Back to the Dawn review

Back to the Dawn is a prison-based RPG that raises some tough questions. For example: how can you hope to fight a corrupt system that’s already robbed you of your freedom? What hope is there for rehabilitation when prisons are run for profit? And should you punch an innocent otter to advance your own personal quest for vengeance?

Otter-punching isn’t compulsory, I should add. But it’s one of the many choices you’ll face while mingling with the prison’s anthropomorphic animal inmates. Depending on which of the two scenarios you pick, you’re either a wrongly-imprisoned fox reporter or an undercover panther cop.

Each has their own story, but Back to the Dawn’s biggest pull is that there’s so much to do. You’re limited to just 21 in-game days, which I’ll grumble about later, but it’s stuffed with characters, side-activities and more. Just pottering around this pixel-art prison is a joy, despite the circumstances of your incarceration.

On my first playthrough, I threw the plot to the wind and went around stuffing my pockets with Irises. After selling them on the prison black market, along with a shiv I’d found in a bin, I’d got enough to pay my way to the weight-lifting area.

Why exercise? Because I’d just been put in the infirmary by an inmate. As Bob the Panther, you can hold your own in Back to Dawn’s turn-based combat. It turns out, however, that Thomas the Fox can’t take down a seven-foot crocodile, not without some serious levelling up. You’re a small fish in a big pond, and Back to the Dawn makes sure you know it, even throwing prison riots into the mix.

Not everyone’s a shark in Back to the Dawn, though. Each inmate has their own story and, even if you don’t befriend every one of them, you’ll get a glimpse into what they’ve got going on. From crypto bros to Lovecraftian cultists (yes, really), they all have their own problems. It’s up to you whether you add to their hassles. Your own main quest typically offers some challenging choices, with the ‘right’ path being more challenging.

Back to the Dawn’s mini-games, such as ironing shirts to earn cash, are mildly entertaining, but once you’ve completed each one three times, Thomas or Bob can auto-perform them. What does take a little more getting used to are the intricacies of your character’s well-being. Stamina and general health aside, you’ve got to keep an eye on cleanliness, mental health, long-term injury and more. You can dial the difficulty down but, on the whole, these elements stay the right side of frustrating.

With so many systems, activities and stories to engage with, Back to the Dawn is rife with possibilities. So it’s disappointing that you’re up against a 21-day timer, and even the smallest actions will take up a chunk of that time. It’ll likely take you multiple playthroughs to figure out the best combination of actions to escape the prison and unseat the corrupt mayor.

Since Back to the Dawn is essentially an RPG, it has more narrative structure than The Escapists, and some story beats have to happen. But I’d love to see developer Metal Head Games patch in an open-ended, timer-free mode that allows you truly appreciate the richness of the game’s content without constantly being against the clock.

Despite that gripe, there’s still so much to love about Back to the Dawn. It’s packed with personality and enough dilemmas, activities and quests to keep you hooked. Whether you’re training for a boxing match, plotting with (and against) your fellow inmates, or just chilling in the prison yard, it’s a sentence you’ll be happy to serve.