Back to the Dawn GBAtemp review
Nintendo Switch 2
Product Information:
- Release Date (NA): March 5, 2026
- Release Date (EU): March 5, 2026
- Publisher: Clouded Leopard Entertainment
- Developer: Metal Head Games
- Genres: RPG
- ESRB Rating: Mature
- PEGI Rating: Sixteen years and older
- Also For: Computer, Nintendo Switch, PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S
Game Features:
Back to the Dawn is a prison breaking RPG that pits you against the clock in a rush to prove your innocence one way or another. With two characters available at the start and a third once you've completed it, the game brings grit, humor, interactivity and intelligence to an intriguing genre.
Initially playing as Thomas the Fox or Bob the Panther, you end up incarcerated in Boulderton Prison, where you have to learn the ropes as a new fish, and amalgamate with the general population, avoiding getting in trouble with the screws or making new gang-related enemies.
The premise of the game, which originally launched in 2023, is smart; observe the officers patrols, work within the daily schedule and gather tools needed to escape, without drawing any attention to your escapades. You also need to be mindful of your mental state, hygiene, assets and reputation as you fly under the radar, solving issue as well as your own demise, and integrate as an inmate.
Initially Interesting and Definitely Characterful
Throughout your travels around the prison system, you'll join gangs, run errands and buy, sell and trade away various items all with the goal of not getting caught or violating any major rules. Each gang has a plethora of missions for you to perform, and each one has a time limit, so you either complete the task and risk annoying an inmate, or fail the task and risk a beating from the various gang leaders.
There is an undulating story for each character you play as, and surrounding that is each NPCs story, which is presented as a file that contains details about their characters personality, traits, predicaments and temperament once you have befriended them. You can consult this if you need to find a particular type of person, with a particular set of skills for a quest. You need to level up your rep in order to talk to more important prisoners, and you'll need to get in with various groups to progress in various ways.
The internal hierarchy system is clever too, with primarily apex predators acting as the kingpins and gang leaders, and notoriously tricky animals acting as the comedic relief throughout. Timid animals can typically be shaken down quickly too, meaning you can kind of gauge your upcoming interactions based on the species you're dealing with. Prickly and toothed-up characters are also ones to watch out for as well.
There are a huge amount of themes dealt with here too, from delicate mental health to murderous passions. It's definitely well rounded and sensitive and serious where it needs to be.
I noticed a huge amount of Easter eggs within this game, primarily from the names and species of the animals you share the prison with. To give you a quick clue as to the range of references, there is Caesar the chimp, Bill the Buffallo, and a cheeky little Meerkat and Wart Hog duo who share a cell; hakuna matata!
RPG elements keep it flowing, but I found it tough to endure
Apart from being an RPG at its core, this game also forces you to clock watch and balance an overwhelming number of statistics relating to your characters health and well-being. Initially, I found the game to be quite interesting, but within an hour or so, I was already beginning to check out mentally, and I almost fell asleep to tell the truth.
Every day you get your supplies from your commissary which you can either squirrel away or sell, but you can also trade up your gear with others for items that increase your mental health through the ability to get a good nights sleep, or increases your physical health, to help you dominate in a fight. There is a massive array of items here, over 350 of them, and I liked the dynamic of procuring things to raise your status and abilities but it definitely takes a few playthroughs to realise what is actually worth keeping and what is better used to barter for friendship, status or other items along the line.
You have to ensure that you don't get caught with illegal items if your cell gets "randomly" searched too. I quite liked the idea of tampering with your cell's equipment to forge a path to escape, but the ride to that feels unbelievably drawn out, pushing you through the 21-day cycle, unable to speed up the process and get to the bit you actually want to engage with. The end goal is to get out, no doubt, but it feels like an extremely wavy trail to get from point A to point B, stuffed with things to slow down your progress.
Rolling a dice to advance with certain encounters is all well and good, but adapting to the outcome of situations as they unfurl felt more organic. While mini games spike your attention here and there, the core "gripping" ingredient for Back to the Dawn just never showed up for me. Perhaps I didn't invest myself deeply enough in the gritty-feeling noir-style Sylvanian Family-esque feel, but I personally could not endure the clock watching and juggling of stats and tasks.
In some instances I accepted a slew of tasks, and worked my way diligently through each fetch-quest and list, but then there came times where I was stuck for something to do until the clock rolled around. Sure, you can go to sleep or pray or do something to fill the time, which I imagine accurately depicts life behind bars, but I found it a little monotonous and repetitious in its delivery.
Each day presents its own events, which shakes things up, and the grind for cash to make exorbitantly priced purchases is real, but something just didn't mesh with my inclinations and I didn't find myself having fun. It was literally chore after chore, and an RNG-fueled count down to make my escape attempt and exonerate myself.
Back to the Dawn is not a terrible game by any stretch. In fact, it's extremely clever in a lot of the elements it brings to the prison-breaking genre, but I simply couldn't gel with it on a level that made me want to replay it. I can see how people could easily become engrossed and get a massive amount of value from this by replaying it, absorbing every morsel of information, buffing your player in the right directions, running every arc sightly more clued up while hoping for positive dice rolls, but personally, this formula is not at all engrossing or exhilarating enough for me.
If you're a fan of D&D-style dice throwing, inventory and personal statistical buff and nerf juggling, overarching time crunches and thankless mini-games, then this might be the RPG for you, so please, I implore you to give it a go for yourself, and decide if this is worthy of your time.
Verdict
- A fully fleshed out prison ecosystem
- Lots of missions and mini games
- Adapt and survive approach is neat
- Replay value for those willing to get stuck in with NG+
- Repetitive missions
- RNG plays a hefty role
- Juggling of buffs, nerfs & stats
