Back to the Dawn review: An ambitious social RPG with endless potential
As a fan of games like Thief, Hitman, and Dishonored, I’m a real stickler for sandbox games that are reactive to your decisions and reward you for creative problem solving. It’s a large reason why I value the immersive sim genre so much, because it can encourage countless repeat playthroughs without ever seeing the same content twice.
I don’t necessarily believe Metal Head Games’ Back to the Dawn fits the typical characteristics of an immersive sim, but it certainly scratches that itch for those who enjoy the type of emergent gameplay the genre is known for.
The premise is pretty simple. You’re in Boulderton Prison, locked away after being framed for a crime you didn’t commit. And you need to find a way to get out. Over the course of 21 in-game days, you have the freedom to choose what you do, how you do it, while adapting to any changes that interfere with your plans.
Maybe you’ll spend each day working on clearing your name. Or perhaps your time is better spent finding an escape route out of there. Or maybe you don’t even want to do that, and instead focus on working your way up one of the prison’s three gangs to become one of the toughest inmates in Boulderton.
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At launch there are two protagonists you can play as, Thomas or Bob, and both stories play out rather differently to each other. Thomas is a journalist, and not much of a fighter, so challenges typically come down to using your wits and cunning to try and solve them. Bob, on the other hand, is an undercover cop with a mission. He’s able to solve problems with his fists.
For each character, you have three weeks until you hit your arbitrary deadline. For Thomas, it’s when the new mayor gets elected, and for Bob it’s the deadline of his mission. Both characters' stories play out very differently, and they're not just simple reskins of each other. There are different character interactions, quests, and locations you'll go to throughout each playthrough. As for whose story is more interesting, I ended up finding Thomas' to be the better narrative. With us living in a time where freedom of the press is under threat, and journalists are being targeted and silenced for reporting on global injustices, this aspect of the story felt like a really important one for Metal Head Games to feature front and centre.
Most actions live by the roll of a D&D-style dice, where you need to hit a certain threshold to determine if it was a successful action. It gives Back to the Dawn a sense of luck and strategy, where your success isn’t just down to skill, but also encourages you to adapt to another solution if your dice roll fails.
The 21-day limit adds an element of urgency to each narrative, where you’re pretty much under constant time pressure to use each day to the fullest. Money is important, so of course spending each morning earning a little cash goes a long way, but it might come at the cost of not being able to build up as many relationships as you want to.
It feels similar to time-based systems in games like Dead Rising and Pathologic, where certain events trigger on set days and times, regardless of your involvement. As a fan of both those games, the time system in Back to the Dawn gives me the same kind of enjoyment of trying to use each day to its fullest potential.
On the other hand, it’s pretty much expected that you won’t get the best ending for either protagonist on the first playthrough. Back to the Dawn is the kind of game that relishes repeat playthroughs, and the presence of New Game+ confirms that this is intentional on the part of Metal Head Games.
For example, I barely got halfway through Bob’s story on my first playthrough before hitting the bad ending. The game forces you to come to terms with the fact that you need to learn the prison layout, how to acquire certain items, and how each system and mechanic functions before you can even think about finishing either protagonists’ story.
It's this kind of system that some players will hate, while others will love. I’m on the fence. I enjoy being under the time pressure and planning out each day as it comes, but a full 21-day run takes around 10-hours to complete. It can feel like a bit of a waste if you get to the final few days and still have a lot more story to go that you won’t beat it in time.
However, given the amount of variation and different subplots that can unfold over the course of a playthrough, it doesn’t feel like you’re constantly repeating yourself over and over just to try and get an ending to the story. For example, Thomas apparently has about a dozen ways he can escape prison. I haven’t found all of them yet, but each one is different enough that you’re going to different objectives and tasks each time you decide to replay the game.
The “Memory Recall” mechanic is also very handy for saving time, as it essentially functions like a loading system where you’re expected to go back to earlier moments in the game to make better use of your time. However, you can only reload autosaves from the previous 24 in-game hours, so making a mistake early on and not rectifying it until much later will cost you time.
Alongside both Thomas and Bob, there are 46 other inmates with their own unique backstories, personalities, and goals. Over the course of your three weeks inside the prison, you’ll get to know these individuals and genuinely grow attached to them. Back to the Dawn’s strongest writing comes in making you care about these characters, and you end up becoming incredibly invested in their stories.
And while I really enjoyed this aspect of the writing in Back to the Dawn, I couldn’t help but feel like its female characters deserved better. For a game set in a men’s prison, there obviously aren’t too many opportunities to include women in the narrative, but Metal Head Games has done its best to include them in the story where possible.
There’s Beth, the doctor who runs the infirmary who will patch you up if needed, and Maggie, Thomas’ ex-girlfriend who you can try to repair your relationship with. And neither of them really feel like they have the same complexity as their male counterparts.
For example, when calling up Maggie from the payphone, the screen cuts to black as soon as you start the conversation. There’s never a point where we really get her perspective on everything, and there’s no complexity to her. Your relationship with Beth, on the other hand, while remaining strictly professional at first, can also go the same way. You can write love letters to either of them, where building up a romance with them provides you with benefits inside the prison. It's almost like the game wants you to pursue them as romantic interests, otherwise their character development stalls there.
Meanwhile, we get glimpses of other female characters throughout the story. At one point, a character on the outside goes to a strip club to gather information, and we get a small amount of interactions with female sex workers who don't get a huge amount of screentime. Again, it all just feels like set dressing, as most of these characters aren’t important to the story, nor are they given enough opportunities to develop further.
And this is where a problem lies. It feels like these characters were written in a way where the only roles they take are ones where they are potentially desirable or ‘useful’ to the player. Their placement in the story is to be sexual or available to the protagonist, and Back to the Dawn doesn’t seem interested in developing them further than that.
There's plenty more I could say about Back to the Dawn, but we'd be here all day if I wrote down my every single thought. For better or worse, it's a fascinating game that has stuck with me a lot longer than I thought it would have, and provides a solid foundation for the prison escape RPG of your dreams.
When the writing works, it really works. And when it doesn’t, it painstakingly doesn’t. From the looks of it, it seems as though Metal Head Games is planning for further expansions later down the line. I hope this gives the developer an opportunity to build on what makes the game good, while improving upon some of its more unsteady aspects.
Pros: Well-crafted social mechanics, player freedom encouraged, enjoyable protagonists
Cons: Under-utilised side characters, time limit pressure
For fans of: Hitman, The Escapists, Disco Elysium
7/10: Very Good
Back to the Dawn is set to release on 18th July on PC (version tested). A review code was provided by the publisher. Read a guide to our review scores here.
Topics: Indie Games, Reviews