Until Dawn is a 3rd person horror adventure game set in an isolated cabin in the northern mountains of Alberta, Canada. In the game, you take control of 9 friends; Josh, Jessica, Sam, Emily, Mike, Ashley, Matt, Chris, and Beth, who return to Beth’s family cabin one year after a tragic event. Throughout the game, the player controls multiple characters between chapters, often exploring both new and familiar surroundings previously examined. The main story revolves around the teenagers, as shortly after reaching the cabin, something or someone begins to hunt them down. Every interaction, dialogue choice and button press or button miss press impacts the character’s path through their portion of the story.
![UDGroup.png](https://indigitalgames.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/udgroup.png?w=685)
The “butterfly effect” as the game describes it early on, is the primary mechanism that revolves around the player’s choices and weaves them into pieces of the story. Every choice the player makes shifts the story into another direction. For example, if the player decides one character should be killed or accidentally fails a chase scene, where button combination completions are required to see a character safely cross a dangerous section of the level, the player will lose a piece of the story that only that player can acquire. Ultimately, player choice having such a greater impact on the story is an essential mechanic that keeps the player emotionally invested in ensuring every character contributes to their portion of the game.
The story involving the playable characters is not the only story told, however, as the player explores the mountain environment, they will find side story tidbits revolving around the previous residents living up on the mountain. The game describes the mountain as having a checkered history. The game details that in 1893, “the Cree” were the original habitants among the mountain. Upon colonial expansion, Tin and Radium were discovered in the region causing a massive mining boom. After a lack of maintenance, a devastating structural collapse in the mine caused 30 miners to be trapped in the intricate tunnels of the pit. After numerous days of surviving on only a small stream of water, 12 miners resorting to cannibalism. The miners were found and rescued and placed into the recently built Blackwood Asylum, where the miners would slowly turn into cannibalistic creatures. In the early 1990’s, property near the Asylum was purchased by the American movie mogul Bob Washington and a vacation home was soon constructed. This vacation home is the location surrounding the player’s main story.
![Wendigo_Sam_2.png](https://indigitalgames.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/wendigo_sam_2.png?w=685)
Until Dawn uses multiple Indigenous representations throughout the game. Firstly, the Indigenous group that the story revolves around is Cree. The Wendigo depicted in the game are based on legends that describe a creature or monster who transforms from a human into a cannibalistic monster. The story states that anyone who ate human flesh would run the risk of being possessed by the Wendigo around the Blackwood Mountain. During a playthrough, if the player finds the “Strangers Journal,” it describes that the Cree believed that the Blackwood Mountain was sacred land. It also details that prophecies were foretold of butterflies guiding ones to wither good or bad fortune. As mining began to disrupt the sacred grounds, the Wendigo was released. The sacredness of the land to the Cree people is also depicted in another hidden collectible: Melinda Washington’s Native American Letter, where she writes to Dr. C.J. Swaffham from the Race and Ethnicity Department in Vancouver. The letter reads:
“Thank you for your response. It’s good to know that the tribe still feel an attachment to the land here, even if we have a few unfortunate problems (graffiti, people sleeping in the outbuildings). This is their ancestral home. I have made contact with the descendants of the tribe and intended to make a donation to their elder council. Healing the wounds of the past won’t be easy, but I feel it’s a step that is necessary.”
The attachment that once solidly connected the Cree nation to the Blackwood Mountain region would dissipate by the destructive measures of mining in the area.
Over consuming resources are also described as another symptom of transforming a person into a Wendigo. Basil Johnson argues in; The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway, that over consuming of an individual rather than supporting his/her family can also contribute to the Wendigo becoming stronger.
“There is nothing more harmful in humankind’s inclination to rest, play, celebrate, feast, and pursue hobbies. The trouble is that some people don’t know when to stop and appear not to care, because nature, or Kitchi-manitou, has endowed them with slightly more than is good for them: appetites, passions, and desires that dilute their talents, common sense, and judgment. It doesn’t take much. A fraction too much or too little of anger, envy, or lust is enough to create an imbalance in a person’s character to impair his or her judgment and weaken his or her resolution” (Johnston 223-224)
Johnston describes the rapid western colonial expansion, similarly to the development mentioned in the game, as a crucial contributor to the survival of the Wendigo entity. “Profit, wealth, and power are the ends of business. Anything that detracts from or diminishes the anticipated return, whether it is taking pains not to violate the rights of others or take steps to ensure that the land remain fertile and productive for future generations, must, it seems, be circumvented”(Johnston, 237). When exploring the miner’s side story clues, the player would find out the history of the miners themselves and 1952 mine collapse. The game also makes mention in a Journal clue found as a secondary source of information about the slow transition into Wendigo’s as some would resort to cannibalism. It is important to note that the game designers did not use resource extracting as another symptom that would lead the miners to turn into Wendigo’s, only the idea of resorting to cannibalism set the transformation into play.
Another example of Indigenous images in Until Dawn is through the totems that are scattered throughout the environment for the player to acquire. There is a total of thirty different totems to collect, with six different types: death, danger, loss, guidance, and fortune. These totems are explained to the player to be based on Indigenous beliefs that signify prophecies are appearing in the form of a butterfly, with different colors relating to various meanings behind them.
![ButterflyProphecies](https://indigitalgames.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/butterflyprophecies.jpg?w=685)
After acquiring a totem, the player receives a mini cut scene depicting a future event, allowing the player the opportunity to avoid danger or follow a certain route. Acquiring all 30 totems gives the player an additional movie that depicts “The Stranger” character talking to his grandfather, who both devoted their lives to protecting the mountain from the Wendigo. The duo attempt to fight off the main antagonist Makkapitew, resulting in the death of the grandfather as well as the tragic incident that occurred during the first chapter of the game.
![TotemMenu](https://indigitalgames.wordpress.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/totemmenu.png?w=685)
Until Dawn plays with an iconic 1980’s horror movie trope setting to tell a story of isolation, desperation, and revenge. The mystery surrounding the Wendigo is solely upon the fear surrounding nonhuman actions like cannibalism rather than a multitude of factors that could change a character into a Wendigo like gluttony, or cannibalism as Johnston describes earlier. The depiction of wendigoes as a “mythical” or nonhuman like entity that completely dissociates the creature from a human. The game uses Wendigoes as creatures that only transform through nonhuman actions (cannibalism) and not that of massive resource extraction or other harmful actions caused by greed or desires.
Sources:
Books
Johnston, Basil. The Manitous: The Spiritual World of the Ojibway. Key Porter Books Limited, 1995.