As Dusk Falls

The gameplay of As Dusk Falls revolves around interactive storytelling, as well as novel techniques used to gauge consensus among players for pivotal narrative decisions when playing co-operatively in its multiplayer modes. Its narrative is a multi-generational story about "two families whose trajectories collide in the Arizona desert in 1998."

In 1998, the Walker family—Vince, his wife Michelle, six-year-old daughter Zoe, and father Jim—are relocating to St. Louis, Missouri. On their way through Two Rock, Arizona they are involved in a car accident with the Holt brothers, Tyler, Dale, and Jay, and their car is left immobile. Unable to proceed, the family rent a room at a nearby motel, the Desert Dream.

The Holt brothers arrive at the house of Sheriff Dante Romero, intending to steal the hundreds of thousands of dollars in his safe. The youngest brother, Jay, also takes a book on birds because he likes them. The Sheriff arrives home unexpectedly and the brothers flee, but Romero sees their truck and assigns his entire force to locating it. The brothers arrive to and take shelter in the Desert Dream, taking the Walkers, owner Joyce, and handyman Paul hostage, intending to hide until dusk.

As Dusk Falls was announced on 23 July 2020 at the Xbox Games Showcase event.

Development was led by creative director Caroline Marchal, who was previously employed by Quantic Dream as a designer for the company's titles Heavy Rain and Beyond: Two Souls.

As Dusk Falls received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to review aggregator website Metacritic. Fellow review aggregator OpenCritic assessed that the game received strong approval, being recommended by 71% of critics. Many critics lauded its storytelling, art style, voicework, co-op mode, and the emotional impact of narrative choices offered to players, whereas criticism was directed mainly towards its climax and clunky controls.

Michael Goroff of Electronic Gaming Monthly wrote favorably of the game's competently directed scenes, evocative painting-based art style, ability to view alternate paths, implementation of co-op mode, and immersive storytelling, but disliked the undercut tension of the narrative's second half and the cliffhanger ending. Robert Purchese of Eurogamer called it "the best interactive movie game I've played", citing the multiplayer component, photoreal comic strip art style, effective key frames, impressive voicework, character development, flashback-based storytelling, mature depiction of heavy subject matter, and TV-inspired presentation as its strengths, concluding, "[As Dusk Falls] shows how well games can handle stories and themes like these when done with care and understanding, and how well it can pull us into the lives of others and invest us in the decisions they have to make."