DAWN OF DEFIANCE - Challenge and survive the masters of Olympus | Review

Before we start the review, I would like to thank Traega Entertainment for sending us Dawn of Defiance and allowing us to create this content!

Mythological Plot of Dawn of Defiance

As we enter the world of Dawn of Defiance, we immerse ourselves as challengers of the Gods, transported by Charon (the ferryman of Hades, who carries the souls of the newly dead to the world of the dead) to Forgotten Crossroads with mysterious purposes - could it be a work of the Olympian Gods themselves? - It is in this esoteric scenario that you, the player, are placed to develop your skills and powers as a challenger in a plot planned by the Gods.

Despite this powerful context, the plot is not well explored during gameplay. The tasks that are given to you, at least in the beginning of the game, are not conveyed by any character, or even follow a narrative cohesion, they just exist and you fulfill them, as if it were a tutorial. Given that the game is in early access, this is, in a way, acceptable and even allows you to dream of a more well-constructed scenario in the future, after all, the theme (Greek mythology) in which Dawn of Defiance takes place is extremely rich and, being an open-world game, it allows for numerous paths to be taken. Overall, the game's narrative, in its current stage, is practically nonexistent and I feel it can be explored much better as development progresses.

World Building and Promising Mechanics in Dawn of Defiance

In contrast to the stage at which the narrative development is, the world of the game, the items, and the constructions, both visually and in terms of gameplay, present themselves in a slightly more solid way and, in my conception, show they are going in the right direction. With so many survival games in the current market, it's hard to talk about something totally innovative, however, Dawn of Defiance brings some things that can be said are not conventional or cliché.

The first point is something we have already mentioned here, the theme that surrounds the game. I particularly love Greek mythology and, being one of the ancient cultures for which we have more recorded information, I think it can be explored and build a very rich scenario around it. A game that has a well-built universal foundation has great potential to be cohesive and solid. Now, it will depend on how the game's cosmos unfolds over time...

The second point would be the gameplay and hunting system, which is a crucial point within the game. A large part of the resources comes from this activity, so there is no way to escape from it. If I noticed correctly while playing, the more hits you give to the little animal, the more you "worsen" the quality of the animal's carcass. And, of course, the worse the carcass, the worse the spoils you will obtain. This not only affects which items you can obtain, but also the quantity of them. So, the game benefits the player who has good aim with the bow and can score critical hits on the animal (headshots).

In addition, normally in survival games you skin your hunt right there in the field of action itself, and with that, you obtain the spoils. In Dawn of Defiance, you need to take the carcass to a butchery station to be able to separate the parts and obtain the usable resources. In general, I really liked the hunting system and I think that by adding more content (adding more animals and more craftable items that we can make with the spoils from them), it can reach excellence.

Another point that I feel adds a lot to a survival game, although it is not innovative, is the life skill leveling system. I feel it adds a lot to the game's scaling and there is no better feeling than being able to loot resources infinitely and still be able to level up your skill levels with it. In addition to being satisfying, a well-elaborated life skill system allows rich leveling paths, making the player want to dedicate themselves to certain skills not only for the resource, alone. Once again, because it is an early access game that has just been released, we have very embryonic systems in the game, but from what has already been outlined by the developers, it is possible to create good expectations for a powerful survival game.

A Fluid Path, but Scant

Now, I would like to briefly address the other fields of Dawn of Defiance gameplay. Starting with combat, I feel that I am going down the same path as the other points that I have positively addressed in the text so far: I still feel that it is a simple system and needs to develop better, especially when it comes to combat tactics and variabilities. In this sense, it lacks some attack or possible combo, as it still consists of attack, dodge, and defense only. However, overall, it is a fluid combat, which is an extremely positive point, after all, the vast majority of games fail due to the lack of fluidity in combat, which is fundamental to be fun. So once again, it points to an interesting path, but I feel it lacks a little more content, mainly because in terms of refinement, the combat is already going very well!

As for the base management, resource collection, and crafting gameplay, I will opine that the game goes in the same direction as combat! I didn't want to keep repeating the same things, but that's what it is... It's fluid, not buggy, they work well, overall, and they have functional systems. However, they lack more content and options to explore. Regarding the bases, the constructions are very nice and have some things different from conventional survival games because of the theme of Greek mythology, such as the ambrosia powder extraction table.

The crafting system cannot innovate much unless you go for something more immersive like Green Hell or The Forest... Overall, it works very well. And, finally, resource collection is very pleasant and satisfying, especially since the actions of cutting trees and mining are not static, and the resource you hit, suffers visual damage (the tree, for example, with each axe blow is cut/hurt until it falls). Once again - repeating again - it just needs to add a little more content.

Impressive Graphics, but Audio still needs refinement

In short, my opinion is very clear that Dawn of Defiance, in terms of gameplay and mechanics, has great potential to reach excellence and this will depend on how things will develop from then on. Now, I will move on to what I thought about the more artistic and audiovisual part.

The graphics, even in a very early stage of early access, already look very beautiful and incredibly optimized. This is quite rare nowadays, where most games are released in a very unpolished way. The world is very beautiful, especially the turquoise blue waters (very much like the tourism photos of Greece), and the ruins left by the Olympians, although scarce, are also very nice. The armor and items also fit very well with the theme and are very beautiful.

As for the sound, I feel it is a field that is a little simpler than the graphics, but still reasonable. The soundtracks are mixed in a way that I don't even notice their presence, to be honest, but at the same time I know they are there because they fill the void of silence. The times I noticed them was when combat started and then there was a switch to an action soundtrack. The sound effects, although simple, fulfill their roles and convey the message they should. The only point I would like to comment on that deviates a bit from being reasonable in a negative way is the audio geometrization of the game. Many times when I was hunting, I had difficulties understanding where I heard the animal noises from and, in that sense, I feel that the spatialization of the sound effects was not so precise.

Finally, Dawn of Defiance has great potential, especially in exploring the rich theme of Greek mythology and in building an intriguing open world. However, it still lacks a more developed and cohesive narrative. Although the gameplay, hunting systems, and non-combat skills present promising elements with potential for excellence, it lacks content to sustain a complete and richer experience. Visually, the game is already impressive, but the audio still needs further refinement. As it is an early access game, there is room for growth, and its future depends on how these elements will be improved over time.

Remember that this review was done while Dawn of Defiance is still in the Early Access stage. Also, the game was played on the Windows platform (PC) via Steam.