Horror shooters and action horror Short horror

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

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A rollercoaster ride from hell, in VR, with a gun in each hand.

Platforms: PlayStation, VR
Price: Paid
Rated: 4.25 of 5 from about 18,000 ratings on the PlayStation Store; Metacritic 72 from 51 critics
Length: about 2 hours
Players: 1
Controls: PS VR headset and PS Camera; two PS Move controllers or a DUALSHOCK 4
Made by: Supermassive Games
Released: 2016

On PlayStation: one of the PlayStation horror games.

No. 15 of the amusement park horror games · No. 21 of the asylum horror games · No. 26 of the hotel horror games · No. 20 of the horror games set in mines

PlayStation Store

What frightens Strapped into a rollercoaster ride from hell in VR, you shoot your way through seven levels of nightmares: masked clowns in a rain-soaked fairground, a pig-headed butcher in the dark, staring dolls in an attic, while ducking and dodging what is thrown at you from every side.
Content: jumpscares, gore, strong language, motion sickness.

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood is a PS VR horror shooter from Supermassive Games, the team behind Until Dawn. You ride a rollercoaster through seven levels of nightmares, shooting the monsters that come at you from every angle and ducking what is thrown your way.

About Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

Until Dawn: Rush of Blood was made by Supermassive Games and published by Sony Interactive Entertainment for PlayStation VR in October 2016. It is a spin-off of the PS4 horror game Until Dawn and borrows its places and nightmares, but it is a different kind of game: a rail shooter on a rollercoaster.

You are strapped into a cart on a ride from hell. A gun in each hand, with other weapons such as a shotgun along the way, you blast through hordes of enemies and monsters coming at you from all angles, duck and dodge what is thrown at you, and pick between branching paths on the track. There are seven levels, each its own coaster, and global leaderboards to climb.

It starts in a horror-themed carnival and grows darker as you go: masked clowns step out of the rain beside your cart, a pig-headed creature lunges into your torchlight, pale dolls with bleeding eyes wait in an attic, and later rides pass through a hotel, an old sanatorium and the mines under a mountain. Between levels, short scenes hint at whose nightmare this is, and fans of Until Dawn will recognise more than one face.

The fear is in VR's closeness: things leap at your face and come from behind, and the store warns that VR games may cause motion sickness, which a rollercoaster tests hard. It is rated M by the ESRB for blood and gore, intense violence and strong language.

A run of the main story takes about two hours, and the levels are made to be replayed on harder settings and other paths. It suits PS VR owners who want a loud, scary arcade game and Until Dawn fans curious about its world. Critics were mixed to warm, with a Metacritic score of 72.

How to play Until Dawn: Rush of Blood

Buy it on the PlayStation Store; you need the original PS VR and the PlayStation Camera, on a PS4 or a PS5.
Hold two PS Move controllers, one gun in each hand, or a DUALSHOCK 4.
Ride the rollercoaster and shoot the monsters and targets that appear around you.
Duck and lean to dodge obstacles, and choose your path at the track's forks.

Screenshots

Clown-masked figures with glowing red eyes advance through a dark, rainy yard as the player aims two pistols

A bloodied pig-headed creature looms in the player's flashlight beam in a dark room

A masked clown lurches toward the player's two pistols in a dark, rainy room lit by candles on an altar

Two glowing orange pistols aimed down a dark rail track at masked, red-eyed enemies and a lunging clown

A giant toothy clown head bursts through a wall in a dark stairwell as the player raises two pistols

The player fires a shotgun at a boarded-up door, splinters and smoke filling a dark wooden corridor

Pale dolls with bleeding black eyes sit in a dark attic, one holding a camcorder, as the player aims two guns

Tips

Try the free trial first if you are prone to motion sickness.
Look all around you; enemies come from the sides and behind.
Replay levels and take different paths to find what you missed and climb the leaderboards.
Two PS Move controllers let you aim each gun on its own, which suits the dual-wield shooting.