Have you ever watched a horror movie and yelled at the woman for tripping over a tree root? Or how about the dumb jock who investigates a mysterious sound right after two of his friends have been killed? Do you wish the protagonist leave the dumb blonde behind and save herself? Well, welcome to Until Dawn, a new PS4 exclusive that is a wonderful horror movie that you can actually play. Think of it as a choose-your-own-adventure horror movie.

Until Dawn was written by Larry Fessenden and Graham Reznick, both huge horror fans and horror filmmakers. Their love of horror is clearly displayed with the amount of horror classics that serve as this game’s basis. I won’t go over all of them, as some give away some heavy spoilers. But the early ones range from Friday the 13th to The Evil Dead. The story line starts off cliched, but that’s what makes it fun. A group of nine friends head to a cabin in the woods (although this cabin is much fancier and has many more rooms to explore than the one in The Evil Dead series) and is hunted by a masked killer. This cast of characters include all of your typical horror movie cliches: the bitch, the slut, the virgin (in this case, she’s vegan too), the nerd, the comedian, the jock, Mr. Popular, and the twins. But the first thing I noticed about this game is the fact that I don’t hate any of the characters (well maybe the bitch, a little). They are all well written and feel very real. I found myself really caring for the relationships between the characters and fighting to keep them going. This may also be an effect of the great cast this game has, which includes Hayden Panettiere (Scream 4), Rami Malek (TV’s Mr Robot) and Brett Dalton (TV’s Agents of Shield). The second thing I noticed is that this wasn’t some passive movie I was watching–it was my decisions that were keeping the group alive. This gave my decisions more weight, more consequence–there is no restart button.

Just like any good horror movie, the game starts with the hook (also, this paragraph contains very minor spoilers for the first 10 minutes of the game, so it won’t affect anything you won’t read on the back cover anyways). The friends are playing a prank on one of the twins, pretending that Mr Popular is into her, while the jock, slut and bitch all hide in the room watching. Of course, their laughter gives them away, she freaks out, and runs out into the snowy night. Meanwhile, her sister is in the kitchen and notices someone stalking around outside. Your first choice is given: do I wake my drunken brother or find the others? I chose to find the others, in which I learned of what they did to my sister, and followed her out into the snowy darkness. Do I risk the shortcut or take the safe route? Follow the footsteps or the noise? Further on, the footsteps or the shadow disappearing in the trees? The game is smart, and it isn’t so easy knowing if you are following the killer or your sister. However, I do find her, but something has found us as well. We run and reach the edge of a cliff, and fall. I manage to grab her hand and the edge of the cliff with my other hand. A shadowy figure appears offering me it’s hand. Should I drop my sister and save my own life, or hold onto her and risk us both dying? Well, the first time I played, I stayed loyal, and we both plummeted to our death.

So like any good video gamer, I reset the game (no save points, remember?). It was only 10 minutes after all. I’m ruthless, and decided to happily let my sister fall to her death so I can survive. So I relived the prank, the man outside, the search through the snow, and reached the cliff again. This time I let go over hand instantly and she hit the rocks like a rag doll–blood everywhere. So I reached my hand up to the shadowy man, but the cliff gave way and I still fell to my death. Guess some decisions have to happen the same way no matter the choice.

Since then I have learned that the game utilizes a butterfly effect system. For those who didn’t see that lovely Ashton Kutcher movie, the theory follows that a single flap of a butterfly’s wings can create a monsoon on the other side of the planet.  In more applicable terms, there are key choices throughout the game that drastically change how the story plays out. Do I show the creepy old mask I just found to my girlfriend or I put it on and scare her? Do I take the side of my friend or my girl? Do I shoot the cute squirrel or not? All these choices matter, but some more so than others. The important choices are aided by different totems–these totems offer very small glimpses of guidance, a warning, or a premonition of how that character may die. But even seeing a glimpse of how you will die may not be enough to prevent it if you’ve already begin down that path.

Finally, after playing for about an hour, the game cuts to scene of a doctor interviewing a patient sitting across from him (again very minor spoilers in this paragraph). This patient wears a baseball cap and gloves, so it is unclear who it is. But the doctor begins asking the patient to identify if a picture of a cottage with a scarecrow in front makes you feel fine or uneasy. I informed him that I did not like the scarecrow and it felt uneasy (this is a horror game after all). Then he asks if he removes the scarecrow, would I stay in the cottage. Yes, I would. What if it was haunted? Yes, I still would? Well you are afraid of a scarecrow, but don’t believe in ghosts–you are obviously not being fully honest with me–let’s hope you are more honest playing the game (did he just break the fourth wall? why yes, he did!). So cut to my second interview with him. He begins asking me what scares me more. The topics range from gore, to crows, to needles, to zombies, to cockroaches, to crowds, to snakes, to heights. As we narrow it down, he settles on three things for me: needles, clowns, and spiders. Now, I wonder… Will this come back to haunt me, Cabin in the Woods style? Did I select my own instrument of destruction? Well guess you’ll just have to play to find out!

I’m eager to start my second play through to try wildly different choices to see where the game takes me–how different this game can be with new choices. The nods to classic horror are numerous (even the cinema room in the cabin his filled with horror posters). The game feels like a movie but in game format–the actors do a superb job and are not wooden or flat. The animation helps solidify the link between the performance and the character model, and the hauntingly beautiful cabin set against the snowy wilderness adds a frightening locale. The story is well crafted, with humorous dialogue, twists, gore, and even some delightful jump-scares! Just wait until you make your first horror-movie faux pas, and then maybe you won’t be so tough on the next movie you watch.

Horror is a medium that is meant to be interacted with, to be immersed in. This is already apparent in interactive haunts and immersive horror theater, and Until Dawn is the first step that video games have taken into this horrifying new future.