Until Dawn (Zero Punctuation) 

I think a David Cage-esque, slasher film, game, thing, should be played from the killer's perspective. I want to fail all the qte's so that the killer is hilariously incompetent, jumping at the kids, only to fail a qte and tumble down a hill in hilarioud Norman Jayden-esque fashion.

Based on what I've heard, Yahtzee isn't that bad of a person for wanting to kill everyone in this game, normal people want them dead too.

For some reason, I found that ending hilarious. "It's not exactly what I would call a branching story; it's more like a... log."

I love the fact that Yahtzee put Nathan Drakes face on one of the cast since Mike is literaly Nathan Drake

It's weird how developers nowadays aim for a sort of "Let's Player-ability" when making their games. Do you think a bunch of stuffy old stockholder executive types sit around conference tables discussing whether or not Pewdiepie could help boost this game's sales?

Until Dawn is a better game than David Cage could ever DREAM to make

4:09 Never seen that face of Yahtzee before.

Interestingly enough, the event that Yahtzee talks about at the end could end up killing a character or saving him/her later on. The game gives you a choice to kill person A or person B but kills person B no matter what. However, choosing person A will cause person A to hate the character that made this decision and even leave him/her to die later on in the game.

I knew I wasn't the only one who thought Mike looked like Nathan Drake

was I the only one that felt like the game was really trying to make you kill the black guy. lol.

But the actor who played the doctor was really freaking good, you gotta admit.

The slightly faster walking when there's a person screaming bloody murder nearby drives me crazy in video games. Like who pitched that idea at the "Lets make this game realistic" meeting?

I was literally just wondering when Yahtzee would release a Zero Punctuation on Until Dawn and I get a phone notification that Yahtzee released a Zero Punctuation on Until Dawn. Thank you oh great Yahtzee, I always knew you listened.

I love the idea of Yahtzee restarting the chapter with the saw-esque trap to try and get different outcomes 4 times - "Damn you buttons, why won't you work?!"

I absolutely fell in love with this game during the first play through

Ello. Ah ahm David Cahge.

With all those quick time events I kind of expected Jason to make an appearance in this game, you know something like :"Jason! Jason! Jasoooooo-" *slash*

1:30 Okay in fairness, you CAN have some of them say how strange and inappropriate this feels and some of them imply they are only really doing it in service to the one doing the inviting.

I'm not sure how I feel about Until Dawn really. I'd say its a game that's trying to have it's cake and eat it but it feels more like it's going around offering everyone a palette of differently decorated cake slices but the moment you try more than one slice you realize it's the same cake except maybe one slice has a few less grains of sugar or an extra QTE thrown in. Is the fact that all the cakes taste the same disappointing? Yes, I'd say so when such a large menu is falsely advertised for the most part. Was the cake good? Yes, I enjoyed the story of Until Dawn and the plot may be somewhat all over the place but it's still fun and the whole experience was rather tense and enjoyable and some of the characters actually had arcs (a bit) I'd recommend Until Dawn overall but I'd say wait for the price to drop before you buy it since it's not currently worth it's asking price if you are only going to play it once which I'd highly recommend to avoid seeing all the bullshit trickery that's been jammed into the cake on the second playthrough.

I'm just sat here waiting to see if they'll cover SOMA yet...

1:24 Who else mentally spelled out the names to make sure they were all five letters?

2:17 The Paper Mario series did something like that. Needless to say, I was afraid of the Ultra Shroom, the Jammin' Jelly, and the Thunder Rage.

And let's not forget MILDLY ASIAN.

it was always a sad moment for me every time the antagonist of a slasher movie dies.

*What "Until Dawn" Says*: "Every choice has a consequence, and you can save all the characters if you pick the right ones." *What "Until Dawn" Meant*: "Every choice has a quicktime event, and you *can't* save the characters unless you pass them.... oh, the choices? Yeah, they're only like a third of the equation."

Awesome game, it has its flaws but i still enjoy it immensely. I wouldn't really call it a game tho, more of an interactive story.

It's more like a...log

The choice about whether to save Ashley or Josh might not have an immediate effect, but if you choose to save Josh over Ashley, Ashley leaves Chris to die outside the cabin where he's torn apart by Wendigos There's much more branching path and choices than a Telltale game, for example.

IIRC that one scene where character A choose between whether character B or character C dies has a consequence on the story, but it doesn't actually pay off until much later on. If C is the person who's supposed to die, and you chose B to die, B will now hate A's guts. Much later on in the story A needs to rely on B to get to safety from a nearby threat. If B is still angry at A, B will do nothing and let A die.

I would love to see an entire LP for this done by Yahtzee. It would be amusing to see how he kills off the characters or saves them

Until Dawn is far from perfect, but I felt it did a lot of things right so I cut it a ton of slack. It's way more interesting and interactive than anything Cage has made; has more actual branching and decision impact than anything Telltale has yet put out (though not quite as good as Life is Strange does it); and uses a voice cast of mostly people you don't hear in games, except for Peter Stromare who is awesome so who cares. The plot goes a bit goofy later, and a few decision points aren't actually branches (though the decisions will have different impacts later), and the stats seem pointless but actually impact things in interesting ways. One example is if you haven't gotten max Bravery on Sam she won't be able to make certain decisions that near the end will fuck over her friends.

The way this just....awkwardly ends....Is equal parts hilarious and inexplicably adorable.

"Less of a branching story, more of a log" has got to be the most clever thing I've heard all week.

its good for one play through, if you replay it you'll discover that your choices don't matter, nothing really changes

The graphic for this game are some of the best things I've ever seen in this world.

Oh my god, that part with Clippy had me laughing so hard

To be fair, the Josh or Ashley choice has at least some weight to it. If you choose josh then Ashely will dislike Chris and can even kill him depending on how you play the game. If you choose Ashley then she will save Chris's life

What I didn't like was the fact that at first, the game was about a generic "lunatic friend tries to get back on everyone with an enormous prank cliche" and then out of FUCKING NOWHERE turns into a "last minute Blair Witch supernatural monster story that has no connection to the prank, but by pure coincidence happens on the same night".

There was punctuation right before the "log" I heard it, you heard it, we all heard it, I demand my money back!

This game inspired Yahtz to make a design document about what a great slasher game is, and then he didn't play Party Hard, which came out before he started writing that blog post, and follows it to the letter.

When someone first told be about how Until Dawn took player choice into effect, I cheekily replied "Is that a BioWare game? No? You sure? It sounds like a BioWare game."

*Oh my god*. That pun at the end _killed_ me. I am absolutely amazed.

"And let's not forget Black" help, I can't breathe xD

Oh, that is subtle. The Splitting the Universe bit has Yahtzee with the eyepatch and scar of....The Brig, in "Inferno."

That moment where you're silently nodding, affirming to yourself that you agree with Yahtzee, and someone walks in, sees you apparently rocking out to something, then gives your earbuds a listen and calls you crazy for seemingly hearing nonexistent music.

I first read the Extra Punctuation expanding on this video like seven years ago and I still think about it sometimes.

You know what? Fuck Until Dawn, The Video Game. Why not to render all that shit into the DVD and use your DVD controller to press directional buttons when needed? It's done, it has been proven to be done with few little "interactive minigames" DVD's extra features had! If you so much love to make a movie, why not just make a movie, but use the DVD controller as your controller?

Failing the qte with the guy screaming for Jessica is peak comedy in what is supposed to be a tense scene

There is a run button.

Oh but the choice between killing Mr. Crazy or Ms. Nerdy Girl IS a branch. While it will always default to killing Mr. Crazy in the scene itsself, the decision to kill Ms. Nerdy Girl instead results in her hating you enough that she won't open the door for you in a later scene and rather watch on as you get consumed by monsters.Not every decisions needs to have immediate consequences for it to be a branching story. Sometimes you have to walk down the branch a bit before you realize that the one you chose is different from the other ;)

how long did you play Until Dawn?

Minus the random cat fight that ensues in the beginning and add some follow through on all the sexual innuendos, and this is totally at least 1 clique of friends I went to college with. And as usual, Yahtzee smacks things on the head with the roomba comment.

"I didn't much enjoy the second playthrough" counts as a glowing review by Yahtzee standards right? Also "Now who will tongue my foetid box?" Pure poetry.

Oh my god his voice plus the animation is perfectly hilarious.

Sounds like he liked it.

Fun fact about the names of the cast in Until Dawn. The names of the characters, Mike, Josh, Chris, Matt, Jessica, Sam, Ashley, and Emily.... they were the most popular names in the year 1994. Probably the year all the characters were born. This game was purposefully so tropy and unoriginal and I fucking love it.

next up, Soma from the creators of Amnesia, how can Yahtzee not do it

I think Yahtzee is happy now that he isn't going to have people nagging him to play Until Dawn now. Anyways,I think is HUGE step up from anything david cage came out with ( if you ask me). The game it reminded me a lot about the clock tower games and was overall a pretty fun game. Yeah it has its flaws, but they really did not bother me to much. Also serious flashbacks to the Wendigo episode of Supernatural.

Sam and Dean could have rapped this mystery up in an hour :P

I hate how most games nowadays feel that in order to have an immersive story they must substitute and sacrifice gameplay for cinematic cutscenes. In a weak attempt during these many cutscenes to remind you you're still playing a game, they occasionally throw a random qte at you as if to say "Are you still there? Good! See?! You're making a difference! Things would've really gone South there if you weren't around to mash x like crazy" Honestly, whenever I play any game now and my character gets hurt in a cutscene, all I can think is "You're lucky there was no qte, or you would've been sorry."

Until Dawn has a lot of apologists, but come on, it's like a badly written Choose Your Own Adventure novel except it has fewer choices. On a basic level, the story logic falls apart, and the characters are paper thin. Remember when the Asian girl was asked to identify herself on the radio and she just says her first name even though she's supposed to be the smart one? She can't use her last name because the developers never bothered to give her one. (Also, the only Asian character is "intelligent" and the only black character is "athletic." Way to go, Until Dawn.) My problem with these video games that really want to be "cinematic" and "interactive movies!!" is that they just wind up reminding you that movies are so much better than video games right now. Yeah, the graphics are catching up, but a video game will never been a "fully cinematic experience" because games and movies are different mediums. Trying to improve a video game by making it more like a movie is like trying to improve a movie by making it more like a novel. Both novels and movies are fun, but they're different mediums and work by different mechanism, and therefore making a movie more like a book is only going to make it worse. In the end, video games are GAMES. They're mostly interactive. The player decides what to do. And movies are mostly visual; they're all about things looking pretty, which means that the creator has to have control over the visuals, which means that the game can't let the player control the camera and the character. If you make a video game "more cinematic," what you're doing is taking control away from the player and giving it to the game, and that is the opposite of what making a good game is about.

The bit with the saw where you chose who dies does actually have a major effect, if you choose Ashlee the later I. The game she kills Chris

everyone keeps defending this game "oh it's supposed to be cliche, that's the point", and I just laugh at them.

I think that the main problems with Until Dawn are thus: a. The story seemed much more interesting roughly 2/3 of the way through, when the player thinks that there are upwards of 4 different antagonists, than it does in the final stretch, in which you know all about the actual antagonists, and the mystery and complexity are lost. b. There are not, despite what the game implies, multiple endings based on your choices. There is one ending, with zero to eight survivors. Technically speaking, an ending with three survivors is a "different ending" than one with four, but I think that everybody who played the game was expecting more significant changes. Perhaps the killer turning out to be a completely different character in one playthrough, or something interesting like that.

Dat log tho.

Yeah, choice in games is usually an illusion. Telltale does a really good job of making them feel important until you work out their two main rules: 1. Whatever you pick, the outcome will eventually be almost identical. 2. Anyone who can die at one point will definitely die at some other point. ...then it kind of loses its edge.

I can't believe no one has made fanart of Yahtzee as a anime girl.I need that.

"Schrodinger's Dipshit" is my new highlight of the moment

"Out of work 20-something actors." Didn't one of them go on to win an Oscar?

"And let's not forget, black." My favorite fucking part.

The cast is supposed to fill the stereotypes...I thought people would be sharper to this

"Crickey O'Blimey" made me cry with laughter xD

All I really want is one of this games to REALLY create a branching story. As in, if you do different things, the beginning, middle, and ends are completely different. Still, this game is currently the closest we'll get to it for now. Also, the characters weren't as unlikable as yahtzee portrayed, although I shall admit I took a certain glee in blowing Emily's brains out.

Whoa whoa whoa, that death trap one is a pivotal moment, because if you choose the person that will automatically survive to rather then the other person, in turn you will get killed. But if you choose to "save" them you get some

He said VCR. Kids don't know what that is.

Out of all the reviews made by Yahtzee, the face at 4:09 made me laugh extremely hard for no apparent reason

Zero Punctuation on The Beginner's Guide?

"It's more like a log." That is the most accurate thing I've ever heard about these "DAiivID CAiiGe" "Branching Narrative" games.

Black is a personality? kek

I'm pretty sure the character stats/relationships were meant to imply how the best way to play each character. For instance, while you could do whatever you liked, if you played each character's strengths, then you had a better chance of saving every character from danger, and thus getting more of the plot.

I know this is unrelated to this game, but..I thought *Rob Zombie's **_Halloween_* was better than the original. I wish modern slashers would be as good as that movie. Every NEW version of "Friday the 13th" or "Nightmare on Elm Street" is just recycling the same ol' formula instead of trying something new (like Rob Zombie's movie did).

spot on as always mate! I really enjoyed my first play through but after replaying i soon discovered most choices only every amount to a different bit of dialogue, only reason to push through is to see different endings but i admit i haven't had the burning desire to do that.

Finally

Hey! Mikes actor has GREAT work. And Sam's is starting her most famous role again soon...

Quicktime = Cancertime.

I see everyone complaining about the qt events. The game was recommended to me as a playable movie. So they made sense to me.

I feel like this guy hates every game

the character bar-thing is there to tell you what you must make the character do to save them

Honestly, at 4:37 I couldn't tell whether that frame was just a simple design choice or a reference to Yahtzee's past.

Hillbilly murderers. Can you Tucker and Dale vs Evil reference? Love it

The choices actually did matter. At one point, if you make a character hate you, they refuse to do certain things for you. To the point of getting a character killed. Though what was revealed was that it's a bit harder to kill the characters than the game makes you feel. But that's more of a second playthrough observation. While you're playing, you still feel the tension of that potential danger. And the characters were supposed to be archetypal. The plot was "All over the place" as far as supernatural stuff, then not. Then there were again, because it designed as such. A red herring while there was actual crazy shit happening. Loved the game. A full playthrough is warranted because of the way it's designed. Some choices don't bare fruit until later. The plot looks a mess until it's revealed because it's SUPPOSED to, to hint at what's really going on. 5 different threads come together beautifully by the end and enough clues are laid around (Literally) for you to figure it out just a bit sooner.

i love how the character you called "black" is the jazz singer... That made me giggle.

Tbf to Yahtzee, he hadn't seen South Park in a long time, but at 1:37 he's used a picture of Paris Hilton, when she is quite CLEARLY Taylor Swifting.

By the way, my favorite Until Dawn branching narrative bit is this: if Matt agrees to go find a radio tower with Emily, he will later shoot a flare gun. And if he disagrees, he won't waste the ammo. You go to the radio tower regardless. My second favorite I'm not 100% on, but I think Sam has to find a diary in order for Josh to recognize his own sister for some reason.

1:28 they cut that joke out of the yearly compilation lmao

"Dayvid Cayge's gaymes" I'm twitching from laughter here like a moron.

"And let's not forget 'black'." That line destroyed me. Lol

Lol. It's funny how Yahtzee used Nathan Drake to represent Mike because that's what I referred to him as throughout the game.

Man, the one thing I'm surprised Yahtzee didn't harp on is that not only could all the characters be summed up in a few words, the game took the liberty of LITERALLY SHOWING YOU those few words floating around their head in a cutscene - Which really shows no faith in the writing at best and is completely patronizing to the audience at worst.

Something tells me he didn't find the combination of branching paths and character stats that makes one of the characters play the rest of the game in her underwear.