Survivors of the Dawn Demo Preview
It seems like every week, there is a new twin-stick shooter or Vampire Survivors-like game to play. Of course, the moment you play a single one or two, that is all Steam recommends for you until the end of time. What is remarkable is that every single one of them, even ones that seem like a copy/paste job, are all highly addictive and can provide hours upon hours of gameplay. Sometimes though, a new one pops up with an original idea and you are floored. Survivors of the Dawn may just be that game.
Developed by indieGiant, Survivors of the Dawn is a run-based roguelike bullet heaven (yes, heaven, not hell). Like most games in the genre, you pick your class (there are two in the demo, Blondie and Goliath), get dropped in, and have to survive waves of enemies as you wander around a map. Kill enemies, collect XP, level up, and kill some more. How is this any different?
As you roam around the map, you begin to realize it is not as aimless as you may be used to in other games. In the distance, you can see different colored stars and as you get closer, they become full circles that you can stand within. Each has different objectives such as the red ones requiring you to kill X number of enemies or the blue salvage ones just requiring you to remain within the bounds of the circle until the inner circle fills up. Easier said than done. If you have played any game of this genre, you know that standing still is not usually a good strategy. Sometimes though, the risk is worth the reward.
All are completely optional but provide significantly better rewards to aid you in your fight. One such reward is the choice of passive abilities like executing enemies at or below 10% health or restoring 1 HP for every 10 enemies killed at the cost of 30% overall health. There are even shops to be found where those same passive abilities can be purchased.
While you do start with a single weapon based on the class picked, leveling up through killing the hordes of enemies will enhance your arsenal. Each level presents you with a choice of 3 abilities. The boring ones (think of these as the defensive choices) include more health, increased speed, or increased experience earned (leveling faster = more abilities to pick). As far as the “fun” choices, these range from homing missiles and ballistic knives to kamikaze spiders or lasers that rotate around you cutting down enemies as they approach. Every skill, passive and active, can be leveled up repeatedly for stacking bonuses so you have some freedom in how you want to play.
A huge difference from the many “clones” out there is that you only need to survive 3 minutes on each map here versus the 20-30 minutes other games include to “win.” After lasting the 3 minutes, you are presented with a map to choose your next destination. You can quit the game and pick right back up at this point if you only have time for a shorter gaming session. The further you progress, the more hectic and overpowering the hordes become so you still get that similar ramp-up you would in a 30-minute survival session but just in smaller doses with some freedom of how it will happen.
Survivors of the Dawn enters a very crowded (overcrowded?) genre. Solution: innovate. A demo is out now with an early access launch happening on November 6. Current plans for the game include more weapon classes, synergies, randomization, and playable characters. It is unknown at this time if the demo will remain when early access does launch so get a move on trying it out before the launch in a few weeks. I know I will be day 1 and am very excited to watch this game improve over time.
