Publisher: Microsoft
Developer: Interior Night
Year: 2022
Platform: Windows, Xbox One, Xbox series

Rating: 7

The first game by designer Interior Night is a comic book style narrative road adventure that tells a suspenseful and action-filled story about family trauma. And the first half is one hell of a gripping tale. While it’s not unusual for an adventure game to start strong before petering out in the end, As Dusk Falls embodies that pitfall more than just about any.

A family of four is on vacation with a lot of resentment brewing. Vincent Walker’s formerly absent (and quite contrarian) father is along for the ride much to his wife Michelle’s chagrin. Their child Zoe (who occasionally narrates from the future as an adult) is caught in the middle. Meanwhile, three brothers are across town burglarizing the house of the sheriff. Their paths soon cross as the boys hold up the hotel where the Walkers are staying.

In this first chapter, you alternate playing as Vincent and Jay Holt, the youngest of the brothers. Jay loves his brothers and is a reluctant participant in the crimes, more afraid of what he’s doing than anything. Each scene is presented as a series of choices, both in acting with the environment and navigating tough conversations. Yet it’s more interactive than a choose your own adventure.

For example, while burglarizing the home, Jay will need to look around the apartment and decide where to look and what to take; rather than be flatly presented with the choices, you must scroll the screen with your cursor to find the available hotspots. Time doesn’t move while you make a decision (with the exception of some occasional easy quick time events), but many options will only be available once. And since your decisions often significantly alter the story, each decision carries the weight it deserves. Ultimately in this scenario, Jay can be successful in finding the loot and getting out unnoticed, or he can botch the whole thing and be noticed before escaping.

Most of the first chapter is the drama at the hotel. While it’s definitely got an action movie vibe, the dialogue is mostly earnest and the relationships intriguing. The corrupt sheriff arrives to bumble his way through, and the brothers’ mom (who has a history with the sheriff) shows up at one point to muck things up further. Decisions you will make as Vince can save people or get them killed, and the game continues regardless. Much like in Detroit: Become Human, you can always access a flow chart to see all of the game’s potential paths. And you can restart chapters at any time to either test out alternate routes or begin a new save state.

I only played through the game once and surprisingly have found little desire so far to try the alternate paths even though I am intrigued. Part of the reason is that due to the future narration, you know that nothing you do can significantly alter Zoe’s fate. And part of this is that the game’s second chapter is a relative snooze fest.

Here you still control Jay, but Vince fades into the background as you occasionally will play as some minor characters and adult Zoe. Jay’s story is moderately interesting as you follow him on the run from the authorities that will see you cross several states. But then it’s interrupted to unnecessarily tie up some loose ends with the minor characters, whose lives we don’t get to know enough to care. The jumps to the future with Zoe also feel unnecessary, interrupting the main story. Also, weirdly, the game ends in the future with a super vague cliffhanger, abruptly terminating the past stories. As such, it didn’t leave me excited for a third chapter.

The game’s graphics may be the coolest part. Everyone is hand-drawn (using the face models of the voice actors) in a comic book style supplemented with stop-motion animation. It gives the feel of a comic book without the panels. It’s slightly jarring at first, as the games overall look suggest full animation; but I adjusted fairly easily and overall found the effect quite satisfying.

The soundtrack by Matthew Barnes is low-key for the most part and generally has a peaceful western theme, evoking memories of Firefly. While it didn’t blow me away, it’s very comfortable, and the theme song (“Hole in the Middle”, sung by Emily Jane White) instantly sets the mood.

Despite the game’s whimper at the end, I still recommend it to any fans of narrative adventures. The voice acting and the production values are just about flawless and I was immersed all the way through. And I will definitely play any sequel or new games by the highly talented Interior Night team.