Back to the Dawn

Steam Reviews

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• Recommended Posted January 31, 2026 on Steam The core concept of the game is pretty simple: explore a prison and execute an escape within 21 days. While there is a time limit on your victory, the game is pretty lenient: time only passes when you actually perform an action, so you aren't punished if you have to backtrack or need some time to decide what you want to do. There's a lot of decision-making in each day: do you want to keep your head down and earn some money with prison jobs, build up relationships with other inmates, make a toothbrush shiv and stab that loser Diego? The 46 fellow inmate NPCs add a lot of life to this game. They all have their own stories going on, which you can learn about by eavesdropping on their conversations or bonding with them. There's a good variety between them; some of the inmates are violent whackjobs, some had compelling reasons for the crimes they committed, and others are just kinda dumb. Each one also gives you a different bonus when you max out your relationship with them, which can add a bit of variety to each playthrough since you can't make friends with everyone. My favorite feature, though, is that there are two different playable characters you can select which massively changes how the plot unfolds. As a panther, Bob has night vision, superior athletics, and combat training that Thomas the fox completely lacks at the start of the game. However, his mission has quite a few complications that limit his escape options and he's already joined a prison gang which prevents him from getting rewards from the other 2. Thomas the fox, meanwhile, starts relatively unsuited for prison life, but is able to do jobs for any of the 3 prison gangs and has some support from his ex-girlfriend Maggie who can mail over items and money to help you out. The best part is, the character you don't play as still shows up in the prison as an inmate, and you can see parts of their story unfold in the background. The only real criticism I have is that once you've done a playthrough as both characters, the replayability is a bit awkward. A lot of the escape paths require you to do similar things, and the NPC schedules and events are the same from playthrough to playthrough. There is a lot of variability to the game, but a lot of it happens toward the end, so experiencing other endings if often best experienced by loading a few days earlier and just escaping through a different route you found. There's a NG+ mode, but it makes you so overpowered by retaining all of your skills that it mostly becomes busywork. Overall, this was a great experience. I enjoyed the planning, character building, and exploration. There was enough challenge that finally finding an escape route felt triumphant, but it wasn't so strict that playing the game felt stressful.
• Recommended Posted July 20, 2025 on Steam Lemme tell you. This game is hard to categorize. Point and click? Immersive sim? RPG? It has elements of all three - point is the game has some really complex mechanics and multiple approaches to solving a problem. You want a challenge? This game might be for you. Now for more detailed description: You're either a reporter thrown into the prison to silence you or an undercover cop searching for a lead for a person that disappeared. Either way - you're in a hostile environment where a slight mistake might not mean game over now, but it can prevent your escape later on... or worse. You need to plan, scout, make notes, learn mechanics. It's overall a really great experience - it threw me back to games like The Great Escape (Yes! The ZX Spectrum one and it's Amiga remake) where careful planning and cunning was the key. You can solve things by smooth talking, fighting or stealth. Without too much spoilage - it's a worthwhile experience. But here's the biggest problem - there's a high probability you will fail at least on your first playthrough. But that's because you need to learn stuff. And honestly - that's the gist of it. Don't get discouraged - when you fail, that's experience you can put towards your next playthrough. Do it a few times and suddenly the game turns into a clever puzzle with a little bit of RNG for good measure. Now to make sure you don't escape too fast you will have to experience the story segments for the good ending. SPEAKING OF THE STORY... lemme put it this way - it's not an oscar winner but it is enjoyable. But the story feels a backdrop to all of the stories you can experience in prison. And I think that's where the game is the strongest - the characters. For a colorful cast of characters, most of them have their routines, personalities, likes and dislike and agency. There's a big web of connections that you can unfold and use to your advantage. And honestly that's what kept me coming back - that one conversation I can eavesdrop on or that one rapport moment I can experience to know people better. But yeah overall I just love the game, its' good, really good. And now that Bob's story is released... I need to play it again to see the other side of the prison life.
• Recommended Posted February 25, 2026 on Steam I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the game was made by Chinese developers. Usually, at least in my perception, Chinese games often feel "copy-paste" - technically fine, but lacking soul. Back To The Dawn completely breaks that stereotype. This game looks, sounds, and feels outstanding. A true masterpiece. The story is delivered gradually and very thoughtfully - through dialogues, situations, and player choices. It allows you to deeply understand the characters’ motivations and genuinely empathize with them. The dramatization is strong and well-balanced: tension and emotions are felt throughout the entire game. The gameplay perfectly supports the narrative. The prison feels alive and genuinely dangerous - you have to think, adapt, and consider the consequences of your decisions. The world reacts to the player, which greatly enhances immersion. There are many characters, and what’s especially pleasing is how well they are developed. Each one has a distinct personality, a past, personal secrets, and a role within the prison hierarchy, making the world feel rich and believable. The atmospheric music perfectly complements what’s happening on screen, enhancing key moments and making them even more memorable - whether tense, emotional, or even lighthearted. The game delivers a powerful, atmospheric, and emotional experience that stays with you long after finishing it. I recommend it to everyone - I’m confident this game will appeal to almost anyone.
• Recommended Posted August 1, 2025 on Steam I wanna preface this by saying I've never been drawn to games of this nature before. I don't really like puzzle games where you have to do one thing to reveal another thing you need to do and stuff like that. But this game is amazing; I haven't been this invested in a game's story in a long time. Some people will look past this game because it stars animals. To be clear, this is NOT a furry-centric game. It's a story that does involve sentient animals that are more human than animal, but at its core, this game is a gripping story about justice and the lengths people will go in order to get it. Every character in this game is incredibly well written and all have extremely interesting, if not heart wrenching stories about how they ended up in prison. So many ways to escape, so many stories to learn. I've played about 92 hours of this game and I'm STILL not done with all of Thomas' escape routes but I find myself compelled to get them for myself anyhow even after going and getting both of Bob's endings. The only downside to this game--which isn't even a "real" downside--is that you gotta love reading. If you don't like games where you read all the time then you won't like this game. Oh, and save yourself a headache. I know it's very tempting to go into these sorts of games and play on a difficulty other than the easiest but play this game on the easiest mode. The re-reroll and memory recall will stop you from tearing you hair out if you happen screw up an important roll. I know that will turn this game into more of an extremely elaborate visual novel instead of a proper game with consequences but trust me, it's still worth it. So what're you waiting for? Buy this game and support the devs, they deserve it!
• Recommended Posted July 23, 2025 on Steam I believe this is one of the best CRPG game developed by a Chinese team, the graphical representation is awesome, the music is superb, the story line is resaonable for labelled price and there are many places in the prison for player to explore. I played this game mainly on my steamdeck, it runs perfect on my steamdeck. The only drawback is the fonts in the dialog box is small in my steamdeck oled, I hope the developer can add the option for adjusting the font size (for instance, 1.1 or 1.2 times option in the game option), which makes it even better in my steamdeck oled. 我相信这是中国开发团队打造的最好的CRPG游戏之一，图形和音乐表现非常棒，故事情节完美匹配这个游戏售价，监狱里有很多地方供玩家探索。我主要在蒸汽甲板（Steamdeck）上游玩这个游戏，它在蒸汽甲板上能完美运行。唯一的缺点是对话框中的字体在我的蒸汽甲板（Steamdeck）中很小，尽管我用的是OLED版本。我希望开发人员在后期更新中可以添加调节字体大小的选项（例如，在游戏选项中增加的1.1或1.2倍这样的字体调节选项），这使得它在我的蒸汽甲板（Steamdeck）中能更完美的运行。
• Recommended Posted September 26, 2025 on Steam Easily GOTY 2025. I have completed both campaigns (Thomas & Bob) on the hardest difficulties (Skidroad & Grey). Great writing, fair RPG & dice rolling mechanic, massive player freedom with decisions throughout the entire game beginning to end, uhhh.... a lot more. Oh, the art looks amazing. The game isn't 100% perfect, but it's damn close and beat my expectations by a lot; especially considering how poor game releases have been recently. My main criticisms are easily solvable. QOL: 1. Bob having poor fast travel mechanics in [spoiler]the sewer (why isn't every visited location available after moving the toilet?)[/spoiler]. This isn't a problem with Thomas. 2. The DoT to body in [spoiler]the Sewer[/spoiler]when resting is avoidable simply by going to your cell, except this is unnecessarily time consuming. Just make the PrC not take damage when doing an action in [spoiler]the Sewer[/spoiler] they could otherwise do elsewhere accessible. Missed opportunities for story/character development: 1. Gang interaction was lacking. It'd have been cool to explore the dynamic of the gangs, how they formed prior to coming to the prison, and possibly get more non-mechanical interactions for ranking up in the gang. 2. Romantic interests being pretty much purely mechanical with little writing or development is slightly upsetting, but they're side characters you can only interact with once a day. 3. During the [spoiler]Cafeteria brawl[/spoiler] with Bob, I saved [spoiler]Vincent[/spoiler] and he had absolutely no follow-up for that the next day, or even a mechanical effect like a Rapport increase. All of these things are fixable in under 100 hours of developing, and don't take away from the core experience.