I haven't played many games of this type. I started Heavy Rain years ago but never finished it. Certainly, I haven't played a horror game like this.
While I generally liked the concept, I found the execution to be flawed. The graphics were good and it was generally fun, but many aspects of the game were just too clunky, at least for a first run through.
That begins with the controls. The characters move awkwardly which tends to take you out of the story. They suddenly look very artificial and abruptly stop or get stuck easily. It's often not clear where you can and can't go - I could clearly see gaps but then the character just wouldn't walk through them - an invisible barrier. The interactivity is also very limited - all you can do is walk and sometimes pick things up or open things. You can sort of direct your head and torch if you're carrying one but the camera angle is mostly out of your control.
Picking things up is slow and awkward. It really seems pointless. You have to hold R2 and then move the right analog stick just to pick up a photo and look at the back of it. It was hard to get the timing right so I felt like I kept having to wait. There's no challenge to it but it always took unnecessarily long making me wonder why they bothered. The same goes for opening or closing latches and pushing things - you never know which direction to push in so you have to patiently wait for the little animation to tell you. There was little consistency so it just gets kind of annoying and tedious.
It wasn't clear what totems and clues are actually meant to do. I had no idea how to adjust my behaviour based on them. Are they just there to be collected randomly or what? In general, I felt unsure as to whether I was meant to explore or not. On the one hand, it felt like I needed to hurry to avoid getting killed - it is a horror game after all. But on the other hand, I wanted to explore. But exploring wasn't particularly rewarded and was sometimes a complete waste of time.
Too many parts of the game lock you in once you make a choice. For example, I'd decide to try opening a door and it would lead to a cut-scene and chase sequence and I wouldn't be able to go back. I usually like to be thorough and Until Dawn made that impossible as you never know what will trigger an irreversible progression in the story.
There are many quick time events (QTEs) which I didn't mind but I think some tutorials near the start could have been helpful, just to get used to them. For example, maybe have some rock climbing or running where your characters can't get hurt and there's no threat yet. That would help develop the characters and let you get the hang of how the QTEs are used, repeating it until you feel comfortable. It also wasn't clear what difference other choices made, like should I go the safe way or try to take a risky short-cut? What difference does it make? It ends up feeling random. I would have liked a tutorial giving at least a rough idea of what the difference is.
Another thing you have to do is keep completely still at times. I liked this concept, especially for a horror game when a scary monster or bad guy is right near you, but again I would have appreciated some tutorials or practice opportunities. I like that the controller vibrates - I tried leaving it on a flat surface once or twice and found that it didn't work, so you do need to hold it. However, there were occasions where I was completely still but still failed these events. I never had a chance to test it out so I didn't know how the feedback worked. The screen would show that I was moving away from the centre but I couldn't tell which way. It just felt random and unfair. This ended up killing one of the few characters I liked so it cheapened the game for me.
The story is not particularly deep, but it's decent as horror movies go. Still, I would have preferred more interesting characters and less cliches but oh well. Having a few annoying characters is okay because you don't care when they die. But the problem was that it felt random who survived. It's not problem solving or karma, it's just arbitrarily based on the choices you made. One character died because I chose to investigate something. I didn't think it would be irreversible. I thought they'd be a bit more careful and I thought I had the chance to save someone else. The game tricks you rather than rewarding when you try to be nice.
I may give the game another play at some point, but I really think it needed to have 1) consequence-free tutorials or practice sessions near the start, 2) meaningful choices that logically or morally connect to outcomes rather than randomly and 3) a more solid story and originality with a better pay-off at the end. Still, I enjoyed Until Dawn including all the gruesome deaths and unexpected twists. The QTEs worked better than the other aspects as at least they involved skill and it made sense how they affected what happens.