Until Dawn is one of gaming's greatest love letters to horror movies. It conforms to and subverts the slasher paradigm so well that it often feels like playing through a long-lost classic film from the sub-genre's early-'80s heyday. It's creepy, atmospheric, gory and occasionally goofy.

The game is at its most shocking, however, when it abandons the slasher conceit entirely, and we learn what the real terror of Blackwood Mountain is.

While the writing and plot might have been a little hokey, there's something about being able to share a story. So you're looking for narrative experiences for a party or to kill some time with a friend, here's 15 games worth checking out.

Some horror games are best played alone at midnight. Other ones are meant to be played in a room full of friends with a six pack of beer. Here's a few of the latter kind.

One of the games shown in Sony's PlayStation VR montage at E3 this year was 'The Inpatient', a a VR horror game by the studio behind the 2015 horror hit Until Dawn. Eagle-eyed fans were quick to notice that a building featured prominently in one scene was actually one of the main locations from Until Dawn: The Blackwood Pines Sanatorium. Supermassive later confirmed that yes, this game is in fact a prequel to the earlier teen horror.

A new original game from Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games was quietly dropped at the beginning of Sony's pre-show. It's called Hidden Agenda, and it's described as "a gritty crime thriller" supporting one to five players. The best part is, the devs looked at how people were playing Until Dawn and, with their next game, worked those trends into the gameplay of the new title.

There are plenty of Until Dawn fans at Kotaku, both in the Australian office and around the world. But the game wasn't always the unusually good spoopy party game for the PS4.

Alien Isolation is one of my favourite games ever. I tell people this all the time, I discuss the game in depth, I recommend it to everyone -- only, I've never actually finished it.

The game is just so long -- which isn't a bad thing when you like a game, but with a genre like horror, sometimes shorter is better. In fact, the genre is just crawling with amazing, contained experiences, many of them free to download: here are my favourite six.

If you're a fan of Until Dawn and you're anything like me, you've probably already finished the game a couple of times. You've saved the teens, you've killed the teens, you've collected everything there is to collect. Or maybe you haven't got around to playing it at all yet. Well, there's a new way to enjoy it all over again -- or even for the first time -- and it hinges around getting a group of your friends together.

After the traditional quiet periods of June and July were broken up with some surprise indie darlings, including Her Story, Rocket League and the first launch of Fallout Shelter, August had a lot to live up to. And while it didn't deliver on raw numbers, there were a few surprises that definitely caught people's attention.

Some bad games are really fun to play. Games like Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls and Gears Of War are ridiculous and over the top and sometimes just straight out bad, but something about them still makes them entertaining to play. I expected Until Dawn to be one of these -- but as it turns out, Until Dawn is not a bad game.

If you've been holding off on picking up a gaming-related Christmas present -- specifically a console or a game -- then EB's Mad Monday sale will probably tip you over the edge. There's some offers here that are too good to ignore. Let's check them out.

The idea of choice in video games has been touted as a desirable feature for some time, and even though your choices don't always have meaning, it doesn't look like they'll be going away any time soon. As much as some games give you the choice to be delightfully evil, most people will still feel the urge to do the 'right' thing. Just this week, many have been intrigued by Fallout 4's 'sarcastic' dialogue option -- while not everyone actually dares to press it. So here for your benefit, I've rounded up some of the top moments where making the 'wrong' decision actually results in a more interesting experience.

Video: Until Dawn developer Supermassive Games is bringing an on-rails rollercoaster horror game to PlayStation VR called Until Dawn: Rush of Blood. Sony's said its VR headset should launch sometime next year.

Until Dawn is one of the shorter games released this year, with its 'hours until dawn' episode structure limiting the amount of time you can actually put into each playthrough. The game spans around ten hours of in-game time, with the average playthrough usually matching this quite closely in real time. For completionists, the game can be upwards of twelve hours -- but it turns out that Until Dawn can also be speedrun -- in the worst way possible.

Well, not quite, but it's as close as you can get to playing the game without a PS4. This is the Until Dawn binaural trailer -- a kind of choose-your-own-adventure that's played through a series of interlinked YouTube videos. Just like in the game, you're given a choice between two options -- such as running or hiding, going outside or going upstairs -- and just like the game you could potentially die at every turn.

Between street fighters, zombie survivors and tomb raiders, being a video game character is dangerous work. They go through hell and back, so it doesn't really make sense for them to come out looking squeaky clean on the other side. If you're looking to take your cosplay to the next level, look no further -- a little blood, grime and dirt is all it takes.

Until Dawn is a mixed bag of high-end visuals, horror, teen drama and quick time events, so of course it's brimming with material for Honest Game Trailers to sink its teeth into. If you were waiting for Smosh Games to take a look, it's time to stop your digital loitering. Warning: The video contain spoilers for the game!

Movie nights are a big deal in my wife’s family, partly because she has such a big family.

There are five brothers and sisters. Two husbands (myself included) and one wife. Then there are the parents.

There are also children. Dear lord the children. All seven of them. My wife is in the process of carrying number eight. What have we done?

When Graham Reznick and Larry Fessenden landed the gig to write Until Dawn in 2011, it seemed easy enough: write some dialogue! Known for working on horror films like House of the Devil and The Innkeepers, the two writers had actually taken on a way bigger task than they thought -- they were signing on to write two games over four years.