Review: Dawn of Survivors ( Nintendo Switch)

Rating: 7.6
Author: Jim Smale

by Jim Smale · Published May 22, 2019 · Updated May 22, 2019

From decaying cities to dark forests, you will fight through hordes of zombies and desperate scavengers. Find food. Build a shelter. Prepare yourself. For when the sun rises, so do the dead.

Pros:

Cel-shaded graphics.
370mb download size.
Tutorial throughout.
Zombie survival gameplay.
World Map- each area will have difficulty, types of loot/resources and zombie population.
Shelter-your base and here is where you can build a base, craft items and store any loot.
Find/scavenge materials and loot from crates, bushes, trees, and zombies.
Day/night cycle.
Vehicles- craft these to enable you to open up and travel to further places.
Hunger/thirst meters.
Smell-as you play you will start to smell and this allows zombies to find you faster. You can shower to eradicate the smell.
Minimap shows doors, crates, zombies.
Areas are squared areas and leaving via the four sides will take you back to the world map.
Train wreck-this randomly spawns and moves around the world, it is a place to get a lot of much-needed materials so is always worth looting.
Isometric view.
Invade- you can attack and steal supplies from Ai and online characters.
Earn EXP and level up to unlock your choice of recipes.
All gear has durability.
Built uptown areas change the view to an over the shoulder 3rd person affair.
All areas of the map refresh over time.
Create a game account for free to get a starter bundle.
Clear controls thanks to on-screen icons and prompts.
Plays well.
Many zombie types.
Main missions for the story but many side missions.
Can get pets/companions.
First few hours are fun.
Loot lust is strong.
Many clothing options.
Rooms may require tools to open.

Cons:

Everything has timers from areas to traveling to crafting.
Long-timers.
Really slow progress.
Takes an age to get going.
Low online player count.
Hit detection issues.
Weapons/gear breaks really easy.
Shooting in 3rd person is awkward and clumsy.
Side missions don’t always register.
Small inventory space.
Hunger/thirst meters are grossly unbalanced and run out far too quickly.
Can’t do a lot of the fun varied tasks/events until a lot later in high-level play.
Area tiles repeat constantly.
Weird control behavior, in particular, the games love of having your character always running to the left.
No actual pause button.
Always has to connect to online meaning you need a Nintendo online subscription.
Uses a lot of mobile game techniques.

8/10

Graphics - 8/10
8/10

Sound - 8/10
8/10

Accessibility - 8/10
7/10

Length - 7/10
7/10

Fun Factor - 7/10

7.6/10

Summary

For the first few hours, this game was fast becoming a true must play title. For ages, I have wanted a game like the State of Decay series but on a handheld. The initial impressions were strong. You would choose areas to loot for materials, attack zombies and other characters and do crafting. No matter what happened you could retreat to your home and build a base and shower up and store materials and loot. Hell, I even like the leveling up to earn recipes system. Eventually, though the horde came in and the ugly truth reared its head. This game acts like a mobile/free to play title straight away, you don’t really notice the impact at first but then… Wallop everything in the game is on timers, you can get these items to speed it all up but you earn them at such a low rate it’s a nonrunner. Simple tasks such as crafting now have needless timers attached to them. Area tiles are in huge demand but it seems they only made a handful of tiles and for that, you get to play on the same ones over and over, the mystery the intrigue is all gone in that instant. The game should be getting praised and loved but in its current state, I refuse to give it that time. It started strong but then got greedy and stinks. It just annoys me that a game has these systems in place and ruins what could be a brilliant experience. Hopefully, things change.