Many different locations can make a great setting for an RPG. They can be big cities sprawling with a diverse population of people. They can be open worlds with sprawling landscapes that are open to limitless exploration. Back to the Dawn takes place almost entirely within a prison. While it seems like a setting with finite potential, it delivers far above its expectations.
The Role You Play
You mainly play as Thomas the Fox, a well-known TV journalist. In the process of investigating a new story, he is framed for drug charges and sentenced to prison. He can use his large breadth of skills to survive in prison. He can build up his talents around different attributes like strength or charisma and use them to complete various missions.
There is an alternate campaign as well, where you can play as an undercover agent named Bob the Panther, who is on a mission looking for a fugitive within the prison.
Plot
The story begins with Thomas the Fox investigating a news story about toxic waste dumping in the Skid Road area of the city of Boulderton. After a short meeting at a diner with an informant who tries to pay him to silence the story, he is framed for drug charges and sent to prison. With the help of his lawyer and longtime friend Reed, Thomas needs to find a way to gather evidence to prove his innocence, as well as figure out a way to deliver the story to the public in order to clear his name.
Gameplay
The gameplay in Back to the Dawn is very accommodating of your choice of playstyle. You can build up Thomas’s skills and attributes towards Strength, Intelligence, Charisma or Agility. This gives the player a lot of freedom to play through the game in a way that suits them. He can fight other prisoners to complete missions, charm them, steal from them, or talk and gather intel.
This also opens up a lot of different ending options depending on how you play and which skill you choose to put the most focus on.
Length
Back to the Dawn takes place over the course of 28 in-game days. The length of the game ultimately depends on how deep you dive into the events of each day. You can spend the days working to earn money, doing missions for other inmates, or just resting and skipping through the whole day. You are limited in what you can do during certain times of the day because you are scheduled to be in the prison, in the yard or in your cell during scheduled times. Â Overall, the game takes about 20 hours on average to finish on a single playthrough. You will likely want to play the game through more than once to come across the multiple endings.
Music
It’s definitely not an easy task to come up with a soundtrack for a game set mostly in a prison, but Back to the Dawn does the job. The music in the prison has a very homely vibe to establish that it is where everyone you encounter lives their day-to-day lives.
When getting into other less common parts of the game, such as the combat, the cutscenes and the less common areas. The tone will shift to make it sound more intense or dire as the situation demands.
Notable Features
The most standout feature of Back to the Dawn is how it is much bigger than it seems on the surface. At face value, it seems like you do little more than spend your days exploring the prison, doing work and socializing with the inmates one way or another. However, the game has surprising levels of depth. There are a lot of new areas to explore and the world within the game seems to grow more and more the further you get into it.
The Talking Parts
There is a lot you can do with the dialogue in this game. Nearly every character in the game has a friendship meter that increases the more you talk to them, trade with them or give gifts to them. Your friendship levels can also open up new missions, new items for trade and enable other opportunities as well.
There are also plenty of cutscenes in the main story of the game. They are well-accentuated with great character animation and unique graphics and mini-games to help carry the story along.
Z…We’ve Reached the End. Anything Else?
There are a lot of different endings that can be achieved in Back to the Dawn depending on how you play the game. They can be catered towards all kinds of gameplay styles and overall choices you make throughout the game. The issue is that a lot of the objectives you need to meet to unlock the different endings tend to get blurred together. You can complete multiple objectives, but be unsure what ending you’re actually working towards.
Additionally, because Back to the Dawn has a New Game+ feature, it’s more than likely that achieving multiple different endings will take several playthroughs to achieve.
Final Summary
Back to the Dawn is a great example of a game that delivers so much more than it promises. The gameplay, story and dialogue are all good at first impression and contain much more depth than you would ever expect. I would highly recommend this game to anyone.
Final Score: 9/10
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