When eight friends come together after a horrible tragedy, you don’t expect a night filled with horror tropes. Do your best to keep everyone alive, or fail miserably and see everyone horribly dispatched. A remake of the 2014 original, Until Dawn comes with better graphics and improved environments. Experience the horror for the first time or jump back in as a veteran to see what has changed.

The environments have been improved and the game looks better than ever. Every jump scare and horror moment not only retains the charm but delivers an additional layer of fright. It’s also more accessible to players who struggled with previous gameplay mechanics. However, collectibles are even harder to spot and camera angles aren’t the best. The remake has improved the fundamentals but it also hurts itself in areas that weren’t bad to begin with.

Until Dawn is about eight friends coming together after losing two of their friends to a prank gone wrong. They reunite to try and bond as a healing measure, but fate has other plans in store. A deranged psycho is hunting them down, determined to make them suffer. But strange things happen that don’t seem to be related to the psycho. Will everyone survive until dawn or will they be wiped out by forces beyond their understanding?

The biggest changes to the game come from the accessibility options. It’s now friendlier to players including features like adjusting the difficulty of Don’t Move mini-games or putting a border behind subtitles. Don’t Move mini-games were extremely sensitive to any movement of the PS4 controller in 2014, guaranteeing failure without a flat surface. Letting you pass them automatically and improving the mini-game puts less pressure on players.

The accessibility options make it easier to enjoy the game and story for what it is. Before it would be frustrating if you failed a mini-game because you didn’t have enough time or a controller was too sensitive. Now you can focus on making text readable or reducing the difficulty of mini-games. This makes the remake more inviting than the original because there’s less suffering and more enjoyment.

The main plot of the story mostly remains the same. If you played the previous game, there are no significant plot shifts. There is an additional ending for one character and certain scenes have been edited for clarity. But for the most part, the adventures of each character and the overall plot are identical. Even the Butterfly Effects haven’t changed, meaning if you’ve played before, you already know the consequences of your actions.

While the additional ending requires a little work to achieve, it’s not a big change in the long run. This means the target audience consists of players who missed out on playing the game in its first release. If you have played the game before, going through the same story gets boring quickly. You already know the consequences of your actions and where the crucial choices are. Even the relationship values don’t make much difference except for certain ending variations.

The original game had totems that gave you visions of what could happen in the future. A new totem variation appears in the remake to highlight a past event that some may be curious about. But this only expands on the existing story instead of changing it in a big way. The main appeal for returning players would be the improved graphics making the game look better. Few will return to experience the same story they already know.

The remake’s greatest strengths are the improved environments and graphics. Until Dawn has never looked better, with improved character designs and environmental objects. All the horror aspects look more frightening, with the antagonists having more refined and crueller designs. All the locations have more polished designs and properly show their condition. Snow looks more crisp, animations are smoother, and the audio fits it well.

Even a veteran player will go through the adventure dreading what’s around the corner. The improved graphics make every scare more frightening, especially when paired with the audio. When a jump scare comes out at you, you react even if you knew it was coming. The graphics go above and beyond when it comes to realism, immersing you in the horror better than the original.

While the graphics are amazing, the remake’s camera angles and collectible visibility got worse. Shifting to a third-person perspective, it’s possible to make the wrong move and reorient the camera to zoom away from you. After inspecting objects, the game also makes you turn away from the object automatically. While it’s meant to help you move on, this disorients you and makes you confused about where to go. In locations with poor lighting, that can mean getting lost in a closed space.

The worst part is that collectibles are even harder to find in the remake. While there are accessibility settings that supposedly boost collectible visibility, it’s not much. You still have to search areas hoping for a white glow to indicate you are close by. It’s a shame to see that some parts of the game have been negatively impacted. Instead, you hunt for collectibles longer than before, even with the help of a guide.

While it’s nice to re-experience the tale of Until Dawn, there isn’t much to appreciate other than the small improvements. New players will enjoy the story and the accessibility improvements. Everyone will enjoy the updated graphics and environmental details. But the camera angles and low-visibility collectibles introduce unnecessary frustration that wasn’t in the original. It’s a mixed bag of improvements that delivers on the horror, but reminds you that nothing’s perfect.