In its most recent State of Play, Sony revealed a smattering of interesting and exciting gaming projects, with Until Dawn 2 being one of the most unexpected. The fact that there is an Until Dawn sequel isn’t surprising in itself—the game’s enjoyed a sizable resurgence in popularity in recent years, and a follow-up was always on the table. What’s surprising is that, on the surface, it seems to have absolutely nothing to do with the first Until Dawn.
Spoilers ahead for Until Dawn.
The original Until Dawn, which was released in 2015 but remastered in Unreal Engine 5 for a 2024 re-release, follows a group of teens that encounters deadly, supernatural forces deep in the snowy mountains. In typical Supermassive Games fashion, players themselves steer the story, but the essence of the plot remains mostly static: Josh always unfolds his delusional prank, Mike always goes on a solo adventure in the insane asylum, and so on. There have been rumors and speculation about where this story could go next, assuming Supermassive made certain plot beats canon, but they all usually involve the return of at least one character from the first game, like Josh or Sam. Enter Until Dawn 2, which seems to pivot to an entirely different setting and cast.
While Supermassive Games made the first Until Dawn, Until Dawn 2 is being handled by Firesprite, a first-party Sony studio. It will retain Supermassive’s narrative-gameplay formula, however.
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Until Dawn 2 Has Nothing to Do With Until Dawn—But Also, It Does
In Until Dawn 2, players follow a group of “ghost hunter” content creators on a remote tropical island said to play host to unexplained supernatural activity. As you might expect, these influencers are self-centered, obsessed with clout, and willing to stoop to the lowest of levels to get a hot piece of content. While they’ve staged their supernatural encounters up to this point, they get much more than they bargain for when real horrors begin to unfold in this deceptive paradise.
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What exactly these horrors will entail remains to be seen, although the Until Dawn 2 reveal trailer offers some hints. For one thing, there’s a masked figure shown stalking through the woods, machete in hand, as well as a bizarre psychosexual entanglement between Neil Newbon’s character, his apparent partner, and one of the young ghost hunters. Again, we don’t know exactly how these factors will slot into the broader Until Dawn 2 narrative, but it’s clear that the main cast is anything but safe.
The Until Dawn 2 reveal didn’t include any characters from the first game (except one), nor are there any mentions of Wendigos, Blackwood Mountain, et cetera. But at the same time, the parallels between both games couldn’t be more obvious: you’ve got a troupe of cocky young adults in over their heads, their arrogance leading to their downfall. There’s a psychological tormentor of sorts (Josh in Until Dawn 1, Neil Newbon’s character in Until Dawn 2), and there’s a strong suggestion of greater forces at work. If Until Dawn 2 follows the same narrative trajectory as the first game, with the psychological tormentor being essentially replaced by the supernatural threat over time, then the formulaic parallels will be even closer. Basically, Until Dawn is a heavy-handed homage to a specific type of 90s teen horror flick, and Until Dawn 2 seems to have similar ambitions.
You could argue that The Quarry follows the same formula as Until Dawn as well, but there are some key differences. For instance, the protagonists of that game are not being “punished” for their arrogance—they are average camp counselors supposed to be in the area. Also, it lacks the core non-supernatural red herring of Until Dawn.
How Until Dawn 2 Could Connect to the First Game More Directly
Getting to the elephant in the room, there is, in fact, one returning Until Dawn cast member in the sequel: Peter Stormare, as psychiatrist Alan Hill. He makes only the briefest of appearances in the trailer, but his face and legendary voice are instantly recognizable. He outs the trailer by saying, in his quintessentially unnerving drawl, “Can you do what needs to be done?”
You can interpret Stormare/Hill’s return in a few ways. For instance, you could write it off as a simple nod to the first game, which is essentially how Dr. Hill was used in the Until Dawn movie, but I think there’s a bit more to it than that. The Dr. Hill that players see in the first Until Dawn is actually a figment of Josh’s imagination, a sinister version of the psychiatrist he was seeing in the lead-up to the events of the game. He exists to demean, mock, and chastise Josh as a manifestation of the latter’s guilt.
Who’s That Character?
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Identify the silhouettes before time runs out.
Contrary to what the Until Dawn movie would suggest, there’s nothing to indicate that Dr. Hill is actually antagonistic—he only appears that way in Josh’s mind. Yet he is somehow connected to the supernatural goings-on of Until Dawn 2, whose trailer certainly seems to depict him in a creepy light. If this really is the same Dr. Hill as the first Until Dawn, then his appearance in the sequel could have an obvious explanation: he is once again tormenting Josh, which would mean that Josh is going to appear in Until Dawn 2. Perhaps he’s the masked figure in the trailer, having somehow found his way to this tropical island, continuing to work under the influence of his own madness and the Dr. Hill persona. He could even be a fake-out slasher villain, mirroring the arc of Jack Fiddler, AKA Flamethrower Guy from Until Dawn 1.
Of course, this is just a theory, and it has some issues, specifically in relation to a new ending added in the Until Dawn remake. In it, Sam wakes up in her Los Angeles apartment with a mysterious scar on her arm, and hears Dr. Hill’s unmistakable voice beckoning her before the scene cuts to black. This implies that Dr. Hill, either the real one or the vision that tortures Josh, is actually connected to other aspects of the Until Dawn mythos. As such, he could theoretically interact with other, new characters as well.
- Released
- 2027
- Developer(s)
- Firesprite
- Publisher(s)
- Sony Interactive Entertainment
- Prequel(s)
- Until Dawn
- Number of Players
- Single-player
WHERE TO PLAY
Ready to die for likes? Join a team of ambitious ghost hunters as they chase their next viral hit on a remote island haunted by a woman’s chilling story of demons and ghostly phenomena.
When the tale begins to manifest in terrifying ways, the group will have to fight their own fear – and anything else that gets in their way – to get off the island alive. Their lives are in your hands. Make every choice count.
- PS5 Release Date
- 2027
- Platform(s)
- PlayStation 5
