundrums dictate the branching storylines. The plot, characters and Arizona settings (big skies, abandoned highways, dodgy motels) bring to mind dramas such as Paris, Texas and Kurt Russell’s movie Breakdown. The story, not the gameplay, is the true star here.

7/10

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